Chapter 3

In this chapter we have what David taught Solomon. In chapter four we have what Solomon taught his son, Rehoboam. So we have three generations of Bible teaching, principles of doctrine—father to son, son to son—in this section. Behind this passage is the principle of Deuteronomy 6:6-9, the principle of parents communicating doctrine to their children. Parents have the responsibility of teaching their children many things. For example, respect for authority, respect for the property of others, respect for the privacy of others, respect for principles of law, and so on. Parents have a tremendous responsibility to their children because how they train their children determines what the next generation will do in any national entity. There is one passage in Proverbs which indicates that within four generations that you can completely destroy a nation from within. This passage in chapter three is the principle of the father teaching the son so that the son is prepared for life.

The key to this chapter is in verses 1, 11, 21, the words “my son.” Solomon actually took notes from what his father said. Then in the next chapter, to show what he learned from his father, he passed it on to his son Rehoboam who totally rejected Bible doctrine with the result that the kingdom was destroyed through the folly of Rehoboam.

In verses 1-10 we have the wages of doctrine.

Verse 1 – here is the parent’s advice. “My son” is David speaking to Solomon. Solomon is the recorder is the collector of the Proverbs found in this passage.

“forget not” means that in order for doctrine to be usable it must be remembered. You cannot use doctrine which is found in the Bible by just simply grabbing it off the page in time of disaster. Many believers do something that is really blasphemous. As soon as they get into trouble, as soon as they have a problem, they immediately go into the scripture to try to find something they need. Then, if they can’t find it, they try to get hold of someone who can help them. But God’s plan calls for every believer to learn Bible doctrine and to apply it to his own experience. Every believer should be spiritually self-sustaining, this is the concept of phase two and the divine plan; “my law” refers to Bible doctrine.

“but”—conjunction of contrast; “let thine heart keep my commandments” – the heart refers to the thinking part of the mind. The heart never refers to emotion in the scripture. Generally speaking the heart is used for the thinking part of the soul. David is very anxious that his son learned doctrine because he failed with Absolom, his favourite son. The word for “keep” means to guard. It means not only to have them ready for applications but when the time comes to actually apply them. The word for “commandments” is the Hebrew word for a precept or a category. In other words, if you are going to apply doctrine to experience you must absorb doctrine categorically. It is only by knowing categories which puts the framework and organization into doctrine that it becomes applicable to experience.

Verse 2 – David gives his son the results. If he will learn, use and apply doctrine, then here is the result.

“length of days” – a long life in operation phase two, the Christian way of life. The principle is that he will be in the plan of God. He is saying that he will have a long life in the sense of a long phase two—long, productive, useful and wonderful.

“long life” means a full life, not long in the sense of length of days. It means an abundant life, a full life, a life which is characterised by a maximum amount of time under inner happiness. Bible doctrine produces inner happiness.

“peace” refers to the inner happiness producing stability of mentality. It is the same concept as in Isaiah 26:3—“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.”

So here are the results, then, for any teenager who will listen to Bible doctrine. This teenager is going to have a very wonderful life as an adult.

“shall they add to thee” – the word they refers to the principles of doctrine. All of these things will be added because of Bible doctrine. In other words, a believer cannot learn Bible doctrine without having marvellous results in the life.

Verse 3 – the importance of knowing doctrine.

“mercy” refers to grace in action; “truth” refers to Bible doctrine. When a believer has Bible doctrine in the soul his character is so changed and so revitalised from the inside out that he has a dynamic life before the Lord. Mercy means that he will operate on the basis of grace. He is saved by grace; he will live by grace.

“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck” – this is not the concept of ornamentation. This is not a necklace, it is carrying a signet ring. In the ancient world they had a way of writing cheques. If you had a balance somewhere in some temple or bank of the ancient world they had a signet ring with which they could write a cheque simply by getting some wax and using your signet ring. Most people carried their signet ring with which they signed their cheques around their necks. That is the concept here. Doctrine is the signet ring with which we cash cheques on God’s account. We draw on Him. So the material things of life are details which we may possess and we may lose but we never lose the source, which is God Himself. We have the signet ring around our neck. The only way the believer can have a signet ring is to have doctrine in the soul.

