WHAT ARE THE PROVERBS REALLY ABOUT?

The metaphysical world is the world beyond physical, the world of the unseen, the world that includes all things beyond the realm of the senses. God, of course, created the metaphysical world as well as the physical. God Himself being spirit is the greatest metaphysical reality. Many other metaphysical realities surround us on every side. Angels are metaphysical beings. Their number cannot be counted. Man himself has a metaphysical element. Mankind is both material and non-material. The souls of men are spirit. So are thoughts, ideas, plans, emotions, philosophies, abstractions, contingencies, possibilities and anything that cannot be reduced to a material essence. When man thinks, he enters the metaphysical world. There is no physical component to a thought. Because man is in part metaphysical, he intuitively knows the metaphysical world. All religions have a metaphysical component. In some religions metaphysics is the only reality. They deny the physical realm calling it a mere projection of the metaphysical world. Over the course of history many transcendentalist groups have popped up like mushrooms after a soaking rain. Groups like Christian Science, Divine Science, the Unity School, Scientology and New Thought posit that all that really matters is the metaphysical world, the world of the mind, the world of spirit. This philosophy was dominant when Christianity burst on the scene in the first century. This idea was deeply influenced by Hellenistic philosophy which considered matter essentially evil. There could be no resurrection, no incarnation, no bread, wine or water. This broad based movement has today been subsumed under the title Gnosticism. This idea was not only a problem for the early church but it still influences us today. Anytime the church downplays the role of the material world, it is in part being influenced by this ancient error. In reality, Christianity is fiercely material. It all begins with the creation where God calls matter ‘good.’ God put an exclamation point on this idea when He assumed a human body in what we call the incarnation. Furthermore, at the end of time eternity is described not by a formless spiritual world but as a New Heavens and a New Earth embracing an actual city. Thus, in the ongoing work of the church material things must always be honored. Truth comes to us because of real words inscribed on a real page. Grace comes to the soul via water and bread and wine. Churches that deny the importance of the material are clearly out of step with the biblical witness. God created all things material and He is not ashamed to say that trees clap their hands and deer in forests bear their young (Psalm 29:9). The Bible has a unified testimony that both the physical and non-physical worlds are important to God. The Christian faith is not to escape the corrupt physical world but to re-enter it in a redeemed form. The devil has always been keen to separate the two realms because in doing so he corrupts the redemptive plan of God. In the West this corruption was espoused by many philosophers. None were more influential in this regard than Immanuel Kant, the 18th century German. Kant did not openly deny the two realms but separated them by positing a dualistic framework of reality whereby neither realm could interact with the other. He called the physical realm the phenomenal and non-physical realm the noumenal. They were real but they shared no common ground. In Kant’s mind one could not enter nor prove the noumenal realm, the realm of God, the soul and the essence of things, by using the physical realm. There could never be a logical proof for God’s existence. The belief in God could only be gained by a hidden, subconscious, and indescribable sense. God could not be known by anything earthly; He was, in fact, unknowable. Without intending to do so, Kant had put an impenetrable wall between things of earth and things of heaven. Christianity now became an inner, private affair that could not be tested, seen or proven. Kant had, in a much more subtle way, accomplished what the Gnostics did not. He had divorced faith from reason, the invisible from the visible, heaven from earth.

