# 403 The Proverbs – ‘A manual for living’ (MSG). Proverbs 1:8-19 (Character forming information)

My brother, when he was in his mid-teens, could have handled a situation like the son mentioned in Proverbs 1:8-19 where the father says:

⁸ Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching…

¹⁰ My son, if sinful men entice you,
    do not give in to them.

Sadly, he did not (or if, unknown to me, he did, he ignored good advice), and so was caught by the police with his so-called “friends” riding stolen motor bikes heading north away from Perth where we lived. The consequences for being so negatively influenced was to spend the next couple of years in detention.

So, having discovered why Proverbs was written (1:1-7), we now get to the instructions and teaching. The NIV heading for Chapter 1:8-33 is “Prologue: Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom.” And the heading for 1:8-19 is “Warning Against the Invitation of Sinful Men.”

The Message Bible says:

Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;
    never forget what you learned at your mother’s knee.
Wear their counsel like a winning crown,
    like rings on your fingers.
Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,
    don’t go along with them.
If they say—“Let’s go out and raise some hell.
    Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.
Let’s pick them clean
    and get them ready for their funerals.
We’ll load up on top-quality loot.
    We’ll haul it home by the truckload.
Join us for the time of your life!
    With us, it’s share and share alike!”—
Oh, friend, don’t give them a second look;
    don’t listen to them for a minute.
They’re racing to a very bad end,
    hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.
Nobody robs a bank
    with everyone watching,
Yet that’s what these people are doing—
    they’re doing themselves in.
When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:
    the more you get, the less you are.           (Message)

The key words in verse 8 in the NIV are instruction and teaching. Graeme Goldsworthy, in his commentary on Proverbs suggests that “Both terms indicate more than mere information giving; rather, the imparting of knowledge that is life – or character-shaping.” (# 53)

Later on in Proverbs we read:

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

Paul in his letter to the Ephesian church says:

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.  (Ephesians 6:4)

So, who is capable of such negative behaviour as described by the author in verses 10-19? Surely not children bought up in “good families?” Sadly, it can happen to anyone, if they allow themselves to be caught up with others such as those described here in Proverbs (see also Psalm 1). Those who are described as sinful men [who] entice [others into their sinful ways] … [whose] feet rush into evil, [and who] are swift to shed blood… [and whose] paths … go after ill-gotten gain.

Paul, quoting the Greek poet Menander, exhorts the believers in Corinth:

³³ Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

Keller comments that “Proverbs … knows that anyone has the potential to become cruel… The Bible never assumes that family pedigree is any insurance against evil.” (# 51)

And, of course, tragically, it can even happen to people who have received the training and instruction of the Lord. Therefore, the emphasis in Proverbs on having a right relationship with God, described here as having the fear of the Lord. This fear of God which enables us to wholeheartedly follow the Lord. The One who gives us wisdom in all our choices and decision making, and even our choice of friends.

And all this is only possible because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.  (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Keller says: “There are, then, only two ways of thinking about life. You can ‘let [the Lord] be your fear’ (Isaiah 8:13 KJV) – your life center – or something else will be. Either God’s Word will be the unquestionable arbiter of truth or something else will serve that function (public opinion, your own feelings, or human scientific reasoning). Either God and your relationship with him will be the thing you esteem most – and every single other thing will be evaluated in light of that – or your relationship to some other thing (such as money) will define reality.”  (# 51)

Father, we need your help to enable us to “not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” Help us to be those whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and [be ones] who meditate on [Your] law day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2) And, if we are parents, help us to “bring up [our children] in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Amen.