Do you want to learn how to read, interpret, and apply God’s word? In today’s episode, let’s get some hands-on practice.
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is March 14, 2025 and this is a Read With Me episode from Proverbs 1. What I mean is that in this episode, rather than you just listen to me talk about the day’s reading, I want to read the text with you and have you get some hands-on experience with interpretation. So grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Exodus 25, John 4, and Proverbs 1.
Please open your Bibles to Proverbs 1.
Don’t you guys love the two kinds of people in this world thing? It’s a fun game to play:
- There are two kinds of people in the world… You know how this works.
- Two kinds of people: Skittles and M&Ms.
- Two kinds of pet people: dog people and cat people.
- Two kinds of soda people: Coke and Pepsi.
- Two kinds of vacation people: Beach people and mountains people.
- Two kinds of music people: Country music people and people with good taste in music.
I love these kinds of classifications because they are so ridiculous, as if all of the complexity and diversity of 7.5B people on the planet can just be neatly divided into two categories. That’s nuts, right?
TRANSITION: Well… You’ve heard of Solomon in the Bible? The son of David, third king of Israel, second wisest man ever. If Solomon were here, he would say, yeah, that actually works. You can do that. There really are two kinds of people in this world.
Proverbs 1:1–7
1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
Ok, so did you figure out the two kinds of people in the world? According to Solomon, there are wise people and there are foolish people. We’re going to see lots of pairs like this throughout Proverbs: life and death, rich and poor, reward and punishment. But the wise and the fool are mentioned more than any other pairing. The wise are mentioned in verse 5. Fools are mentioned in verse 7. We’ll come back to them in a minute.
I want to start with someone else. It stands out that Solomon tells us right at the beginning of the book of Proverbs why he has written this book. Let’s think about this a little bit. If you have your journal or a piece of paper handy, we’re going to two columns. At the top of one column, write “verbs.” At the top of the other column, “nouns.” In a moment, I’ll have you pause this podcast and you’ll write in: what are verbs that Solomon wants his book to do to us? You can usually tell them because they follow the word “to.” Then, switch to the nouns columns and write down: what are the things that Solomon wants us to get and grow in as we read? So let’s do that now. Pause the podcast and come back when you are done.
Ok, hopefully you’ve got two real nice lists. The first column is verbs — what Solomon wants his book to do to us. I see words like “know, understand, receive, give, hear, increase, and obtain.” The nouns list is even longer. What does Solomon want us to get from his book? Lots! Words like, “wisdom, instruction, insight, wise dealing, righteousness, justice, equity, prudence, knowledge, learning, guidance.” That’s good stuff. All of these verbs and nouns are words that we are going to see again and again as we read through the book of Proverbs.
All of this tells us what Proverbs is supposed to teach us. But why did Solomon write it? Well, that’s the verse we haven’t really looked at yet. Verse 7 explains it: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” What is the fear of the Lord? Let’s take about two minutes and write out on your paper the best definition of the fear of the Lord you can come up with. Pause now and come back when you’re done.
Ok, I bet you’ve got a great definition but I bet you also discovered: the fear of the Lord is hard to define. Part of the reason why is that we think of fear as a bad thing, but according to the Bible, it is a good thing. A really good thing. Isaiah 33:6, in the NIV: “He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge [sound familiar?]; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.” (Isaiah 33:6, NIV). So this is the difference between the wise and the fool: the wise person has the key that opens the treasure. What is the fear of the Lord?
A theologian and Bible scholar named Michael Reeves says, “True fear of God is true love for God defined: it is the right response to God’s full-orbed revelation of himself in all his grace and glory.” What’s another word for “God’s full-orbed revelation of himself in all his grace and glory”? That’s called the gospel of Jesus Christ! You feel the fear of the Lord when the gospel gets personal: when you understand that you have been a fool who has rebelled against the God of heaven and your sin deserves the furious wrath of God, but that Jesus Christ left heaven and came for you and died for you, taking all the punishment you deserve so that you can be forgiven and welcomed into God’s family. If you feel some mixture of shock and joy and gratitude and amazement and disbelief, that is the fear of the Lord rising up in you.
The fear of the Lord is at the heart of the book of Proverbs. The first 9 chapters of Proverbs are a kind of introduction to the book. One of the ways we know that is that the theme of the fear of the Lord is mentioned here in 1:7 and comes up again in 9:10, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Theologians call that an inclusio. A simpler term for it is bookends. The phrase brackets everything in between as a coherent unit. There is another inclusio from 1:7 to the very end of the book. The next-to-last verse of Proverbs, 31:30, says, “A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” The repetition of that phrase at the very beginning and very end of the book is very deliberate. Solomon is telling us something here: whatever else Proverbs is about, the fear of the Lord is right at the heart of it.
So that tells us something about the why of the book of Proverbs. Now, the last thing we’re going to think about together from Proverbs is who: who is this for? To answer that question, in a moment I’m going to have you pause one more time. I want you to slowly flip through the next 4–5 pages of Proverbs and read the first verse of each new section or paragraph. See if you can figure out who Proverbs is for. Pause now, do that, and come back when you are done.
Ok, did you get it? Clearly, Proverbs is for Solomon’s son! 1:8; 2:1; 3:1; 3:11; 3:21; 4:1 4:10; 4:20, 5:1; 5:7… goes on and on. Solomon is writing this for his sons. He is preparing them to be a king and princes. But there is nothing that he is going to tell them that is specific to reigning as king; almost all of it is relevant for any young people. So we can think of the book of Proverbs as an aide for parents: it is a training manual for young people, teaching them to learn how to walk in the fear of the Lord.
Did you know that some people encourage young people to read “a Proverb a day.” No, not one Proverbs actually, but one chapter of Proverbs each day. It so happens that there are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Most months have 31 days. I probably don’t need to spell that one out. If you’ve gotten used to reading the M’Cheyne reading plan and want to add in a little bit more challenge, that would be a very worthy use of 5 minutes of your day!
I’m excited for you to start reading through Proverbs and I look forward to reading more with you in the weeks to come!
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!