Proverbs 1:6: Reading more to understand

“to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.”
-Proverbs 1:6

I recently had a conversation with a coworker about the Bible. I had mentioned something cool I had found in the Psalms, and she replied, “You shouldn’t take everything in the Psalms literally.” She went on to explain that certain parts of the Bible were, in essence, wrong.

Now, whether or not we take Scripture literally is a debate we can have for another time; what interested me in this conversation is how utterly unable this woman was, when I asked her, to give me one example of a verse that was wrong.

This is so often the problem. Here in the West we always hear about the Bible. We are always hearing about the Bible, whether in praise or in condemnation, and yet it is all so distorted. It’s distorted because we’re always “hearing about” the Bible, and so few of us ever read it.

Solomon has given us several verses that we could label at the purpose of writing the book. He told us first about the goal, and second about his audience. But now he tells us something else: We should read Proverbs in order to understand Proverbs.

Does that sound strange? Normally people, when they don’t understand something, they put it down and ask someone else (or just forget the whole thing). The last thing we would do is to simply reread it.

I was an English major, and I read a lot of things I didn’t understand at first. When I started, I went to criticism, hoping the literature critic would explain what I had read. Sometimes that worked. But then, as I continued, I began just going back, looking at it again, meditating on it, exploring it.

And I began to understand things a great deal better.

There are a lot of people who have been offended by the Bible. Either they misunderstood parts, didn’t like what they read, or they didn’t want to confront their own sin. They jump out immediately and say how sexist the Bible is, or that it promotes slavery, or that it is filled with contradictions, or some other nonsense. Most of the time, this person is saying it because he didn’t understand it in the first place.

I love Bible commentaries. I love books about the Bible. I love listening to sermons. But if I substitute any of those things, things that come solely from man, for my own study of the Word, something that comes from God, then I am not doing myself any service.

Solomon is right here: We read the Word in order to understand it. It interprets itself. One verse comments on another, one chapter on another, one book on another, one testament on the other. If I don’t understand a part or don’t like a part, I read on, and it gradually becomes clear.

I still may not like it, but once I understand, I am left with a choice. I can either trust my own ways, which have failed me over and over again, or I can follow God, who has never failed me at all.

I am thrilled that you are reading my blog. I truly am. I hope you continue to do so, but do not let this take the place of study and meditation on the Word of God.

Because here’s the truth. You have failed yourself as much as I have failed myself. Everyone else out there is going to fail you too. Don’t let them dictate the fate of your eternal soul. Repent of that way and follow Christ, the God taught to us by His own Word.