Proverbs 1 - A Message from Jesus to the United States (Part 1)
I have been praying over the last several months, about how it is that so many different God-fearing people can love God with their heart, soul, and mind, and love their neighbors as themselves, and yet see the world so differently. This difference is seen across space and time, as one views the world and history.
In King David’s time, the God-fearing made war, and wrote of it. David is recorded a man after God’s own heart, but have you read all of his psalms? I have, and they are not all filled with peace and love. Some are filled with dread and depression. Some are filled with prayers for blessings on himself and God’s people; other prayers are for curses on David’s enemies. As a church, we take the prayers of blessings and make them into songs; we take the psalms of dread, and teach how people filled with dread can still give God their trust. But, we take the psalms of war, and curses for ones enemies, and we ignore them; these psalms could be cast into the fire, and I do not know how many Christians would notice that they were gone… because ignore them and do not spend the time reconciling how these could possibly be anything more than the ranting of a pained man. We call the entire scripture “God’s Word”; we defend the entire law as something for Christ to free us from; we refer to Christ Himself as the Living Word, the embodiment of the Bible, or more accurately, the embodiment of what God inspired when the Bible was committed to paper. Yet, we do not acknowledge David’s psalms of war. Ignoring those psalms is like ignoring part of Christ, and we do so at our own peril.
It is easy to dismiss our dismissal using the filter of history, taking the context of one book that cannot be interpreted through modern eyes, and start picking and choosing what should be taken at its word and what should not. However, scripture itself declares, the word never goes out void, and there is a message in every verse, that is true in every age, regardless of whether that age has the knowledge and understanding to realize it. Genesis 1 for example was a theological message to the ancient Hebrews that no matter how the Hebrews believe the world was created, God is the one who created it… a message that is true for all time. In addition, I have a made a detailed case, started with the beginning of this blog, that Genesis 1 was expressed with words and imagery that may not predict the science of the world’s creation, but aligns with it quite well… truth that was never seen but was always true, independent of space and time. Therefore, when we ignore any scripture, by choice or by accident, we do so at our own peril.
I believe that Proverbs 1 is such a scripture.
The Beginning of Knowledge
1:1Â The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2Â To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
3Â to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4Â to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5Â Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6Â to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.7Â The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
As you will see later, I believe this is a warning to the Church, or perhaps to the United States. The Church appears largely divided into two factions, the Evangelical Right, and the Liberal Left. Each lives out God’s grace, atoned for their sins, and does so to the best of their ability. Neither has arrived at the place of ultimate Holiness that will be our at the Resurrection, when we receive our eternal bodies and live out our destiny with God in Heaven. However, both cannot be right about the state of the world and the state of the government. You will see why I believe this Proverb speaks to this below. But, for now, please bear with me…