The Bible, however, displays a world that completely opposite to the world of the Gnostics or Kant. It teaches that there is a vital and fluid connection between the physical and metaphysical realms. The story of Elisha’s servant who was enabled to see the heavens filled with holy angels has become the poster child for this biblical world view (2 Kings 6:8-23). Numerous stories abound in the Bible where the physical and metaphysical worlds intersect. A voice comes from heaven to affirm the uniqueness of Jesus, demons cry out from the body of a lunatic man, wind and fire fall upon the heads of the first disciples. We furthermore see the connection between the two realms in our daily Christian lives. Thoughts (immaterial) come into our minds that cause our physical bodies to react. Plans turn into buying plane tickets. Sudden understanding of a deep, esoteric concepts is ignited by real sound waves coming from the voice of a teacher. All day long we witness the fluid connection between the seen and the unseen without thinking about it. The Christian, of course, lives in a heightened state of this reality. He has the very essence of the immaterial God dwelling in him by the Holy Spirit. This is what makes the experience of a Christian wholly different from other men. The connection between the physical and non-physical worlds is seen weekly as the saints of God gather in worship. God invades the material realm when His word is preached, when sacraments are administered, and when wooden chairs welcome the weary bodies of the gathered ones. Tangible words of repentance and absolution bring spiritual forgiveness to the soul. Simple bread carries with it the immaterial presence of God, and to some, the very body of Christ. The waters of baptism in some manner impart forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38) so that a material substance wipes out the spiritual reality of guilt. So far different from Kant’s separation of the phenomenal and the noumenal is God’s holistic universe where things seen and unseen easily intersect.

Before turning to the Book of Proverbs there is one further point that requires investigation. Is the unseen realm governed by laws? We all know that the physical realm obeys laws. They keep the physical realm from falling into chaos and self-destruction. Laws provide boundaries and force us to live according to God’s creative design. In this physical realm laws impact us every day. Because laws are constants, they help mankind to control the physical realm and to plan for the future. Because laws are predictable man has discovered ways to reduce them to formulas which help tame the seemingly capricious universe. Scientists can predict the safe exit re-entrance velocity of a spacecraft, or what a low pressure system will do for tomorrow’s weather. Because of laws man can measure tensile strength, weight, distance, molecular valence and an almost infinite amount of other phenomena that govern our world. But what about the metaphysical world? Does it abide by inviolable principles? And if so, can it be subject to measurement? This is a much more difficult question to answer since the metaphysical world lies outside the scope of our senses. Nevertheless, if God is a God of order whose creation follows laws in the physical realm then one might expect the same in the metaphysical world. True, the metaphysical realm cannot be measured by minutes or centimeters, or geometric equations. Yet there is an order to the metaphysical realm and therefore there are unseen activities that either accord with God’s spiritual design or clash with it. Just as a person will not drop his car keys over an open sewer without suffering consequences, neither can man violate principles of the unseen realm without suffering undesirable spiritual consequences. Thus, there are actions in the unseen realm of thoughts and morals that are healthy and actions that are destructive. The Book of Proverbs is God’s manual that outlines the metaphysical laws that govern earth-bound human beings. These laws are summed up in Proverb’s favorite word, wisdom. Wisdom is the standard measuring tool of the metaphysical world. Wisdom does not abide by inches, or minutes or mathematical equations, but by metaphysical laws that God is eager to outline in this most unique book. For anyone who desires to live bountifully according the laws of the unseen world, Proverbs is a must read. Those who learn to live in wisdom will find that they prosper not in physical things, but in metaphysical things. The foremost among these favorable things is a sense of inner peace. When a person lives according to God’s metaphysical laws he enters a world of peace, joy, well-being, moderation, winsomeness and, above all, wisdom. This wisdom comes only when one understands the laws of the unseen world. How are we to describe wisdom? It cannot be measured or even predicted. Wisdom is the outworking of one’s inner peace with God. It is the way a earthling lives with his or her heart and mind in heaven. Wisdom is the fare of the kingdom that cannot be seen, yet is very, very real. Wisdom has nothing to do with the jingling of cash, the veneer of physical beauty, or the confidence of success. Paul says it well, “The kingdom of heaven (metaphysical realm) is not eating or drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” At the end of the day Proverbs is about how this peculiar creature called man can prosper in the metaphysical world in his material body. And when anyone lives in accordance to wisdom’s dictates, an inexplicable aura of satisfaction and delight fills the soul. The Jews called this shalom.

