In May, I wrapped up a Bible study with some ladies. We had been going through Proverbs for several months and as we ended, I realized I was only starting to understand it. There are so many themes and pictures and repeated ideas.
So I decided for the next three months {June, July, August} I would read a chapter in Proverbs a day, make notes, study deeper into word meanings and comparisons. So over the course of the summer, I read Proverbs three times. Here’s {some} of what I learned:
The line between the wicked and the righteous is distinct. There is no straddling a fence when Proverbs talks about these two. The evil choose one path/decisions that lead to death and the righteous choose the opposite path/decisions that lead to life.
The mouth is important to God! I was amazed at how much this one book had to say about the mouth, tongue, lips, gossip, etc. Sometimes it was phrased in terms of, “Speak like this…” Other times, it was clear warning, “The fool speaks…” I was very convicted by these verses about how we use words and what we say. I anticipate a deeper study into just this aspect of Proverbs in my future!
The five types of fools. As I read several different translations of Proverbs, I noticed several words were used to reference a fool or a foolish person. My dad {who was teaching Proverbs in Sunday School} gave a very helpful breakdown of how five words for a foolish person were different from each other. They ranged from a simple ignorance to a blatant turning from God. I found it very helpful to keep these in mind while I read.
I still have a lot to learn! One would think reading the same thing three months in a row would give me a leg up! And while I do feel like I learned a lot and understand Proverbs better than I did before, I still found myself, reading chapter 28 and thinking, “This seems familiar, what chapter was this already in? What does that word mean?” Inexhaustible is definitely a word I would use to describe reading and learning from the Bible!
Now that the summer of Proverbs has ended, I’m slowly reading through Psalms and studying it as time allows and keeping up with my chronological study. There’s always something to learn!
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