Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20110710.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Proverbs: Motivating Teens And Adults To Align With God's Fixed Moral Order
Part II: Explaining The Value Of Heeding God's Fixed Moral Order, Proverbs 1:8-9:18
N. Motivating Teens To Adhere To God's Fixed Moral Order For Its Surpassing Appeal
(Proverbs 8:1-11)
  1. Introduction
    1. Maturing teens in particular are vulnerable to the lusts of the eyes, the flesh and pride, for the 1 John 2:15-16 call not to love the world and its lusts is given to spiritual young men (1 John 2:14b) because they like young men in the natural world are more susceptible to yielding to such lusts than others.
    2. Solomon thus skillfully used Proverbs 8:1-11 against the context of Proverbs 7:6-23 to compose a call for maturing teens to adhere to God's hakmah for its surpassing appeal even over these errant lusts:
  2. Motivating Teens To Adhere To God's Fixed Moral Order For Its Surpassing Appeal, Prov. 8:1-11.
    1. Proverbs 8:1-11 is set against its former Proverbs 7:6-23 context of one's seduction by an immoral party.
    2. Accordingly, Proverbs 8:1 begins to contrast hakmah, God's "wisdom," His fixed moral order, with the immoral party of Proverbs 7:6-23, noting how wisdom calls out, raising her voice all over the city and not functioning covertly as did the immoral woman of Proverbs 7. (Proverbs 8:1-3 versus Proverbs 7:8-10)
    3. God's "wisdom" thus calls out to all mankind, but especially to the naive and untaught (peti, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 921, 907) and to those with a dull or closed mind (kesil, Ibid., p. 921, 908), Prov. 8:4-5.
    4. What God's hakmah has to say in contrast to the alluring, immoral, Proverbs 7 woman is that His wisdom offers what is right, true, just and faultless versus wicked, crooked and perverse, Proverbs 8:6-9 NIV. This is a revealing statement, showing that alluring, immoral people deal in the realm of dishonesty in order to manipulate their victims to their own advantage at the cost of the victims, but that the wisdom of God appeals in a straightforward manner so that the hearer is never victimized!
    5. God's fixed moral order, His hakmah, is to be chosen above silver, gold and rubies, Proverbs 8:10-11a.
    6. Indeed, Proverbs 8:11b ESV claims "all that you may desire cannot compare with her." Translating this phrase from the Hebrew text in its wide context reveals the great value of God's hakmah for the young:
      1. The word "desire" is from the noun, hephes, "delight, pleasure" (B. D. B., A Hebr. and Engl. Lex. of the O. T., p. 343) that emphasizes what is fitting (R. B. Girdlestone, Syns. of the O. T., 1973, p. 68-69).
      2. Since hephes is modified by the Hebrew word kal meaning "all" (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 1164), and God's wisdom, His hakmah is here personified as a desirable spouse ( bah = "with her," Ibid., Kittel), Solomon contextually thus implied that nothing the Proverbs 7:6-23 immoral woman could offer by way of appealing pleasure or delights could compare to what God's wholesome wisdom offered!
      3. These facts in view of the description of the allure of the immoral woman in Proverbs 7:6-23 offer the following applications of great relevance especially to maturing teens and young adults (as follows):
        1. God's wisdom offers wholesome delight and pleasure versus the immoral party's offer to eat the fellowship offering meats, for that party's offer is mixed with coarse falsehood and guilt, Prov. 7:14.
        2. God's wisdom offers wholesome delight and pleasure versus the compliments of the immoral party in Proverbs 7:15, for such compliments are falsely extreme, unrealistic and thus in time, hurtful.
        3. God's wisdom offers wholesome delight and pleasure versus the tainted gratification of touch and scent sensations offered by the immoral party in Proverbs 7:16-17, for the immoral party's offer is mixed with the coarseness of that party's seared conscience and self-centered behavior.
        4. God's wisdom offers more wholesome delight and pleasure than the gratification of sexual pleasure offered throughout a night affair with the immoral party of Proverbs 7:18, for this affair is laced with emotional coarseness and resulting guilt due to the absence of the help of God's Holy Spirit.
        5. God's wisdom offers more wholesome delight and pleasure than the false, coarse assurances of the immoral party that there will be no bad effects from indulging one's self with that party, Pr. 7:19-20.
    7. Thus, Proverbs 8:1-11 with 7:6-23 spurs the vulnerable to chose God's wisdom over such sinful lures.
Lesson: Though the world and its lusts offer strong appeal particularly to the young, we must heed the call of God's wisdom that gives wholesome delights far exceeding what the world can offer in its appeal.

Application: If facing the world's lusts, may we heed Proverbs 8:1-11 in its Proverbs 7:6-23 context.