Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20000220.htm

PROVERBS: ALIGNING TO GOD'S FIXED MORAL ORDER FOR BLESSING
Part II: Sparking The Reader's Motivation To Heed God's Fixed Moral Order
C. Explaining To YOUNG MEN The VALUE Of WORKING To LEARN God's Fixed Moral Order
(Proverbs 2:1-22)
  1. Introduction
    1. Being young has its innate blessing as one's vigor provides an optimism for his whole life's outlook.
    2. However, such and optimism can lull a youth into being naive about the pitfalls to his future happiness.
    3. Knowing this, Solomon gave instruction to motivate his young prince to WORK at learning God's fixed moral order even though he may not yet appreciate the value of doing so (as follows):
  2. Explaining To YOUNG MEN The VALUE Of WORKING To LEARN God's Fixed Moral Order.
    1. Proverbs 2 is a conditional construction as Pr. 2:1-4 comprise the "if-clause" and 2:5-22 the "then-clause".
    2. Accordingly, all the blessings one obtains or the tragedies he avoids as listed in Prov. 2:5-22 are dependent upon whether he does what is listed in Proverbs 2:1-4.
    3. Well, verses 1-4 address a young prince on his potentially working hard to learn God's fixed moral order:
      1. PROVIDING a young prince accepted Solomon's words, treasuring them up within him, turning his ear to God's fixed moral order ("wisdom"), inclining his heart to understanding, calling out for its insight and crying aloud for understanding, looking for it as silver and searching for it as hidden treasure, the blessings mentioned in verses 5-22 would be his.
      2. Accordingly, since the efforts of accepting, treasuring, turning the ear, inclining the heart, calling out and crying aloud for insight and understanding while seeking and searching f or it as valuable, hidden treasure take work, Solomon urged the prince to WORK HARD to learn God's fixed moral order!
    4. The blessings of what tragedies one would thus avoid and what blessings he would thereby enjoy as a RESULT of investing WORK to obtain God's fixed moral order are provided in Proverbs 2:5-22:
      1. First, pursuing the fixed moral order of God will lead one to understand a healthy respect for Jahweh and find the knowledge of God, producing thereby God's blessing of His personal help in life, 2:5-8.
        1. Solomon noted that a pursuit of God's fixed moral order would lead one to respect and know God, 5
        2. One reason for this understanding is that Jahweh versus any other Source (Jahweh is in the emphatic position, cf. Biblia Hebraica, p. 1156) is the Fount of wisdom by way of His mouth (i.e., His Word), and He treasures up "wisdom that leads to practical success" (tushiyah, cf. Theological Wordbook of the O.T., v. I, p. 413) in that Word!
        3. He also takes a personal, protective interest in one who applies His Word, acting as a personal hand-held shield (magan, cf. Biblia Hebraica, Ibid.; De Vaux, Ancient Israel: Social Institutions, v. 1, p. 244-245) to those whose walk is blameless for adjusting their thinking to God's Word, 2:6-8.
      2. Second, pursuing God's order equips its learner automatically to know every wholesome track in life to snowball his life's route, Prov. 2:9. After stating this fact in 2:9, Solomon itemized it in Pr. 2:10-22:
        1. When one learns this order, the order will automatically enter his heart due to its good content, 10a.
        2. When that happens, one will find its content also inherently enjoyable in experience as he applies it, motivating him to pay even closer attention to that order in a snowballing effect of blessing, 10b.
        3. Also, discretion learned in that order will also preserve & guard one with escalating tragedies, 11: (a) namely, it will snatch a young man away from a nobleman of evil who plots to take naive men and twist them to his advantage and the young man's harm, Proverbs 2:12-15; (b) n amely, it will snatch a young man away from an immoral woman's wiles of seduction, a route one must avoid if he wants to live a long, happy life, Proverbs 2:16-19; (c) namely, it will keep the young man in a lifestyle that equips him to enjoy company with wholesome men whose influence rubs off on him to equip him to dwell securely in the land, Proverbs 2:20-22.
Lesson: When trying to get a YOUNG MAN to learn God's truths when he may not yet APPRECIATE the VALUE of doing so, we should (1) inform him that GOD helps those who HEED His Word where He lets those who deny it miss out on His help, and (2) God's w ays have a snowballing effect toward blessing where those who don't God tend to experience a downward spiral into disaster! Thus, tell him the stakes involved on choosing to heed God are MUCH HIGHER than what may at first APPEAR!