While discussing D. A. Carson’s excellent phrase, “grace-driven effort,” one young Reformed pastor told me: “I grew up just hearing about effort, which is why I’m okay if some people have overemphasized the grace part. We can handle that for a season.”

via Heresy Is Heresy, Not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me. (Wisdom, Proverbs 8.17)

A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes rich. (Proverbs 10.4)

The hand of the diligent will rule,
while the slothful will be put to forced labor. (Proverbs 12.24)

Whoever is slothful will not roast his game,
but the diligent man will get precious wealth. (Proverbs 12.27)

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. (Proverbs 13.4)

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. (Proverbs 21.5)

And it is all echoed in 2 Peter 1:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And again at the conclusion of his letter:

But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

And here is the Apostle Paul:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified…. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

First of all, notice how this works with “grace-driven effort.” How does one play off grace against effort?

Of course, there is a great deal in the Bible about the need to give people a Sabbath Rest. It may be that some Church cultures don’t acknowledge the joy and celebration that is supposed to mark the Christian life. It seems obvious in the Gospels that the Pharisees are a new Pharaoh trying to prevent Jesus from giving people rest on the Sabbath (i.e. healing them and partying with them).

But that’s not exactly what I’m hearing in these grace v. effort statements.

The woman Folly is broadcast;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat at all the mortgage groups and car lots,
calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
“Ninety days is the same as cash,
and you can afford all the new house that you deserve.”
But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Say “Proverbs” and “parenting,” and people immediately think of all the passages about spanking.

But I’m thinking there is something else.

I want to know how old is the child to whom the writer is speaking.

This would be good to know, because at whatever age it is, it is advisable, according to Proverbs, to warn him that if he doesn’t listen to you he is going to die.

Death, death, death. It is everywhere in Proverbs. Cougars will kill you. Laziness will kill you. Your mouth will kill you.

You will die. Or you will live enslaved and it will be too late for anything but a few years of regret.

Listen and live or die, my son.

No coddling in Proverbs.

So when should we talk this way?

Mark Horne » Blog Archive » The Genesis of Proverbs.

Let me try this again in a different way. I’ve got many thoughts bouncing around and haven’t figured out how to organize them yet.

If you are a believer in a religion that is best expressed as four spiritual laws or a flow-chart or a chart about the dispensations of history, or a scheme of double predestination, or many other things (some of which may or may not be true–the issue is not veracity but primacy), then it will be a mystery to you why God wrote the book of Proverbs and put it in our Bibles.

But…

If you are a practitioner of a religion centered on a story that begins with how God made men and women to relate to Him and one another as they take dominion over the world, and move downstream from their garden home, and find gold, and start trading and have to raise children and eventually build cities that are supposed to further reflect the glory of God, then you will completely understand why the book of Proverbs had to be included as Scripture.

Make sense?

Proverbs talks about creation and wisdom.

Trees of life spring up more than once.

There is a lot about sons being a source of sorrow to their mothers, who had originally praised God they had gotten a man with the help of Yahweh.

And there are fools refusing to listen to rebukes or instruction, when a wise person says, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”

Not going near the door where sin crouches is mentioned.

Lots of warnings about the sons of god desiring the daughters of men.

Violence receives a lot of attention.

What kind of counsel a wife gives, is discussed.

And what sort of wife ought to be valued.

Diligence is promised to be rewarded with dominion.

And though wisdom is more valuable than the gold of Havilah, it is a way to get that too.

There are springs of life.

And how cities are built is an important issue.

It is easy to read Proverbs as a meditation on Genesis 1-11.

Another one of those proverbs that might belong together but, if so, I’m not sure how.

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle,
but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

Pretty straightforward, you would think. But what about this?

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle,
but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Do they belong together–are then side by side for a reason?

If so, is this a warning that you have to endure a sick heart to build sustainable wealth?

Or is it a saying that you do indeed need to accumulate a little rather than nothing? You need some “easy wins” sprinkled throughout your life.

Or is the “hope deferred” really what happens to the “wealth gained hastily”? Maybe Solomon is saying that the person who rapidly rises and then falls will not be able to easily recover.

The Bible is a short book. But Proverbs has such a multitude of interpretive possibilities, that I wonder how anyone is supposed to master it in one life time.

I suppose they need to keep reading and building up their understanding little by little.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

“Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 5:16).

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land'” (Ephesians 6:1-3).

Proverbs is an application of and exhortation to diligent obedience to the Fifth Commandment.

Take the command as two halves

Honor your father and mother

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching… (Proverbs 4.1).

My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching…. (Proverbs 6.20).

A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother… (Proverbs 10.1b).

A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother… (Proverbs 16.20).

He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach… (Proverbs 19.26)

If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness… (Proverbs 20.20).

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old… (Proverbs 23.22).

Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice… (Proverbs 23.25).

Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, “That is no transgression,” is a companion to a man who destroys… (Proverbs 28.24).

There is a generation who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers… (Proverbs 30.11).

The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures… (Proverbs 30.17).

A few verses mention ” a father’s instructions” without the mother. But this also happens once for a mother (Proverbs 31).

that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you

My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you… (Proverbs 3.1).

So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man… (Proverbs 3.2b)

Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor… (Proverbs 3.16).

Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many… (Proverbs 4.1)

Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life… (Proverbs 4.13)

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life… (Proverbs 6.23).

For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life… (Proverbs 9.11)

The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; whoever guards his way preserves his life (Proverbs 16.17).

The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm… (Proverbs 19.23).

The law of God receives a great deal of attention in Proverbs, but that too fits into the Fifth Commandment.

Consider that, after he repeated the Fifth Commandment in Deuteronomy 5, Moses says at the beginning of Deuteronomy 6:

Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.

Moses closes his sermon the same way (chapter 32):

Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.

While there are probably many applications of the Fifth Commandment, some of which are even for unbelieving parents, the core of the Fifth Commandment is a transmission method for the word of God. Children are to honor their parents because their parents are communicating to them the way of the Lord.

Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.

And then:

The hand of the diligent will rule,
while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

So free people work themselves. Otherwise, someone else will work them.

I’ve decided that anyone who thinks that Job and Ecclesiastes are “correctives” or “qualifiers” to the book of Proverbs really hasn’t paid attention to what Proverbs really says (or doesn’t say).

Consider Proverbs 10.15:

A rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

Seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?

But the proverb is semi-repeated in 18.11:

A rich man’s wealth is his strong city,
and like a high wall in his imagination.

Not quite as positive a statement, is it? But what if this couplet is not meant to stand alone? Then the negativity is even stronger:

The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
A rich man’s wealth is his strong city,
and like a high wall in his imagination.
Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty,
but humility comes before honor.

Jesus’ parable of the rich fool (fool!) virtually writes itself from Proverbs 18.10-12.

So go back to 10.15:

The wise lay up knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.
A rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
the poverty of the poor is their ruin.
The wage of the righteous leads to life,
the gain of the wicked to sin.

Is the statement in the middle meant to be taken at face value, or are we intended to question it in light of the true wealth that is knowledge (that you save, like money) or the true wage that is life?

And are we intended to go back and rethink 10.15 in light of 18.11?

It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out (Proverbs 25.2).