A Life That Is Good

The Message of Proverbs in a World Wanting Wisdom

Glenn Pemberton

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780802875679
• eBook ISBN: 9781467451192
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Somewhere out there is the “good life,” and we’re all scrambling to get it. Glenn Pemberton maintains in this book that we find the so-called good life not in good things but in living well—and the biblical book of Proverbs teaches us how to live that life.

Though based on solid biblical scholarship,  A Life That Is Good  is not a textbook, commentary, or comprehensive study. It is instead a readable, practical guide to the wisdom found in the ancient book of Proverbs—wisdom on everyday living, speech, relationships, justice, money, and much more. Pastors and church groups in particular will love and benefit from this relevant guide regarding the message of Proverbs for today’s world.

PART ONE

The Sages, Their Book, and Wisdom

CHAPTER 1

The Sages and Their Book

If it be knowledge or wisdom one is seeking,

then one had better go direct to the source. And the source is not

the scholar or philosopher, not the master, saint, or teacher,

but life itself—direct experience of life.

—HENRY MILLER¹

The sages of Israel teach that those who would be wise

must aim, not at power, but at goodness.

—ELLEN DAVIS²

TO PREPARE FOR READING THIS CHAPTER

1. Read Proverbs 1:1–7 in several translations.
2. On the different ways or people through whom the Lord spoke to Israel, see Jer. 18:18; Ezek. 7:26; Matt. 23:34–35.
3. On the idea of wisdom in Proverbs, read the following: 2:10; 3:13; 4:5, 7; 5:1; 10:8, 13, 14, 23; 12:15; 13:10; 14:6, 8, 33; 15:2, 7; 16:16, 21, 22; 18:15; 19:8, 20; 20:18; 21:11; 23:23; 24:3, 5–6; 25:12; 28:7.

Our path to the house of wisdom begins during the crisis of the Babylonian invasion into the nation of Israel and the desperation brought on by the siege of Jerusalem. An unusual place to begin, I admit, but a site that provides a firm surface for the foundation we must establish for the sages. The stakes for the prophet Jeremiah were high, in large part because of the unpopular message he had been spreading around town: if you want to survive this siege, you must surrender to the enemy (Jer. 21:9, 38:17–18). His opponents were livid and discussed what to do about Jeremiah—specifically his treason for advocating surrender and his influence over those terrified by the events. And what to do was obvious: find a way to silence him in a grave; put him to death using legal means. After all, he was only one small link out of many that connected the people to their God. They said,

Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah—for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise (hokmah), nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him, and let us not heed any of his words. (Jer. 18:18)

The leaders could not imagine that taking one out of the dozens of prophets, priests, and sages (the wise) could possibly silence the word of God. Others would fill the void left by Jeremiah.

Another prophet, Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeremiah who was already living in exile in Babylonia, could also see the disaster not as a future event but already in the process of happening. What Jeremiah’s Israelite enemies could not imagine had, in fact, already begun:

Disaster comes upon disaster,

rumor follows rumor;

they shall keep seeking a vision from the prophet;

instruction shall perish from the priest,

and counsel from the elders. (Ezek. 7:26)

Ezekiel, coincidentally, identifies the same three sources of God’s word: the prophets, the priests, and the sages—the “counsel from the elders,” a typical expression of wisdom. Six hundred or more years later as he neared his own death, Jesus stood with Jeremiah and Ezekiel in giving the same list of people whom God will send and God’s people will destroy:

Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth . . . (Matt. 23:34–35)

Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Jesus recognize more than one sanctioned voice in ancient Israel and more than just one way the Lord speaks to people: priests, prophets, and sages. In fact, they suggest that describing the fullness of the Lord’s word requires more than one perspective or one group. This observation may appear insignificant, but allow me to suggest that as we begin to comprehend what this means for us, the ground will begin to shake with tremors until finally an earthquake changes the entire landscape of how we think about God and living by faith today. Even those of us who have been working with this material for years—we are still trying to grasp what wisdom brings to the table.

Opposed to a monolithic, single perspective that values only one way of understanding God and living by faith, the texts above identify three distinct orthodoxies, or true or correct ways of thinking about God and life with God. The priests and prophets are the most well-known. The sages are not only the least familiar, but are often dismissed or not recognized as valid sources of theology, or words about God and faith. Consequently, our work here will begin by using the priests and prophets to build an understanding of the sages and wisdom. Figure 1.1 provides a helpful guide for taking notes and creating a comparative guide of similarities and differences among the three groups. Along the way, we will also establish a working definition of wisdom, examine the prologue of Proverbs (Prov. 1:1–7) , and conclude with a brief tour of the prologue and the landscape ahead (Prov. 1–9).

