Proverbs – In Conclusion (For Now)

 

I’ve not posted for a while because I’ve been pondering whether to continue in Proverbs or to explore other facets of Christ – in the past few months we’ve considered witnessing, discipline and discipleship, and leadership, in Christ in Proverbs. There are many other passages in Proverbs, beyond what we’ve covered, that speak to us in Christ, and of Christ, regarding these things. I think that we will leave Proverbs for now, but before we go let me remind us that Proverbs is about Jesus Christ, it is not a self-help book, and that when we read and ponder Proverbs we ought to be looking for Jesus and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to us.

 

With all our chatter about Messianic prophecy in what we call the Old Testament, the reality is that most of the professing church has lost the ability to see Christ in the Old Testament. As I said in a previous reflection, what good does it do us, or what glory does it give to God, to believe in Noah’s Flood and the Ark, or to go see a reproduction of the Ark, if we do not see that Jesus Christ is the Ark and that we are to live in Him and to call others to live in Him? What good does it do us if we do not see that we, His People, His Church, His Temple, are (in Him) the Ark? (He is the Head and we are His Body).

 

In the same fashion, if all we see in Proverbs are principles to live by, then we are missing the purpose and trajectory of this divinely – inspired book, for its purpose is to reveal Christ and its trajectory is Christ – to lead us deeper and deeper into Jesus Christ. And while I don’t mean to offend anyone, in the same way if we look at the Bible as “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth,” then as pithy as that may sound, we are missing the glory of Jesus Christ and the purpose of the Bible – which is to reveal Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, and to draw us into relationship with the holy Trinity and with one another (1 John 1:3).

 

When we ponder discipline in Proverbs, do we see that Jesus, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation”? (Heb. 5:8 – 9).

 

Do we see that the Father is conforming us into “the image of His son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren”? (Rom. 8:28 – 30).

 

When we consider witnessing in Proverbs, do we see that just as Jesus has come to declare and manifest the Father, so He has sent us to manifest the Father and Son? (John 17:18; 20:21). Do we see that the Incarnation continues in us, His People?

 

Along this same line of thought, when we read about kings and others in authority in Proverbs, the root and genesis of what we read is the King of kings and Lord of lords – godly leadership flows from being under the authority of Jesus Christ – we are to be the His Incarnation, and therefore our leadership is to be His leadership expressing itself through us. (John 15:1 – 11).

 

We are to have no life but the life of Christ; in Proverbs we see Christ manifesting Himself through many images and teachings, and we see what our lives ought to look like as we live in Him and He lives in and through us.

 

Why, is not even the wise woman of Proverbs 31 an image of the Bride of Christ?

 

A Proverbs 31 Church is always looking for her Husband, in Proverbs and in all Scripture.

 

“I must arise now and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I must seek him whom my soul loves…” (SS. 3:2 a, b).

 

Let us learn to seek our Lord Jesus in Proverbs.