In our culture / world today people are struggling to find wisdom in everything they do. They want to be wise about their financial choices, they want to be wise in their selection of a life partner, they want to be wise in their choice of a profession, etc. etc. etc.
So, how do we find wisdom? Well Ray Ortlund reminds us that the book of Proverbs in the Bible gives us a great recipe for wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 tells us, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and instruction." on Page 54 of the book Ray gives us a comment that his father wrote to him when he gave him his first Bible, the comment was, "Bud, nothing could be greater than to have a son--a son who loves the Lord and walks with him. Your mother and I have found this Book (The Bible) our dearest treasure. We give it to you and doing so can give you nothing greater. Be a student of the Bible and your life will be full of blessing. We love you. Dad"
That's a great quote and is exactly how the book of Proverbs talks to each of us. The book of Proverbs are the wise sayings of a father and mother, of a King and scholar, of a wise old mentor and a young learner. There is nothing in the book of Proverbs that won't touch deeply into your life and draw your attention to how to grow in wisdom, stature, and grace in this world.
Something else that Ortlund does in this text is to draw our attention to how Christ can be found in so many of the sayings of the book of Proverbs. You ask how that can be? It's easy, he draws many of the teachings of Jesus in to his discourse to show how they reflect the teachings of Proverbs and thus give us wisdom for living our lives. Christ lived by the wisdom of Proverbs and teaches us that it will be well with our souls if we do the same.
So, who will profit from reading this book? Everyone! Pastors, teachers, students, Christians, non-Christians. Yeah, that's right I think that people who don't yet believe the Bible as the word of God will find much in this text to help them understand the Wisdom Literature of the Bible and they will be able to see how it is very profitable for their lives to heed the advice that is given in this text.
The book is laid out with a great introduction of the first nine chapters of Proverbs. Then it goes on to take a selection of topics and draws many of the verses from the second half of Proverbs together to discuss wisdom in regards to topics such as, our speech, humility, family, emotions, friendship, money and life and death.
The book of Proverbs is a practical 'how to' book for everyone and Ortlund's new devotional commentary is a great tool in helping us to understand Proverbs in a very clear way.
Enjoy!
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