To Hear and to Hold
When you get access to valuable wisdom, you work hard to hear it and hold on to it. God’s wisdom is available to us, and so this passage exhorts us to hear it and hold on to it.
Resources:
The Book of Proverbs (Chapters 1-15, NICOT), Bruce Waltke
Proverbs: Wisdom that Works, Ray Ortlund
St. John Chrysostom: Commentary on the Sages: Commentary on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, translated by Robert C. Hill
Proverbs, Charles Bridges
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Sermon Transcript
Coaching and consulting are big industries in America now. Tony Robbins is one of the most famous life coaches in the world, and he charges in the hundreds of thousands to million dollar range to serve as someone’s life coach. Marshall Goldsmith is an executive coach who is known for charging over $200,000 per engagement. High-end consultants charge $1,000 an hour or over $10,000 per day for their advice. Why do people pay such high prices for what advice? Because they sense that these coaches or consultants have wisdom for their particular field that they presently lack. They sense that these coaches are skillful in perceiving the reality of a situation and deciding how to live in accordance with it.
Now imagine you were to enlist the services of one of these coaches, you pay your $200,000 and you finally get your hour to sit down with your coach. How do you think you would receive their instruction? Would you scroll Instagram during that hour, or would you listen attentively to them and work hard to understand what they are saying? And when you leave that session, would you forsake their counsel if a few of your buddies who know nothing about your field gave you different counsel? Of course not; that would obviously be foolish. With wisdom like that, you would work hard to hear it clearly and then to hold on to it. This week we’re in week 2 of our series through the book of Proverbs, and we’re going to see in this passage that the most valuable wisdom imaginable, God’s wisdom, is also available to you. God is so generous as to provide it for free; no $200,000 fee. So what should you do with it? Hear and hold on to wisdom, and this passage gives us four reasons to do so: It’s available, as I already mentioned, it’s beautiful, it’s contested, and it always wins.
It’s available
The first thing to notice in our passage is that wisdom is available, and we see in verse 8 that it is available through parents. Solomon says, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.” We talked last week about how the book of Proverbs, in the introduction, is not addressed to a specific audience like other ancient books of wisdom often were, because it was God’s intention that the wisdom contained in it would be shared with all his people. That’s why we have it printed in our Bibles. Nonetheless, here Solomon shares his wisdom with us by letting us in on a conversation he wants to have with his son. He wants his son to hear his instruction, and to forsake not his mother’s teaching. The parallelism between his, the father’s, teaching, and the mother’s instruction shows us that it is the responsibility of both parents to instruct their children in wisdom, and that their teaching was unified.
So Solomon as a father can say hear my instruction and do not forsake, or hold on to your mother’s teaching. Hear and hold on; those are the two basic things you want to do with wisdom: Listen attentively so that you can actually learn it, and then hold on to it so that you don’t stray from it. But where is it available? Where can you go to hear it? We start with parents. It is a simple, observable fact that all children will learn wisdom first from their parents, because their parents will be the first voices they hear over and over again, whether they like it or not. And almost all parents, to some extent, are wiser than their children. For a familiar example, children don’t instinctively know that if you touch a hot stove, it will burn you; most parents have figured that out. Children don’t instinctively know that if you eat treats all day, you will be unhealthy, while most parents have figured that out. Nonetheless, Solomon was in a unique position to say, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction.” Remember that he was the king of Israel who prayed for wisdom, and received it from God himself. But the fact that he can mention his wife here as well, and so tell his son to also hold on to her instruction, indicates that he isn’t depending on his unique experience of receiving wisdom from God directly. The teaching and instruction he wants his son to hear and to which he wants him to hold is available to his wife also, because both he and his wife belong to the people of Israel, who have the LORD, Yahweh, the creator of the world as their God, and both he and his wife have the foundation of wisdom that we saw last week in verse 7: They fear the LORD. They are living in submission to him, submitting to his reality and to the reality of how he created the real world. And remember that wisdom is the art of perceiving reality and living in accordance with it. Now he wants to train his son in that art, and through him, to train us as well.
