Bumper stickers are a nice distraction while you’re sitting at a stoplight. Proverbs are so much more: the path to wisdom and the fear of the Lord.
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 26, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called Bumper Stickers of the Bible. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Exodus 37, John 16, and Proverbs 13.
Please open your Bibles to Proverbs 13.
I’ve always liked bumper stickers. I don’t often come across bumper stickers that I agree with, but I do like having something to look at while I’m waiting for the light to turn green, and it is pretty interesting to see what kinds of messages people want to send to the world.
I saw a funny one recently: it was one of those yellow diamonds that normally say, “Baby on Board.” Except this one said, “No baby on board. Feel free to just run into me.” Kind of the opposite of another one I saw recently that said, “Only adults on board. We want to live, too.”
Someone once said to me that Proverbs are the bumper stickers of the Bible. I get what he meant: Proverbs are these tight, pithy, sometimes kind of funny little sayings. But where bumper stickers are often irreverent, snarky, or flat out inappropriate, the book of Proverbs is chock full of wisdom, all meant to lead us to walk in the fear of the Lord.
In today’s Scripture for Students, we’re going to get a little practice reading Proverbs together.
Please follow along with me as I read Proverbs 13:1–12,
1 A wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
2 From the fruit of his mouth a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.
3 Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
5 The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace.
6 Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked.
7 One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
8 The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth, but a poor man hears no threat.
9 The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
10 By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.
11 Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
What I want to do today is just practice reading some Proverbs with you. There is so much to learn here. Let’s just start with verse 1:
1 A wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
At face value, this is very simple: if you want to be wise, listen to your Dad and Mom. But notice how this proverb makes a point: the second half of the proverb says the same thing as the first half by saying just the opposite. We have a wise son and scoffer, we have a son who hears his father’s instruction vs. a scoffer who does not listen to rebuke. Both halves of the verse make the same point by telling you how to do it and how not to do it. The other thing I want us to notice here is the presence of the scoffer.
What is a scoffer? Well, in an earlier episode, we talked about how there are two kinds of people in the world: the wise and the foolish. But actually, Proverbs is a little more sophisticated than that because according to Proverbs, fools come in three flavors: there is the fool, who is a person who says in his heart there is no God, and lives accordingly. On one side of the fool, there are the simple—the simple are not fools yet, but if they aren’t careful, they will be. The simple are young people who haven’t yet learned the moral discernment to consistently and reliably know good from evil. Most young people are simple but they can become wise—if they listen to the instruction of their father and mother. The other kind of fool is much more serious: the scoffer—sometimes called the mocker—is a fool who has grown hardened in his sin. Not only is he proud and stubborn, he has begun to think that godliness is foolish. He has it exactly backwards. Fools are scary because their hearts are so hard that there is little hope they will ever learn wisdom. That’s why this verse, and many others like it, are so urgent about learning to be wise.
Let’s look at another one: how about 13:4?
4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
One of the things I like most about this proverb is that it expresses one of the main themes of the book of Proverbs: it looks at “the end of the matter.” I’m actually taking that phrase “the end of the matter” from Ecclesiastes, which is similar to Proverbs in many ways and was also written by Solomon.
Both books are considered to be “wisdom literature,” and one of the features of wisdom literature is that it considers the consequences of actions. Sin wants to convince you that your actions won’t have consequences—that you can sin and no one will know, or that it won’t hurt any one. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes both insist: that is emphatically not true. Here in verse 4, let’s think about the sluggard.
First, I think that’s gotta be one of the most unattractive terms for sin in the Bible. Some people want to turn sin into a virtue, but I don’t think many people are like, yes I’m a sluggard! What are the consequences of laziness in the life of sluggard? Exactly right: hunger. Sin always has consequences, so Proverbs would teach young people who are tempted to be lazy: you may not be hungry now because you live in your parents’ house and they feed you. But lazy people crave—they long for good food, a nice car, a comfortable house, but they get nothing. On the other hand, the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. So which do you think Solomon wants you to be: a sluggard or diligent? Which do you think God wants you to be? What changes should you make to be diligent and not a sluggard?
We’ve got time for one more: Proverbs 13:12 says,
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
This is a great Proverb for us to think about for two reasons. First, let’s think about the truth that it contains: a hope deferred makes the heart sick. I bring this up because the hopes of young people are often deferred, meaning: they are often put off until later. Maybe you have a hope for independence or a relationship or a job or a hobby or something else that you can’t do yet. When those hopes are postponed, it makes the heart sick. Solomon is not saying this is good or acceptable, as if this is a blank check to go have a pity party. I think he is telling us that we need to be careful about what we hope for. Let’s hope in what God promised us and what we know will be fulfilled.
Second, let’s think about the phrase, “…a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Obviously, this is the opposite of the hope deferred. But what I want us to notice here is the imagery. What is a desire fulfilled like? It is like a tree of life. That’s vivid. Picture a large, sturdy tree somewhere near you. What is it like and how does it give life? Well, it’s beautiful to look at, the sound it makes as it is blown by the breeze is mesmerizing. It gives shade on sunny days, and a dry spot on rainy days. Birds and small animals may make their home in this tree. This phrase “tree of life” only occurs a few times in the Bible and it is always a supremely desirable thing. Again, the principle is: hope in the right things so that when those things come to pass, you will experience the delight of enjoying the gifts God gives and thanking him for those gifts.
Keep going! As you read the rest of Proverbs 13, what else do you notice about how Solomon teaches us wisdom?
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!