The Purpose of Proverbs

This post is part of a devotional series based on our 2019 Bible Reading Calendar.

The book of Proverbs contains much practical wisdom. The Bible’s story is ultimately about how God sent Jesus to rescue us from our sins and make us his beloved children. As such, the Bible is more about what God has done for us than what we are to do. Yet, by calling us to Jesus, the Bible also calls us to a new way of living. Proverbs are a good example of this.

When we read Proverbs, we are reading “parental instruction to a son who was being groomed to become king,” so says Kevin Vanhoozer, who then goes on to explain: “But this is also the story of humanity: Adam was given a royal mandate to rule the earth in God’s place.”[1]

So, when we read Proverbs and how it details work, friendship, marriage and sexuality, honesty, the words we speak, etc., we are reading instructions for how to live faithfully as God’s children, the future Kings and Queens over his new creation.

This is why Solomon even said, in laying out the purpose to his son: “For learning wisdom and discipline; for understanding insightful sayings; for receiving prudent instruction in righteousness, justice, and integrity” (Proverbs 1:2-3).

Followers of Jesus, God’s children, are to be examples of daily righteousness, justice, and integrity as we act in wisdom and discipline (self-control). God has given us his word, and practical applications like what we find spread through Proverbs, to do just that.

[1] Kevin Vanhoozer, Hearers and Doers (Lexham Press, 2019), 234.

All Scripture quotations taken from the Christian Standard Bible.