The Beginning of Wisdom (Proverbs Vol. 1)

Proverbs is a favourite book of the Old Testament for many Christians. It's so full of practical advice on how to live wisely and well in God's world. But is Proverbs more than just a large collection of pithy sayings? What is the overall message of the book of Proverbs? And how does understanding Proverbs as a whole help us understand and apply each of the individual sayings?

In this first of two volumes of studies, Joshua Ng answers these questions by giving us an overview of the book of Proverbs, especially in the light of its first nine chapters. In the process, we learn much about the wise and foolish life, about what it means to 'fear' God, and about how the teaching of Proverbs relates to Jesus and the teaching of the whole Bible. Ideal for small groups or individuals.

Download a free sample from our online store.

Table of contents:

1. The purpose of Proverbs
2. Madam Folly and Lady Wisdom
3. Wisdom from the world?
4. The fear of the LORD
5. Does Proverbs promise too much?
6. Wisdom beyond Proverbs
7. How to get wisdom

How to make the most of these studies

1. What is an Interactive Bible Study?

Interactive Bible Studies are a bit like a guided tour of a famous city. They take you through a particular part of the Bible, helping you to know where to start, pointing out things along the way, suggesting avenues for further exploration, and making sure that you know how to get home. Like any good tour, the real purpose is to allow you to go exploring for yourself—to dive in, have a good look around, and discover for yourself the riches that God’s word has in store.

In other words, these studies aim to provide stimulation and input and point you in the right direction, while leaving you to do plenty of the exploration and discovery yourself.

We hope that these studies will stimulate lots of ‘interaction’— interaction with the Bible, with the things we’ve written, with your own current thoughts and attitudes, with other people as you discuss them, and with God as you talk to him about it all.

2. The format

The studies contain five main components:

• sections of text that introduce, inform, summarize and challenge
• numbered questions that help you examine the passage and think through its meaning
• sidebars that provide extra bits of background or optional extra study ideas, especially regarding other relevant parts of the Bible (usually there will be some coloured text like this to indicate that there is a related sidebar)
• ‘Implications’ sections that help you think about what this passage means for you and your life today
• suggestions for thanksgiving and prayer as you close.

3. How to use these studies on your own

• Before you begin, pray that God would open your eyes to what he is saying in the Bible, and give you the spiritual strength to do something about it.
• Work through the study, reading the text, answering the questions about the Bible passage, and exploring the sidebars as you have time.
• Resist the temptation to skip over the ‘Implications’ and ‘Give thanks and pray’ sections at the end. It is important that we not only hear and understand God’s word, but respond to it. These closing sections help us do that.
• Take what opportunities you can to talk to others about what you’ve learnt.

4. How to use these studies in a small group

• Much of the above applies to group study as well. The studies are suitable for structured Bible study or cell groups, as well as for more informal pairs and triplets. Get together with a friend or friends and work through them at your own pace; use them as the basis for regular Bible study with your spouse. You don’t need the formal structure of a ‘group’ to gain maximum benefit.
• For small groups, it is very useful if group members can work through the study themselves before the group meets. The group discussion can take place comfortably in an hour (depending on how sidetracked you get!) if all the members have done some work in advance.

• The role of the group leader is to direct the course of the discussion and to try to draw the threads together at the end. This will mean a little extra preparation—underlining the sections of text to emphasize and read out loud, working out which questions are worth concentrating on, and being sure of the main thrust of the study. Leaders will also probably want to work out approximately how long they’d like to spend on each part.
• If your group members usually don’t work through the study in advance, it’s extra important that the leader prepares which parts to concentrate on, and which parts to glide past more quickly. In particular, the leader will need to select which of the ‘Implications’ to focus on.

• We haven’t included an ‘answer guide’ to the questions in the studies. This is a deliberate move. We want to give you a guided tour of the Bible, not a lecture. There is more than enough in the text we have written and the questions we have asked to point you in what we think is the right direction. The rest is up to you.

5. Bible translation

Previous studies in our Interactive Bible Study series have assumed that most readers would be using the New International Version of the Bible. However, since the release of the English Standard Version in 2001, many have switched to the ESV for study purposes. For this reason, we have decided to quote from and refer to the ESV text, which we recommend.