Proverbs 8:32–36
Now therefore hearken unto me, O you children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
Blessed is the man that hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
For whoso finds me finds life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
But he that sins against me wrongs his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Here we find the conclusion of the chapter, recalling that the book of Proverbs is directed towards children. Of all the courses you will study in your schooling, this book is the most fundamental. You must listen to the lessons of this book and follow after them. It is one thing to sit passively listening to these lessons each day, but it is quite another to get up out of your chair and incorporate what you hear into the way you live.
There should be an air of expectancy in the room as we open this book to learn from God’s book of wisdom. We need to remember that we are in desperate need of wisdom. Those who are self-satisfied as they continue on in a sinful condition refuse to seek after God’s truth, and they will go to hell when they die. But those who desire wisdom and seek after her will be blessed and will find life and obtain favor of the Lord.
A society that turns away from wisdom, seeking after the vanity of lust and human pride, will eventually embrace death. The process works its way out over a long period of time. For example, towards the beginning of the humanist renaissance in the West, Michelangelo sculptured a statue of a man carving himself out of the rock––a strong signification that man no longer needed God. The humanist-renaissance man optimistically set out to define his own truth and reality. It took several hundred years before he realized that there was no way he could carve himself out of the rock unless somebody else first made his hands for him! And of course he didn’t want that, because he was supposed to be the self-made man. Thus, as the 20###sup/sup### century approached, man gave up the possibility of there being any ultimate truth or purpose in life. He turned to pessimism and embraced death. Now look at the results. Since 1973, Western nations have killed their children by the hundreds of millions in an unprecedented bloodbath of abortion and euthanasia. Birth implosions threaten to utterly ruin these nations. Cultural forms moved from the happy songs of Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby to the celebration of nihilism, murder, and suicide on the top forty music charts. “All those who hate me, love death.”
Who will listen now to the cries of Wisdom at the gate? If ever there was a time to respond to Wisdom, it is now! Millions participate in this culture of death. The infatuation with death is obvious—especially among teens—in clothing styles, jewelry, facial expressions, tattoos and body piercing, music, and other cultural expressions. Who will study the Book of Proverbs? Who will fear God and honor their parents? Who will listen to the cries of Wisdom preached from the pulpits?
1. Who is the Source of our wisdom and truth?
2. What happens when men abandon God as the Source of wisdom and truth?
3. Are you interested in following after wisdom and trying to understand the lessons that your parents teach you from the Book of Proverbs? Do you understand these lessons? How much effort do you make to listen to and apply these lessons?