All of us grew up with parents who were wiser than we to some extent, but not all of us grew up with parents who feared the LORD. Many of us did not. Yet all of us are commanded to honor our parents, and one way we do that is by listening to their instruction and giving it weight. Kids in the room, listen up: I don’t think I personally know the parents of every kid in the room today, but I know the ones who are members of this church, and I can tell you this about them at least: They are not perfect, but they do fear the LORD. They have wisdom that you don’t yet, and they want to share it with you. When they do, especially when they’re teaching you things from the Bible, it may seem boring or irrelevant to you at times, but you will want to know and hold on to what they are telling you. Some of you here are adults now who grew up with parents who also were not perfect, but who did fear the LORD; are you holding on to what they taught you? One of the most successful lies of Satan in the modern world is that a statement is truer simply by virtue of being newer. Hopefully even just stating it that way demonstrates its absurdity. The time at which a statement is uttered tells us absolutely nothing about its truth or falsehood. An individual, a people group, a society, can get more foolish just as easily as it can grow wiser, and perhaps even more easily. If your parents gave you wise instruction in the past, don’t let go of it now just because it’s old or unpopular. Humorous as the Progressive commercials are, you don’t always need someone to stop you from becoming like your parents.
And, consider the flipside: To you in the room who are fathers and mothers, do you realize that it is your job to impart wisdom to your children? You naturally do it to some extent: You tell them not to touch the hot stove, you (hopefully) don’t let them eat sweets all day. But are you teaching them God’s wisdom? How much of the Bible are they learning from you? Daily lectures on scripture and instruction in the original languages may be beyond you and your child’s capacity, but consider the cumulative impact that small things like reading the Bible aloud when you’re having your own quiet time and your kids are there, memorizing a verse in the car on the way to school, reading a Proverb at breakfast, reading a passage after dinner and discussing it, can have over time. I heard a podcast recently suggest shooting for 5 minutes per day of scripture reading with your kids. That’s totally doable, and it adds up over time. You should realize on the one hand that your time with your children is limited; you get roughly 18 years, Lord willing, while they’re in your home. Some of you are divorced; you get even less time with them, and it may be the case that the child’s other parent isn’t teaching them much of God’s wisdom, if any. And I say that to say the time you have with them in this season of life is precious; don’t waste it. Don’t keep saying you’ll get to teaching them the Bible when life gets a little less busy.
And at the same time, realize just how much time you have with them over those 18 or so years. Imagine how much you could teach a child with even just small, daily inputs of scripture. You often won’t see much immediate fruit, and you normally will deal with kids saying the Bible is boring and they don’t feel like going to church and so on, but you’re playing the long game. In the New Testament Paul says that Timothy was acquainted with the sacred writings from childhood; could we all make it our goal to ensure that can be said of our children? Whether they ultimately hear or hold on to God’s wisdom is their responsibility, but let it never be said that we didn’t make it available to them.
You’re hopefully realizing that this means to be a good parent, you also will need to keep hearing and holding on to wisdom. You need to keep growing in your understanding of scripture to be able to teach it to your kids. And do you see that if you want to be a parent someday, one of the best things you can do to prepare for that is to use the time you have without kids to grow in wisdom, so that you actually have something to pass on to them? And even if you never have kids, consider the role you can play in your church family as another voice of wisdom, especially in the lives of the children of this church. Tom was just telling me the other day about his conversation with one of the kids of members here about why video games can be a nice gift, but not as good a use of time as reading scripture, praying, or spending time with real people. Why not ask one of the parents if you could take one of their kids out for a slice of pizza or ice cream, and in addition to doing fun stuff with them and talking about sports or the ballet or whatever they’re in to, you shared with them something you learned from the sermon this past Sunday, or something you read in the Bible, and told them a way you’re praying for them? I’m praying that some of you will even begin discipling relationships with teenage kids in this church where you meet regularly to teach them the gospel and help them grow to maturity in Christ.
You can have that role in the lives of children even if you yourself are not a parent because even in this passage, wisdom is not only available through parents. In verse 20 we read of wisdom herself personified crying aloud in the street, and raising her voice in the market. When you read this, don’t think of a real, subsisting woman named wisdom. It is a literary device that here is meant to show us just how available wisdom is. It’s crying aloud in the street, it’s raising its voice in the markets, it’s at the entrance of the city gates! And she says in verse 23 if you simply turn to her, she will pour out her spirit to you, and make her words known to you. The spirit is the very inner being of someone. Wisdom personified is here saying she’s going to let you all the way in if you will just turn, hear, and hold on to her.
