Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (35 page)

The Proverbs come right to the point. Of all the biblical material, they are perhaps the easiest to understand, though sometimes the hardest to apply. If you need a “spiritual vitamin” to perk up your way of life, chow down on the Proverbs. It will be a feast for your soul.

One word of caution, though: a proverb contains a principle, not a promise. A proverb tells you: this is how life basically works. What is left unsaid is the qualifier: life does not always,100 percent of the time, work this way.

Take Proverbs 21:17 as a case in point:

The idea is that
in the main
, squandering one’s time, energy, and resources on partying and living the easy life will eventually lead to poverty. Just think of the prodigal son. So if the goal is to grow one’s wealth, a
general
principle for doing so is to apply oneself to honest labor and living a disciplined lifestyle.

Is the proverb
guaranteeing
that hard work and a disciplined lifestyle will lead to riches? No. Life doesn’t work that way. There are too many other factors that contribute to the creation of wealth to say that hard work and discipline alone are all that it takes. Countless people in the world work very hard and keep impeccable personal habits, yet they have little to show for it, financially speaking. That does not negate the principle of the proverb. It merely shows that the principle is intended to point us in the right direction, not carry us all the way to our destination.

More problematic are the cases that appear to negate the proverb. Just as we know of hard workers who are not wealthy, we also know of people who spend their lives doing nothing but eating, drinking, and being merry, yet they happen to be quite rich. Indeed, some of them have gained their wealth by living a hedonistic lifestyle. Does that not contradict the truth of Proverbs 21:17? It certainly contradicts the warning of the author. But by doing so, it actually establishes the author’s point, rather than defeat it. Sure, various factors (such as society’s moral decline) may reward a given
individual for pursuing nothing but pleasure. But that’s an aberration, not the usual way of things.
In the main
, people who live solely for pleasure go broke. In the main, people who play with matches eventually get burned.

The final and perhaps most challenging type of literature in the Bible is the prophetic. We tend to think of prophecy as a prediction for the future. And certainly the prophetic books look ahead. But a more striking feature is their tone of warning and judgment, and the use of a formula to denote direct words from God: “Thus saith the Lord!”

The role of the prophet in Scripture was not so much to tell the future, but to proclaim the words of the Lord; not to foretell, but to “forth-tell,” as someone has well put it. God raised up prophets in Israel when it became clear that the people were determined to resist Him. The prophets’ thankless task was to warn the nation of the dire consequences of continued disobedience, in hopes of sparking repentance and a return to the Lord.

In reading the prophets, it is critical that you re-create the situation. It is absolutely critical that you bombard the text with the six questions of selective Bible reading—who, what, where, when, why, and wherefore. Answering them will give you an invaluable database for considering these additional issues: What is the main problem that the prophet is addressing? What images does he use to describe it? What is the response of the people? What does this prophet’s message tell you about God? What happens after this prophet delivers his message? Why do you think God included this book in His Word?

A special category of prophetic literature is apocalyptic, of which Revelation is the primary example. As the term implies, apocalyptic literature deals with cataclysmic events of global proportions having to do with the end of the world. The language of apocalyptic is highly symbolic, and the events unfold in quick, dazzling displays of light, noise, and power.

This makes the genre fertile ground for speculation and subjective interpretation. To avoid that, I suggest that when you study Revelation, pay close attention to the structure of the book. What movement is there from the opening to the close? What changes come about? Also, who is the material written to? What was the historical and cultural context in which the writer
was working? How might that have influenced his method of communication? In terms of understanding the book’s symbols, look carefully at the Old Testament for insight into what the author is describing. Rather than worry about a time line for future events, ask what implications this book would have had for Christians in the early church.

NOTE