Now let’s look at the opening scenes of Proverbs which will tell us what it is about. The first observation is that as a literary piece, Proverbs is not a book of theology. It does not tell the reader much about God but rather how one is to please God in one’s earthly existence. It says nothing of salvation, or faith, or grace, or eternity, or the congregation of the faithful. It is a book of wisdom. It describes what a life lived according to heavenly wisdom. It shows the reader how to apply heavenly principles one’s physical life in order to achieve heavenly shalom. Second, and most importantly, it is a book that shows us Jesus. As a book of wisdom it describes what the life of incarnate wisdom looks like, which we know is the life of Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “Christ is the very wisdom of God.” It would be right to say Proverbs describes the wisdom of Jesus but it would more correct to say that Jesus Himself is wisdom and the book sketches a sacred outline of His life. Jesus is the book of Proverbs and His life is the very essence of the book.

But how do we know the book is really about Jesus and not just a list of moral principles for us to obey? The answer is very evident from how the book begins. The book is a message of a father to a son. The father is probably king Solomon, a man given great wisdom by God. From the beginning he addresses his son to prepare him for life by giving him the principles of wisdom. We find the phrase “my son” in 1:8; 1:10; 2:1; 3:1; 3:11; 3:21; 4:20, and many other places. This fact may not move us at first until we realize that the oldest relationship in the world is that of a father and a son. From eternity past we hear of God as Father and God as Son. In fact, there has never been a time when there was not the relationship of a Father and the Son. If all the Scripture points to Jesus, as He himself said (Luke 24:44), then what we have here is instructions of the first Father, God the Father, to the First Son, Jesus. In other words Proverbs are the instructions of the first Father to the first Son as to how the Son is to live upon the earth. If this be true, then it brings a whole new vista of thought regarding the life of Jesus on earth. Why did He so often say “the Father who sent me?” There are thirty instances in the book of John alone where Jesus says that His Father sent Him on a mission to the earth (see 1:33; 4:34; 5:23; 6:38; 7:16; 8:16; 9:4, etc). As such, Jesus must be instructed by the Father so that He would obey these metaphysical laws. To be refreshed in this knowledge Jesus must keep in constant communion with HIs Father. This is why He spent nights alone in prayer. This means that as we read the gospels we are to remember that Jesus is living as a humble Son, learning from His Father the way to live on the earth. And to get there He used the very means afforded to us, instruction from Scripture, the power of the Holy Spirit (Is. 61:1) and prayer. This is why the author of Hebrews can say that Jesus “learned obedience.” Truly the same author is correct to say that Jesus was “in all points like we, except without sin” (Heb 4:15). And what was this mission? To fulfill all laws, physical and metaphysical, and thus become the perfect sacrifice for those who could obey neither. That’s right, the entirety of Jesus’ ministry was to answer the call of the Father to live a life in perfect wisdom so that He could redeem His people. Proverbs is the book that outlines what the Father told the Son. What an amazing Book we hold in our hands, a peak behind the celestial curtain, if you will.

Of course if this book is the wisdom the Father imparted to the Son, then we who are ‘in the Son,’ can also learn the same heavenly principles of wisdom that the Son received. The only difference is that the Son received these instructions for His mission of redemption. And in order to accomplish that He must obey them perfectly in order to fulfill the demands of the law. For us, the book of Proverbs is a guide to heavenly living on earth. Throughout the book we are reminded that though we should have obeyed those principles we haven’t. So Proverbs comes to us with the comforting promise of what Christ did on His mission of redemption, and what we have failed to do in our own lives. Does that mean we must lay the book down and say, “Oh well, I guess I failed so what’s the use.” No. Because we know the Son did finish the race by obeying these laws perfectly, we can now, in freedom, seek to begin to revel in these spiritual laws and obey them with a new resolve. So the Book of Proverbs leads us to the same place every books leads us, to Christ and His perfections, while further giving us the warrant and the grace to pursue that journey, though imperfect, on our own. So in reading this book let us first and foremost be filled with praise for the One who completed the mission given to Him by His father. But then let us yearn for wisdom in our own lives, knowing that this desire comes to us from the very Spirit who inspired Jesus. So Proverbs is the gospel, the news of the perfect Son who died for rebellious sinners and lived a life of wisdom, a gospel that puts us squarely in the family of God by faith in the Son, for we now live in Him “who was made for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.” Amen.

IN THE NEXT ARTICLE WE WILL CONTINUE OUR DISCUSSION OF PROVERBS.