Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20110327.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Proverbs: Motivating Teens And Adults To Align With God's Fixed Moral Order
Part I: Building A Foundation For Blessing With A Reverence For God
(Proverbs 1:1-7)
  1. Introduction
    1. As maturing teens face a godless world, there is a great need for them to be motivated to walk with God.
    2. The book of Proverbs was written for this specific purpose, and we begin a study of it with the particular application towards this maturing teenage group, with fitting application for all adults as well!
  2. Building A Foundation For Blessing With A Reverence For God, Proverbs 1:1-7.
    1. The book of Proverbs heralds a fixed, moral order to which the young must align to be blessed by God:
      1. Archaeological studies show Proverbs was written in the literary genre of the Egyptian sboyet with a prose title (1:1), a long admonition on the value of instruction (1:2-9:18) followed by collected sayings (10:1-31:31), "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature," Bib. Sac., 136:543, p. 221-238.
      2. The sboyet was formed to instruct maturing Egyptian princes on what was considered to be a fixed moral order in the universe that, if heeded, would minimize their risk of failure and maximize their chances for success once they became rulers, Ibid.
      3. Hence, king Solomon who was given the gift of wisdom by God (1 Kings 3:5-12), used the Egyptian sboyet literary genre to reveal that it was Israel's Creator GOD Who had indeed authored this order, that man experiences blessing to the degree he aligns to this fixed moral order set by Israel's true God!
      4. The Egyptian word for this order is ma'at, and its corresponding Hebrew word is hokma that is rendered "wisdom" in the English Bible translations, Ibid., p. 232-233.
    2. Based on this background information, we study Proverbs 1:1-7 NIV to discern the way we can encourage maturing teens as well as adults to start to build the right foundation for a life blessed by the Lord:
      1. The starting point, or foundation for aligning to God's fixed moral order, is to respect God, Prov. 1:7a.
      2. When this foundation has been built, Proverbs imparts the following general benefits, Proverbs 1:2-6:
        1. The book of Proverbs will reveal God's hokma, His "wisdom" or fixed moral order itself, Pr. 1:2a.
        2. In doing so, the book of Proverbs exposes what corrections are necessary for one to align more closely to that order if he in any way or to any degree needs better alignment, Proverbs 1:2b.
        3. Proverbs exposes insightful words that help one know how to align to this order, Proverbs 1:2c.
        4. Applying Proverbs will then discipline the reader to align to what is upright and fair, Proverbs 1:3.
        5. Also, Proverbs will expose to the young and/or naive the things he must NOT do, giving him discernment, Proverbs 1:4: (1) The world often urges especially the young to be "open-minded", to consider at least incorporating views that differ from what they have been taught! (2) Yet, (a) the whole world lies under Satan's control (1 John 5:19 NIV) and (b) is thus in spiritual darkness (Psalm 119:105 NIV; Isaiah 8:19-20 NIV). Thus, (c) "open-mindedness" leads one inevitably to adopt error and be disillusioned, producing hopelessness and depression (Isaiah 8:21-22 NIV). (3) Conversely, being "narrow-minded" in heeding the book of Proverbs above all opposing views brings one under the tutorship of Scripture, of Christ personified (Rev. 19:13-16), the "Supernatural [Wonderful] Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6 NIV Who meets all of the needs of the human heart! (4) It is then essential that maturing teens and adults alike heed Scripture VERSUS "open-mindedly" dabbling in unbiblical ideas IF they would be TRULY, SURELY BLESSED by GOD!
        6. Finally, and this applies to maturing teens as well as to ALL adults, Proverbs equips those who are already to a degree aligned to God's fixed order, namely, to the "wise," that they might gain more insight for more discernment for added depths of blessing as they ponder fuller implications of the riddles, parables and sayings of Proverbs, Proverbs 1:5-6. [We aim to do just that in this series!]
Lesson: To the degree maturing teens and adults respect Scripture's God that in turn affects how much they heed Proverbs affects the degree they align to God's fixed moral order and are then blessed!

Application: May maturing teens and all of us adults focus on fully respecting the Lord that we fully heed His book of Proverbs in fully aligning to God's fixed moral to be fully blessed of God!