In the ancient Greek myth, Prometheus had to steal fire from the gods to give it to humanity, but the true God has published his wisdom very broadly. He’s revealed it in creation, and he’s written it on every human conscience; that’s why you can often find some parallels to the wisdom of Proverbs in other ancient books of wisdom. But in the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith, “for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, [God committed] the same wholly unto writing.” Even if your father and mother didn’t give you the wisest instruction, we have Solomon’s instruction to his son printed for us right here in the book of Proverbs! We have the church, the family of God, to which God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine…Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ (Eph 4:11, 14-15).
Wisdom is available! It’s available through wise parents, it’s available through the body of Christ, it’s available above all in the Bible itself, where the only wise God has spoken. It’s crying aloud in the streets, and will pour itself into whoever turns to it. Hear and hold on to it because it’s so available, and, hear and hold on to it because it is beautiful.
It’s beautiful
This is a short point, but look at verse 9. Solomon doesn’t tell his son to hear and hold on to his teaching just because he said so. He gives a reason in verse 9. He says the wise instructions of parents “are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.” A graceful garland was a precious article of clothing culturally. A pendant for your neck indicated a victory of some kind or an accomplishment, much like an Olympic medal hung around an Olympic champion’s neck today. But Solomon doesn’t say wisdom will get you those things; he says wisdom is those things. To have wisdom is to have true beauty, true glory. That won’t always be recognized by people. A more foolish society in particular will tend to exalt things like athletic prowess or external appearance above wisdom; many of our celebrities are foolish. But Solomon is letting us see as God sees, and in his sight, wisdom is a graceful garland for your head, and a pendant for your neck.
And as God remakes our eyes to see as he sees, you probably will start to see it that way too. Think about the people you don’t just like, but respect, or admire. I admire Mark McNutt, Matt Cohen, Ant Coughlin, Raymond Johnson, Chad Van Dixhoorn, Emily Van Dixhoorn, Matt Schmucker, Eli Schmucker, and many more. I like all those people, but I also admire them, and you know what? I never chose to admire any of them. I just found it happening. Why’d it happen? I think it’s largely because they are wise, and their wisdom is a graceful garland for their head, and like a pendant for their necks. Look closely, and you too can probably see the beauty of wisdom in the people you respect and admire. You can also see the beauty of wisdom in its results, but we’ll get to that later. Don’t waste your life putting your energies into your external appearance. Hear and hold on to wisdom because it is truly beautiful. And next, hear and hold on to wisdom because it is contested.
It’s contested
If wisdom is so available and so beautiful, why do we have to be told to hear and hold on to it? Because it is contested. We see this in verse 10: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.” The voice of wisdom isn’t the only voice we hear, is it? As a small child, your parents’ voice is the only voice you really hear. But then it doesn’t take long for the voice of sinners to encroach. And now there are so many more ways for that voice to get to us! It probably comes to most kids first through their television screens, though it can also come through books, podcasts, online media, or social media. Parents, consider your kids’ media intake carefully. But big picture, there simply is no way to keep your children from the enticement of sinners. Even if you cut out all media and send them to a Christian school, real life sinners will find them in real life. Kids, you will meet other kids who want to lead you away from hearing and holding on to wisdom. Depending on your situation, you may even meet teachers who want to lead you away from hearing and holding on to wisdom. Some of you are here today as brand-new college students, and you have probably already encountered the enticement of sinful peers or sinful professors who want to lead you astray from holding on to God’s wisdom. And adults, you no doubt have already met people who want to lead you astray similarly. Wisdom is contested.
What do such people sound like when they contest wisdom? Solomon gives an example in verses 11-14. They basically say, “Hey, come join us. Let’s kill an innocent person. It’ll be easy, it’ll be fun, we’ll all get rich, and we’ll all be in it together.” You think, “Well that seems like an extreme example,” but there are kids in Philadelphia who will be enticed by friends to do things like that. In the sociological study of Philadelphia entitled Code of the Streets, author Elijah Anderson shows how many Philadelphia youth are faced with the choice around the advent of their teenage years of whether to live the “street” life, a life that includes violence, and even murder, and one of the big attractions of it is that it gives you a community to which to belong. Do you see that in the example Solomon gives? “Come with us” (v. 11), “we will all have one purse” (v. 14). Sounds kinda nice, right? A community to which to belong, a community so deeply connected that you even share your money with one another?