“write them” is literally engrave them; in the heart, the thinking part of the mind. This, again, means getting doctrine in your soul so that you do not forget it. Remember that you life really is what you think. Proverbs 23:7—“As a man thinketh, so he is.”

Verse 4 – doctrine provides blessing in relationships. Your relationships in this life do not depend upon your personality, your physical attractiveness, your possession of status symbols. You dynamics, your relationship with others, is going to depend entirely on what goes on in your mind.

“So shalt thou find favour [lit. grace] and good understanding in the sight of God and man.” The word so introduces a result clause. This is the result of knowing Bible doctrine. The words thou shalt find is the Hebrew word matsah which really means to arrive at a destination. You arrive at a destination which is called here, favour. The Hebrew word is grace. So you arrive at the perfect destination—operation grace. You are oriented to God’s grace and you live by the grace to which you are oriented, and therefore you live with a very relaxed mental attitude, you have a wonderful relationship with God as well as with man.

“and good understanding” – which means good intelligence, good perception.

Verse 5 – doctrine is also the basis for divine guidance. You cannot be guided by God unless you know Bible doctrine.

“Trust” – notice that in order to be guided by God you must have what is found in the previous four verses, Bible doctrine in the soul. Then you must add to it your faith-rest technique. The Hebrew word for trust here is batach, a wrestler’s term referring to a body slam. So you take your troubles, your problems, and drop it in the Lord’s hands.

“with all thine heart” – this means all the doctrine you have in your soul. You have to keep thinking doctrine. If you keep thinking doctrine you will think your way right through the problem.

“lean not” – do not depend upon; “thine own understanding” – trying to solve the problem, and worry, fear, anxiety. You must put it in the Lord’s hands. The Christian way of life was never designed for man to solve man’s problems.

Verse 6 – “In all thy ways acknowledge.” The word acknowledge is not acknowledge at all. It should be: In all thy ways know him. The Hebrew word is jadah, and it means to know. The secret to the Christian life and the greatest virtue in the Christian life is knowing doctrine. All thy ways means all kinds of situations. So this is a command to know God in all of the circumstances of life. Apart from Bible doctrine it is absolutely impossible to know God in all of your activities of life. In essence this phrase commands occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. This is a technique whereby you know Him and therefore He comes into focus and your life is occupied with Him. If you do not have doctrine in the soul and you are not occupied with Christ then the details of life become important—e.g. money, success, loved ones, pleasure, sex, health, etc. You can enjoy the details of life if you have doctrine, but if you are minus doctrine these things may be stimulating for a moment but they will bring nothing but misery. But of doctrine is first then if you have money you can enjoy it. Minus money you still have doctrine and inner happiness. Success, loved ones, etc., same principle.

When doctrine is paramount in your life, “he shall direct thy paths.” It doesn’t mean to show you the way to go, it actually means that He will level the situation in front of you. In other words, here is a mountain—pressure or suffering, etc. It is a problem for you and you are moving in the direction of that. With doctrine in the soul He just wipes this out and by the time you get there it is a plain. You just put the mountain, the barrier, in His hands and He removes the barrier. You just keep on running. The pressure may still exist but it is no longer your problem.

Verses 7, 8—protection from mental attitude sins.

Verse 7 – “Be not wise in thine own eyes” is simply a way of describing pride. Along with pride this brings up the whole string of mental attitude sins. The greatest enemy in the area of sinfulness is in the mental attitude sins.

“but fear” – the word for fear here is awe, a synonym for occupation with Christ; “and depart from the evil” – the old sin nature. By use of doctrine and the spirit-controlled life one is able to overcome the evil dwelling in you—the old sin nature.

Verse 8 – “health to thy navel” is an idiom for physical health in the body; “marrow to thy bones” is actual strength. The absence of mental attitude sins protects the human body as well. The principle of psychosomatics.

Verses 9, 10 – doctrine motivates for giving. Giving is for the believer only. “Honour the Lord with thy substance.” Notice is doesn’t say tithes. Substance means money, materialistic things. But it doesn’t say tithes because tithing is not giving for the believer; it is taxation. Tithing is a part of Codex #3 of the Mosaic law.