The Priests

The first group mentioned in Jeremiah 18:18 are the priests, the only unit restricted by age (30–50 years old, Num. 4:34–35), heritage (the descendants of Aaron), and gender (males only), though women did serve at the entrance of the tabernacle (1 Sam. 2:22). The priests had many different jobs and responsibilities that ranged from making sacrifices at the temple (Num. 18:5–7), serving as health and building inspectors of sorts in Israel (Lev. 13:1–59; 14:34–40), and acting as judges of a supreme court at the temple (Deut. 17:8–9). Priests were also responsible to teach the people how to distinguish what is holy from what is common and what is clean from what is unclean. They were to teach the Torah, the law or instruction (Lev. 10:11), for the purpose of keeping God’s place/space ritually clean so that God could live with his people (Lev. 15:31). The priests told the stories of Israel’s ancestors and spoke of the covenants God made with them. They viewed life with God through the lens of ritual purity and holiness (Lev. 17:10–11; 20:7–8; 22:31–32), worship, and obedience to the Torah (Deut. 5:33; 8:1; 11:8–9).

If we were to ask a priest how he knew about God and the life of faith, his reply would be simple: Torah or the Law of Moses (Gen. to Deut.). A priest would never say, “The Lord has told me or shown me” (unless the priest was also prophet; see below). Instead, a priest would point to the Torah and say, “This is what the Torah says or teaches.” So it is no surprise that the biblical texts most associated with the priests are the five books of Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Finally, what persons or groups today are most similar to Israel’s priests in their perspective (lens of faith), concerns, and practices? For example, pastors or preachers are similar to the priests in how they look to Scripture for God’s word and in their concern for worship.

The Three Orthodoxies in Israel

	Priests	Prophets	Sages
Who is or may become a member of the group?
What are their primary concerns?
What is the source of their information?
What biblical books are associated with this group?
What groups or individuals today are most similar to this group?

The Prophets

The second group mentioned by Jeremiah’s opponents are the prophets. Unlike the priests, the role of a prophet was not restricted by heritage, sex, or age. God called prophets from every family group or tribe of Israel; most appear to be male but not all (e.g., Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah). And as for age, Jeremiah complains that he is too young, just a boy, when God summons him to work (Jer. 1:4–8), and he continues his work well past the time others have been taken into Babylonian captivity (Jer. 39–45), a ministry of at least forty-one years.

God called prophets for a different purpose than priests, and they viewed life with God through a different lens. They may be compared to attorneys for the prosecution, on behalf of God, making the case against God’s people for breaking the covenant and its fundamental concerns, especially the two greatest commandments: the first—place no other gods above or ahead of the Lord, and the second—love others, especially the vulnerable widows, orphans, and immigrants. The book of Isaiah, for example, begins with Isaiah accusing the nation of rebelling against their God (Isa. 1:2–4), calling the heavens and earth as witnesses and jury and spelling out the indictment: the Israelites have broken covenant while believing that as long as they brought the right sacrifices and went through the motions of worship, nothing else mattered (1:11–15). Isaiah emphasizes basic covenant ideas:

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow. (Isa. 1:16d–17)

Elsewhere, other prophets emphasize similar themes:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God? (Mic. 6:8)

But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hos. 6:6)

Like the priests, the prophets spoke freely of God’s history with his people. They appealed to the Lord’s actions in history to motivate the people to be faithful to the Lord: what the Lord had done in the past, the Lord would do again in the future. Unlike the priests, however, the prophets did not derive their message from study of the Torah. Instead, they claimed to receive messages directly from God through visions, dreams, or the voice of God himself. As a result, prophets often began their speeches with claims such as, “This is what the Lord says” or “Thus says the Lord.”

The books associated with the prophets bear the name of a prophet from whom the book is derived or connected to in some way, for example Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Amos. The question, who is most like a prophet today? leads to additional, clarifying questions. Must a person see visions or hear the voice of God speaking directly to them in order to be a prophet? Or is a prophet today anyone who adopts the primary concerns of the prophets? If so, modern examples would include any person or group who intervenes and seeks justice for those on the fringes of society: the poor, the oppressed, or immigrants desperate for life, or others who take up different themes from the prophetic literature of the Bible.

The Sages

Finally, standing alongside the priests and prophets are the sages or wise women and men. The contrast between the sages and the prophets and priests is bold. Prophets and priests often spoke about Israel, God’s chosen people, the covenants, and the history of God’s relationship to Israel. Priests also spoke about holiness, purity, and worship, while prophets also spoke about love for God, the rights of th...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword, by Tremper Longman III
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• To Readers, Group Leaders, and Teachers
• Abbreviations
• Part One: The Sages, Their Book, and Wisdom
• Part Two: Major Concepts in Wisdom
• Part Three: Applied Topics for a Life That Is Good
• Part Four: Relationships in a Life That Is Good
• Bibliography
• Index of Subjects
• Index of Hebrew Words
• Index of Scripture