How often does drug and alcohol abuse begin not so much because the drugs or alcohol are desirable, but because it’s something to do together, that in doing it, makes you feel like one of the guys, or part of the crowd? If you struggle with such things, could that be part of the reason? And again, the proliferation of media only exacerbates this, though the community it creates is a virtual one. How many today are adopting a gay or trans identity because it gives them a community to which to belong? How many are taking up political causes because it gives them a community to which to belong? How many co-workers bond over murdering the boss with their words? To commit any sin you have to fight against your conscience to some extent, and you know what makes that feel better? Enticing others to join you. As Ray Ortlund put it, “Sin tends to recruit.” Community can of course be a very good thing, but community alone, even a diverse community, is not necessarily good, if the thing that unites that community is trampling others, as in this case, or any sin for that matter.
So don’t fall for the enticement of sinners. Settle in your mind that to hear and hold on to wisdom means there will be communities of which you will never be allowed to be a part. Peter wrote to Christians in his day that “they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you” (1 Peter 4:4). Those communities may be more powerful and more wealthy. They may have access to better food, better experiences, and more attractive potential partners. That’s how it all sounds in verses 11-14, doesn’t it? All blessings, no pains. It’s easy, and it ends with wealth and belonging. Never mind that the innocent man is an image of God. Never mind that he has a family who will now be without him. Never mind that he might actually fight back, or others might want revenge. Never mind that in most societies there is some kind of justice system that might punish you for such a thing. Never mind that he might not be wealthy at all. Never mind that if we are willing to do this to him, we will probably be more willing to do it to each other. That’s all the voice of wisdom, and when sinners want to entice you, that’s the voice they are trying to drown out.
And what should you do in response to such enticements? Simple, verse 15: Do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths. Don’t try to assess their arguments–“Well now there are 5 of us and only 1 of him, so we’d probably succeed.” Don’t take a single step, mentally or physically, in their direction. Co-workers start trashing the boss? Find a way to change the subject or get out of the room. Other kids start making fun of another kid at school? Find a way to change the subject or get out of the room. You have to work to hear and hold on to wisdom, and you have to be willing to be excluded in order to hear and hold on to wisdom, because wisdom is contested by the enticement of sinners.
But it isn’t only contested by the enticement of sinners from outside us. Wisdom is also contested by the sin inside us. Look at verse 22, when wisdom personified is speaking: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” By way of review, remember that the simple are the uninitiated. They are typically young and simply haven’t received enough wisdom yet to either become wise themselves or to reject it and become fools. Fools are those who reject wisdom, or as in this verse, “hate knowledge,” while scoffers are those who actively ridicule it. So you see here in verse 22 that as wisdom cries aloud in the street and raises her voice in the market, as wisdom at the head of noisy streets cries out, what does she find? Scoffers, fools, and at best she finds the simple, and yet even the simple are seen here to love their simplicity rather than hearing and holding on to wisdom! In other words, even the simple, the most seemingly innocent of them all, have something in them that inclines them to prefer their simplicity to wisdom.
I remember talking to a friend once who was not a Christian, and I asked him what he believed about God. He said he didn’t know, and he added that he actually liked not knowing. He hadn’t examined the claims of Jesus and said no to Jesus; he preferred not to examine them at all. He was simple, and he loved his simplicity. And I know I’m a sinner too, so I get to thinking, “Why do we sometimes like the feeling of not knowing when it comes to God?” and at least one reason is this: As soon as you know the truth, the truth places demands on you. If you do know there is one true God, you have to worship him; “I’m spiritual but not religious” won’t do anymore. As soon as you know he requires you to love your neighbor as yourself, killing the innocent and taking his money won’t do anymore. You see the problem? Wisdom is not only contested by the enticement of sinners; it’s contested by us, by the sin inside us! We scoff at it, we hate it, or we simply avoid it and love our simplicity so that we can do what we want to do, and make our own way, rather than having to walk in the way of God’s wisdom. And you know what the problem with that is? Wisdom always wins.
It always wins
Look at verse 16. What’s wrong with this nice sounding scheme of the sinners? Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. No kidding, right? But whose blood will they ultimately shed? Verse 18: These men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors. It’s as though God has poisoned all wealth that is gained unjustly. Its possessors get it, but then as they touch it and admire it, the poison starts to rub off on them and eventually takes their lives. I’ve already alluded to ways this often happens in our world: The person you tried to kill ends up killing you, his relatives take revenge, you get caught and are punished by the government, the people you thought were your community turn out to be as murderous toward you as you were toward the innocent guy. Think about the ponzi schemes that started with one lie in the name of a few extra dollars, but then you need another lie to cover up that lie, and so on, until you’re caught and prosecuted for stealing millions of dollars. Wisdom always wins.