“and with the firstfruits of thine increase” – increase is the key word here because the only reason any believer ever increases so he prospers is because of God. The Lord is the one who provides the increase.

“so shall they barns be filled with plenty [material prosperity], and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Two idioms for business prosperity. And God is behind it.

In verses 11-20 we have the blessings of grace.

Verse 11 – the first blessing from grace is discipline. God treats us in grace even when He spanks us.

“despise not the chastening of the Lord” – no matter how hard the Lord spanks you, you should never despise it. The very fact that you are alive and hurting indicates His grace. If we received from Him what we deserve we would be dead and not hurting.

“neither be weary of his correction” – don’t ever be discourage when you get out of line and you get spanked. You are still here and God has a purpose for your life.

Verse 12 – “For whom the Lord loveth.” He loves us and even when He spanks us it is what He is that counts. Because He loves us it hurts; it corrects us; it results in blessing; “even as a father the son in whom he delights.”

Verse 13 – inner happiness comes from grace. “Happy” – ashere, plural. It means happinesses. There are two kinds of happiness, inner happiness and overt happiness. This happiness belongs to “the man that findeth wisdom,” i.e. the man who learns doctrine; “the man that getteth understanding” – learning Bible doctrine. Wisdom is the application of doctrine to experience.

Verse 14 – “For the merchandise of it.” The word merchandise refers to the acquisition of doctrine; “is better than the acquisition of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” In other words, if you would be zealous in seeking gold you should be much more zealous in seeking doctrine. The gain is much more valuable. Believers should seek to gain doctrine the way most people seek to gain money.

In verses 15-18—doctrine is actually from grace.

Verse 15 – “She [doctrine] is more precious than rubies.”

“all the things that thou canst desire” are the details of life. These are the things that you desire. They are normal desires in life but if you put doctrine first you can enjoy these things, and if they are wiped out you still have doctrine. If you have doctrine you have inner happiness regardless of the details of life.

“are not to be compared with her” – you cannot name anything in life that is more important than doctrine. If you have doctrine you have everything. This is the message that David is impressing on his son Solomon.

Verse 16 – “Length of days is in her right hand.” Length of days, again, is the concept of a full life as well as a long life.

“in her left hand riches and honour” – you always get the right hand, and sometimes you get the left hand too.

Verse 17 – “Her [doctrine] ways are the ways pleasantness, and all her paths are mental stability.”

Verse 18 – “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her; and happy [receiving happiness] is every one that retains her.” In other words, you receive happiness when you hang on to her, latch on to her, hold on to her. The latter part of this verse actually says, “receiving inner happiness is the one who hangs on to doctrine.”

In verses 19 & 20 – the plan of God from grace.

Verse 19 – “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding he hath established the heavens.” Wisdom is doctrine; wisdom is what Jesus Christ thinks. He thought and the worlds came into existence—Colossians 1:16,17. He established them by understanding, by the operation of His mind.

Verse 20 – “By his knowledge” refers to the omniscience of Jesus Christ; “the waters are divided” – prosperity under an agricultural economy. Rain and water is necessary for prosperity under the system which existed at the time of writing. The source of this prosperity is the thinking of God. This same thinking is the source of doctrine. If we have doctrine we may or not have prosperity but we have the source—omniscience, doctrine. Everything depends on who and what God is.

Verses 21-35 – the impact of Bible doctrine. In verses 21, 22 – the importance of application of doctrine.

Verse 21 – “My son,” the vocative again. David is teaching Solomon. Solomon did not write all of the proverbs, he probably wrote about one third of them. The rest of them were proverbs which David taught to him when he was a teenager.

“let not them” – them refers to the principles of Bible doctrine; “depart from thine eyes” – perception and application.

“keep sound wisdom and discretion” – discretion is simply the word for thoughts, organised to that they can be utilised. In other words, doctrine presented categorically.

Verse 22 – “So shall they be life unto thy soul.” Here again is the principle of life unto the soul. In other words, three times we find the word life in the passage. Your life is Bible doctrine. The only way a believer can know Jesus Christ is to know doctrine. Doctrine is His mind, His thinking. Doctrine explains His character, His essence—1 Corinthians 2:16. The real life of the soul is Bible doctrine.

