PROVERBS #2: THE FATHER INSTRUCTS THE EARTHBOUND SON

That the Book of Proverbs is about a father instructing his son is universally acknowledged. The question remains, who is the father and who is the son? Most agree that Solomon is the father and he is instructing one of his sons on how to live upon the earth in godly wisdom. Several words are repeated over and over in the opening of the book all of which have something to do with the use of the mind. In chapter one verses 2-6 we read these words;

‘To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom,
justice, judgment, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion—
A wiseman will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles.’ (NKJV)

The mandate to use the mind in order to gain wisdom is reiterated in chapter 3 verse 13:

‘Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.’

The father is showing the son that living rightly on a fallen planet requires mental effort. One who is wise must perceive, understand, discern, and act prudently in judging good verses evil. Living whimsical, undisciplined lives make decisions based on feelings or hunches will most certainly lead to disaster. The father of course feels it is his calling to pass on such instruction to his son. But even when instructing a perfect child, a father must steer his son to the one place the mind can flee for safety; to God who alone has perfect wisdom. And this turning to God requires faith in everything the Father is and everything the Father has promised. Thus the instruction of the Father culminates in these famous words in Chapter 3.

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
‍ ‍in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths’ (5-6).

But the question still remains; ‘who is this son who is to apply himself to wisdom, knowledge and discernment in a fallen world? Who is this son who must trust perfectly in the wisdom of God?’ Our initial inclination is to look at this book as digest of many short, pithy aphorisms that men of flesh should follow in order to experience a prosperous and righteous life. But let us stop a minute and ask again, ‘is this book of Proverbs primarily about us?’ Jesus seems to say no. In John 5 vss 38 - 40 Jesus is debating the Pharisees on the ultimate meaning of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Pharisees saw the scriptures as a guidebook for attaining eternal life - through keeping the commandments (vs 39a). But Jesus disagrees and drops a bombshell on them by stating that Scriptures actually pointed to Him, God’s Messiah. Of course they couldn’t possibly believe that Moses’ words would point to a Galilean carpenter and so they ridiculed Jesus. Their problem wasn’t much different from what we find in many Christian circles today. So often we turn the bible into a book of morality instead of a revelation of the Son of God. So Jesus summed it up; ‘your view of Scripture is all wrong for they point to a person not a morality…. and that person is Me’ (39b).

Does this statement of Jesus cover the book of Proverbs? It certainly does. In John 5 verses 17, Jesus identifies God as his Father. The Jews did not miss the bold nature of this claim. Jesus was declaring himself to be the Son who was to come to do His Father’s will. And for this claim they wanted to kill him because they knew He was declaring himself to be the Son who came from heaven and had intimate communion with the Father and who was, in fact, equal with the Father (vs 18). Is this not the Son we find in Proverbs? We probe further.

Agur is a name that comes out of the blue in Proverbs chapter 30. Like Melchizedek and Elihu, Agur is a mystery figure whose identity raises much speculation. What we know of him is contained in the text. He is a humble, self-effacing man, a man of limited means (neither rich nor poor, a man who loved God’s word and a man in tune with nature (vs 19). He was also a man of great wisdom whose writing is a very economic summary of the major themes of Proverbs. Like Asaph of Psalm 73:21-24, he admits his deficiencies yet feels he has something to add to the conversation (vss 2-3).

‘Surely I am more stupid than any man,
And do not have the understanding of a man.
Neither learned wisdom
Nor have knowledge of the Holy One.

After this humble introduction he gets right to the issue of the identity of the son . We turn our attention to his rhetorical questions in vs 4,

‘Who has ascended into heaven, or descended?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His Son’s name,
If you know?’

Agur says the book is about the God who controls all things and who, in the person of His Son, ascends to heaven and descends to earth. He is the Almighty who gathers the wind and holds the waters in his cloak. He has even established the earth, meaning that creation is His work. Then Agur asks the question of questions; ‘what is His Son’s name?’ But this is not a question. Rather it is a rhetorical statement. Agur is saying in so many words that this son has the attributes of deity but will also be one who descends to earth. Who is this son? Agur is speaking about God and His only true Son. Agur answers the question we have been asking. Who is the son of Proverbs? It is the true Son that the Father must instruct as He enters the realm of earth. Jesus knowing this quotes this section of Agur’s writings and applies them to Himself. He says,

‘No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man’ (Jn 3:13).

