Proverbs 3 5,6

A Threat Greater Than a Nuclear Bomb

“Adolescents determine dancing trends, motion-picture themes, radio formats, and even advertisements and most fields of entertainment!”

Yes, indeed. Teenagers pretty much dominate Western culture.

Mr. Armstrong continued, “What many do not realize is that this teenage influence on the whole society is predominantly sexual influence . There is much more intense preoccupation with sex during these years than in later maturity.

“Therefore sex became the basic formula for motion pictures—along with crime, including murder.”

Here again, this was written in 1964!

By today’s standards, of course, television, movies and music from the early ’60s certainly seem harmless. But that is exactly the point— at today’s “standards”!

Cultural Disease

With about 75 million in America, children 18 and under make up almost 25 percent of our population. In a godly society, we would be applauding and encouraged by that statistic. God has always intended for children to be a blessing to their parents—like “olive plants” around the table (Psalm 128:3)—and to society (Proverbs 20:29; 1 Timothy 4:12).

In these latter days, however, prophecy points to our youth as being a on society. Instead of helping to build it up, our own offspring are tearing it down. Isaiah 3:12 describes our children as being “oppressors”—a word that means to tax, harass and tyrannize .

This prophecy in Isaiah 3 is being fulfilled in two ways, primarily. One is in the more literal sense of youth oppressing society by their rebellious disregard for adult authority (verse 5).

The other fulfillment of this prophecy is even deadlier. It’s described in verse 4: “And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them . ” God isn’t talking about children with respect to age necessarily, but rather the way adults are ruling: ! Read the first three verses of Isaiah 3 and you will see all the qualities of leadership that have vanished from our society: vision, prudence, judgment, wisdom, honor and eloquence. God said these kinds of qualities would be practically extinct today. And it’s because, in far too many cases, our leaders—whether in the home, within education, or business, or in government—have degenerated to a child’s level of understanding. Instead of preparing our children for the responsibilities of adulthood, we, as adults, are acting like children.

Brittle Crazy Glass: Proverbs 3:6

"To know" in this book means personal knowledge, intimate experience with a person's reality (see p. 77; 1:2; 2:5-6). The noted connections between the spiritual consequences in Lecture 2 and the spiritual admonitions in ch. 3 infer that "know" in 3:6a has the same sense as in 2:5b. Personal knowledge of God ensues from risking oneself to obey the specific teachings that pertain to all sorts of human behavior in full reliance on God to keep his promises coupled with them (see 2:1). Jeremiah equates knowing the Lord with having the It is difficult, however, to get the mind around the notion of knowing God in connection with all of one's ways. But when the psalmist says: "The Lord knows the ways of the righteous" (Ps 1:6), he means, "The Lord is aware of sympathetically (i.e., not existentially, not merely noetically)" > "enters into their way" (and protects it) > "watches over" (NIV). Independently, Fox glossed the expression by "hold him in mind" and commented that it denotes "awareness of what [the Lord] wants as well as a desire to do it." Unfortunately, in this rare instance, he based himself "on the rabbis, not on philology." Moreover, as in Ps. 1:6 it may also connote "desire his protective presence." The significance of the imperative mood is ambiguous because in this poem volitional forms are used for both pure admonitions and forceful promises (cf. "find," v. 4; "let it be," v. 8). The pattern of placing the divine promises in the even verses favors taking the verb as a promises (i.e., by trusting God entirely and exclusively you will know him). However, the consequence in verset B, "and he will make your path straight," implies that the admonition in verset B functions as its condition vis-a-vis "know him personally, "right, honest, upright conduct that does not go astray or out of bounds," 2:13; 9:15) or "smoothness" (i.e. "the success of an undertaking or action"; cf. 3:23; 4:12; Isa 40:3). The structure of 3:1-2 shows that at least the "smooth" is meant here. Since, however, to know the Lord one must abstain from evil for there is no evil in him, that relationship also makes one walk "straight.

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The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 15-31

Disciplines of a Godly Man

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