Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20110731.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
Q. Motivating Teens To Gain God's Wisdom By Stating The Huge Stakes Involved
(Proverbs 8:32-36)
  1. Introduction
    1. A big disadvantage of being a maturing teen or a young adult is that one's lack of real life experience hinders him from personally appreciating the huge long-term effects of even routine choices he makes.
    2. Solomon thus provided a "shock-and-awe" presentation for his sons to urge them to strive to gain wisdom by stating the huge, contrasting stakes involved in either gaining or not gaining God's wisdom as follows:
  2. Motivating Teens To Gain God's Wisdom By Stating The Huge Stakes Involved.
    1. Since the context personifies God's fixed moral order, His hakmah as the entity that speaks, God's wisdom now addresses maturing teens and young adults, calling them to listen to it, Proverbs 8:32a.
    2. This call is necessitated by the fact that those who keep the ways of hakmah enjoy blessing, Pr. 8:32b.
    3. Now, this hearkening to wisdom needs to be an INTENSIVE exercise as expounded in Proverbs 8:33-34:
      1. One needs to listen to wisdom's musar, to its correction, to become wise, Proverbs 8:33a,b; Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 1165; B. D. B., A Hebrew And English Lexicon Of The Old Testament , p. 416.
      2. However, he must go further than heeding correction -- one must not neglect or ignore (para') it when that correction is given to him, Proverbs 8:33c; Ibid., Kittel; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 828-829.
      3. Nevertheless, going even further in this venture, the maturing teen or young adult must earnestly STRIVE to acquire wisdom and its instruction even when he has NOT been corrected, Proverbs 8:34:
        1. He must listen to God's wisdom even when he is not being confronted with correction, Proverbs 8:34a. This requires self-motivating effort and a teachable spirit!
        2. One must then watch by the doors of wisdom for insight, Proverbs 8:34b. Doors open and shut, so the closed door implies the instruction of wisdom may not at some time be conveniently available or discernible, but one watches for the opportunity to gain more wisdom when events in life present it.
        3. One must then watch by the doors of wisdom on a daily basis to gain its insight, Proverbs 8:34c. Sometimes one must wait for some time before gaining another little bit of wisdom's insight. The picture is of a party who so highly values wisdom that he constantly yearns for every bit he can gain!
        4. One must then wait at wisdom's doorway to gain more of wisdom's insight, Proverbs 8:34d. It might take a week or more to gain another little morsel of wisdom, but one should so strongly and consistently desire it that he waits for however long it takes to gain another little bit of wisdom!
    4. Such an INTENSIVE focus on gaining wisdom to the maturing teen or young adult may seem excessive to him, so Solomon explained the reason for this call in Proverbs 8:35-36 (as follows):
      1. One who finds God's hakmah and applies it finds life, and he furthermore receives God's favor that makes his life a prolonged and wholesome one, Proverbs 8:35 with Deuteronomy 30:19-20.
      2. However, not finding and applying hakmah in the long-term produces utter destruction, Prov. 8:36:
        1. First, merely failing to find God's hakmah so that one fails to apply it in his life produces very destructive results in the long-term, Proverbs 8:36a NIV , ESV: (1) Merely failing to find (hata' here means "miss," not "sin" as in the KJV; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 306) God's wisdom causes one great harm ("wrongeth" (KJV), "harms" (NIV) or "injures" (ESV) is from the Hebrew verb, hamam, "violently harms," Ibid., p. 329). (2) What is thus violently harmed is one's nephesh (Ibid., Kittel), the Hebrew word in Genesis 2:7 KJV for man's entire created being as "a [living] soul," Ibid., Kittel, p. 3, 1165. (3) Thus, if one simply fails to find God's hakmah, he will experience violent harm in the long-term to his entire being in his physical, spiritual, mental and emotional realms!
        2. Then, all who hate God's hakmah are so doomed for trouble, they are said to love death, Pr. 8:36b.
Lesson: Solomon revealed to maturing teens and to young adults that the CONTRASTING RESULTS of either gaining or failing to gain or hating God's wisdom are so EXTREME in the long-term, it is ESSENTIAL that one ALWAYS EARNESTLY STRIVE to ACQUIRE and APPLY God's wisdom!

Application: May we heed and share this critically important insight with others for their welfare!