So we see that the Son and the ‘Son of man’ are the same personage. Son of Man is Jesus’ favorite self-designation and it refers to that personage in Daniel 7:13 who ascends back to the Father after having completed HIs mission. The book of Proverbs, then, is the book that gives us a glimpse of the Father instruct His Son who will soon make this perilous journey to earth. Perilous, you say? Isn’t He the all powerful, all-knowing Son of God who cannot fail? Yes, He is the second person of the Trinity, who knows all things. Yet, in the mystery of mysteries, He takes on a nature He never had before. And experiencing something ‘new’ He must be instructed according that new nature. Yes, the Son will have to learn what it is to be human. He will have to ‘learn obedience by the things he suffers’ (Hebrews 5:8). And in the course of thirty three years He will go through all the trials and temptations associated with being human, for as the bible says, ‘He was in ALL points as we.’ And being truly human, He must grow like every other human being. Note these two instructive passages in Luke,

‘And the Child grew and became strong filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him’ (Lk 2:40).

And again,

‘And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men’ (Lk 2:52).

Notice that in both passages, Jesus, the Son of God, will increase and grow, yes, even in wisdom! To think on this blows our mind. But it is true; Jesus had to learn everything that we must learn, and in the same way we must learn it. His deity provided Him with no free pass. He did not appeal to His infinite knowledge as God to learn His alphabet. He did not appeal to His divine patience when vexed by stupid men. The Son must learn everything in the same way that every other human must learn. He must learn to live in the cauldron of human existence. So we ask, ‘it too far fetched to say that Jesus is the Son spoken of Proverbs who must sit at the feet of His Father to learn those principles of life that everyone else must learn?’ If Proverbs is truly about Christ then we now have a Christo centric view of Proverbs which falls in line with Jesus’ own statement. More importantly, if we see Proverbs in this way, it humanizes the Jesus of the gospel and helps us to understand what He went through as we follow Him through the four gospels.

For starters this view of Proverbs as Jesus being the One instructed by the Father, helps us understand why Jesus often referred to Himself as the One ‘coming down from heaven.’ In saying this, Jesus is not simply giving a lesson on His origin. He is reminding the Jews that He is the One who descends from heaven which means He must someday return once His mission is complete. In other words he pointing to Daniel 7 and Psalm 2 and other places to show that He came for one reason, to establish His kingdom by dying on a cross (the fact they all missed). And once He had ‘finished the work He gave me to do’ He would go back to heaven to be coronated as King of kings. Here are some of the places where Jesus reminds his hearers that He is THE Son who came to earth on behalf of the Father.

‘Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work’ Jn 4:34.

‘all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him’ Jn 5:23.

‘For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me’ Jn 6:38.

‘Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me’ Jn 7:16.

‘And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me’ Jn 8:16.

‘Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me” Jn 13:20.

In other words Jesus does not want us to forget that He is the one who descended to earth and ascended back to heaven. He is the Son of Proverbs sent on a mission to ‘do the will of Him who sent me.’ And when a father sends a son to do His will, there needs be instruction as to what the son may need to know. This is no different with Jesus, the Son of Joseph and Mary. This, then, is the first and foremost meaning of the Book of Proverbs.

Seeing Proverbs in this way also keeps us from over-spiritualizing Jesus as some divine, ghost-like figure who knows nothing of fleshly existence. Many Christians may not be aware that the the first error to attack the church was that of Gnosticism (or Docetism). This ancient heresy that lingers on to this day, followed the influence of Greek philosophy by saying that spirit is essentially good and matter is essentially evil. Naturally this belief made the incarnation of Jesus Christ problematic. If matter is evil, then how could God become human? Gnostic heresies always came up with an alternative view, like the one that said ‘man’ who died on the cross was a human host for the spiritual Christ, who departed from that body before it went to the cross. Proverbs teaches us precisely the opposite. Jesus was so human that He needed instruction and had to seek God’s will and fight temptation. The church has long understood the incarnation as a sacred mystery. God who is spirit became a body. God who never changes became something he never was before. God who is omniscient had to learn things. God who all powerful had to submit to human authority. But it is exactly the mystery that makes Christianity not only true, but beautifully inscrutable. It posits a mystery that no rational formula can explain. It gives us a God who so loves the human race that He would ‘chance’ becoming a man surrounded by among rebellious men. This is the mystery that saves us. Proverbs helps us fall on our face before this mystery.

Proverbs then is a glorious picture of true Son’s training from the Father for He will assume a human nature. Is that too earthly for you? Then you have missed the point of the gospel story. For the story rests on a God who came to us in the likeness of flesh and according to His human nature died for our sins. In our next installment we will delve into some of the Proverbs and find that Jesus learned and applied them perfectly in His earthly existence. Whereas we have failed miserably when stacked up against the high demands of wisdom, He, who is wisdom itself, fulfilled those high standards perfectly. And in doing this He was qualified to become the sinless Lamb of God who took our place on that cross, created to punish humans. How glad we must be to know that Jesus learned to live perfectly from the Father’s instruction, and died perfectly as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen.