31 Days With the Book of Proverbs: A Daily Bible Study – Day 31
“Thus says the man: I am weary, O God; I am weary O God. How can I prevail? Surely I am too stupid to be human; I do not have human understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the holy ones.”
Proverbs 30:1-3
The endings, note the plural, of Proverbs are shocking. Proverbs 31 is devoted to women, especially to the capable wife, which contradicts many passages about wives and women that came before. (see meditation for May 10) And in Proverbs 30, apparently from Agur from a foreign land, and an addition to the book, we read the amazing statement, especially after 29 chapters promoting wisdom, that Agur, whoever he was, had NO WISDOM! Wow! After all that, no wisdom? Both chapters were added perhaps for specific reasons.
Perhaps the editor of Proverbs, for I believe such a person or persons existed, wanted to remind us that the search and growth in wisdom and understanding are never finished. It is the journey of a lifetime.
Commencement exercises are going to be different this year, sadly enough. But what did I just call them? “Commencement exercises.” Not finishing celebrations. Not endings. No, “commencements.” When we “graduate” we simply “commence” to new challenges and opportunities to gain more wisdom and more understanding. Proverbs is a book about wisdom and folly, and it would be the greatest folly of all to assume one had all wisdom and needed no further growth or maturing. On the contrary, we’ve only just begun! So, if you have stuck with this exercise, “Well done.” Now, go back to the beginning and read Proverbs again, and again, and again, and oh yes, read it again. That would be the beginning of the journey of wisdom and understanding.
Drew Harvey
Brody Childs on Unsplash
