Laying down the law (Proverbs blog #2)
(note: this blog is slightly longer than normal; you may want to make a pot of coffee or read it in a couple of sittings) Proverbs – still a tricky book Last blog, we looked at the key to Proverbs which is given to us at the start of the book: the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction (1:7) . While this is helpful, from talking to some of you, this is far from a silver bullet for understanding this book! Even with this key, Proverbs can be hard to understand, remaining enigmatic and riddle-esque in large parts. What should we do when, even with the key, Proverbs remains hard to understand? The main thing that will help us understand the book is to read it – read it lots, read it slowly, read it carefully. But having said this, I think the next best thing to help us understand this book is understanding its use of the Old Testament. [1] How Proverbs is like Shrek Imagine you had never heard of any fairyta...