We can see this in the narrative of personified wisdom as well. See what she says in verse 24: Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you. I’m often reminded of the time years ago when DeShawn Stevenson talked trash on LeBron James. I’m guessing most of you don’t know who DeShawn Stevenson is, while most of you have heard of LeBron James, and that’s kinda the point. DeShawn Stevenson even had Soulja Boy do a diss track for him, and LeBron came back with…Jay-Z, one of the greatest rappers of all time. Now LeBron is still playing and is one of the greatest players of all time, while Stevenson is out of the league with a final career stat line that is mediocre at best. Suffice it to say LeBron got the last laugh. That’s the illustration here with wisdom.
In fact, wisdom goes so far as to say that when those who reject it are in terror, they will call upon her, but she will not answer. They will seek her diligently but will not find her. Wisdom is available now, but a day is coming when if you hate knowledge and do not choose the fear of the LORD, it won’t be. Wisdom will win, you will suffer the consequences of your folly, and wisdom will not be there to help you. And why shouldn’t it be that way? Verse 31 points out that this is simply the fruit of your choices: You’re getting the fill of your own devices. I remember a time when I opened up some salsa, and you know when you take lid off and it makes a popping sound like you just opened a soda, except salsa isn’t supposed to be carbonated? I smelled it, and it smelled a bit off. But I rejected the path of wisdom and thought, “I mean, how bad could it be?” and what do you know? I got food poisoning. Isn’t part of you kind of laughing at me now? My punishment wasn’t arbitrary; I was almost literally eating the fruit of my way.
And that’s how God’s judgment works. It isn’t arbitrary. If you insist on rejecting him and his wisdom, he will give you over to life without him, only like the poisonous money, it will end up killing you. As C.S. Lewis has written, God can’t give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it doesn’t exist. Rejecting God’s wisdom and expecting that to go well for you is like me eating rotten salsa and expecting it not to make me sick. And if you don’t believe me, just be honest with yourself. How has it really gone for you rejecting God’s wisdom? To those of you who are here today and who are not Christians, is it really working?
There is no hope for you if you go on loving being simple, if you go on delighting in your scoffing, or if you go on hating knowledge. There is only hope for you if you, verse 23…turn. Heed the warnings of wisdom and turn, and instead of laughing at you, wisdom will pour out her spirit to you, and make her words known to you, because wisdom has in fact come to the streets, entered through the city gates, and gone through the distress and anguish that we deserved. I told you that the personification of wisdom here is just a literary device, and it is. But there is a real personal wisdom, God the Son, who became man in Jesus Christ, Solomon’s greater son. Rather than lying in wait for the blood of the innocent, Jesus Christ shed his blood for the guilty when he died on the cross, though he was truly innocent! Rather than filling his house with the plunder of others, he left the house of plenty and became poor, so that he might return and prepare a place for us there, where we might have riches that last and that give life to their possessors. He willingly let Sheol swallow him alive when he died and was buried, but he rose again and laughed at death itself, taunting it, “Where O death is your victory, where O death is your sting?” because wisdom always wins.
He is the wisdom that is available! When he rose from the dead, he poured out his Spirit on his disciples and told them to go, go, go cry aloud in the streets, and through his people he still calls out today: Turn, and I will pour out my spirit to you, and I will make my words known to you. Turn from your simplicity, your scoffing, and your folly to him today, and you will be forgiven of your sins, and he will pour his Holy Spirit into you, to lead you into the path of true wisdom as it is revealed in his word. He is the wisdom that is beautiful. He is crowned now with glory and honor at his father’s right hand, and we all, with unveiled face, beholding his glory, are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to another. He is the wisdom that is contested. There are still sinners who want to entice you away from him, and there is still the sin inside us that inclines us to resist him. But he is also the wisdom who will always win. The day is coming when he will come again to judge the living and the dead, and in that day, all those who refused to turn to him will eat the fruit of their way eternally in hell. It is only fair, isn’t it? As C.S. Lewis put it, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it.”
But praise God that today Jesus still says, “Turn…Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. Take my yoke up you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” The last enemy to be defeated is death, and he will give you the victory over even it if you heed his reproof and turn to him. Those who listen to him, in the words of verse 33, will indeed dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster. Hear him, and hold on to him above anything else, because he is the wisdom that is available, he is the wisdom that is beautiful, he is the wisdom that is contested, but he is the wisdom who will always win.