“and grace to thy neck” – literally, around your neck. When a believer is oriented to grace it is because he knows Bible doctrine, because doctrine is paramount, doctrine is first in his life, and everything else is a detail. Since everything else is a detail he wears grace like a beautiful necklace. This is the thing that attracts—the impact of grace in the life of the believer.

Verses 23-26, doctrine produces confidence. It is considered almost horrible today if a believer has confidence. A believer who has confidence and is in the Lord’s will and then someone says, “Well how do you know you can do the Lord’s will? How do you know that this is what the passage means?” etc. These are pitiful people because they never have any confidence, and because they do not have any confidence they assume that no one else can have confidence, and when they see confidence they resent it. And since they are filled up with mental attitude sins anyway this is just one more mental attitude sin. They are antagonistic toward confidence, toward dogmatism, and they say, “Oh, this person is proud.” But they don’t know the difference between pride and confidence. The Word of God, Bible doctrine, provides confidence. And this is grace around the neck.

Verse 23 – “Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely [with confidence]” – the word safely in the Hebrew means with confidence. This is the confidence from knowing Bible doctrine. The walk is simply step-by-step through life. There is a sense in which the pressures of life would put us off-balance but Bible doctrine is the stabiliser. The way is phase two, the Christian way of life.

“and thy foot shall not stumble” – the stumbling here means that doctrine protects the believer from all sorts of stumbling, e.g. the three categories of sin, the false criteria of life. Stumbling means your foot has made contact with something that throws you off-balance. The balance concept is the principle of Bible doctrine meeting every difficulty, every circumstance of life.

Verse 24 – “When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid.” David said this because when he was fleeing from Absolom, the lowest moment in his life. Cf. Ps. 4:8 and 3:5. This was a great demonstration of the faith-rest technique. When you have Bible doctrine, no matter how great the disaster may be you can lie down right where you are and go to sleep.

“and they sleep shall be sweet” – relaxed, wonderful sleep. It was a catastrophe night and yet David has wonderful sound sleep.

Verse 25 – “Be not afraid of sudden fear” -- disaster or catastrophe. The only way to avoid fear in disaster is to have Bible doctrine.

“neither of the desolation of the wicked” – the word desolation on the Hebrew means the plots of the wicked; “when it comes.” When they do plot against you, don’t be afraid of it. The believer is in the plan of God and there is always plotting against the believer. All hell is organised against the believer and yet all hell cannot prevail because God’s plan is greater than any plan that has ever been concocted by a fallen angel or by a member of the human race.

Verse 26 – “For the Lord shall be thy confidence.” The word Lord here refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Tetragrammaton—Jehovah. Bible doctrine becomes the confidence of the believer—when he learns it. Bible doctrine on the page of the Bible is not your confidence. It is there but it isn’t your confidence until you learn it and apply it.

“and shall keep thy foot from being trapped” – this is the way that you keep on walking. You do not get your foot down a hole.

Verses 27-31, the relationships of doctrine. Doctrine is the basis of confidence; doctrine is the basis of all true and wonderful relationships.

Verse 27 – “Withhold not good.” This is a reference to divine good.

“from them to whom it is due” – this is about a believer in a relationship with another believer. The word due means to owe. As we know from Romans we are to owe no man anything except love. So here is the principle of loving one another. This is a believer’s attitude toward another believer.

“when it is in the power of thine hand to do it” – in other words, if you have the right mental attitude when you can help that believer—grace.

Verse 28 – mental torture. Come back tomorrow when you could help them right there. You dangle them, a vicious type of mental attitude torture.

“Say not unto they neighbour, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.” In other words, you have it right then and there but you refuse to give it. You can help a person and you put him off. That’s torture. You put him to shame by making him come back to beg, by humiliating him. Bible doctrine doesn’t do this.

Verse 29 – the principle of respecting the privacy of others. “Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.” The word devise means to fabricate. Do not fabricate in some way a system of lies—gossip, or something whereby you downgrade your neighbour. This is the beginning of the principle of privacy. Two ways: do not gossip, and keep your nose out of their affairs.

Verse 30 – Avoid minding his business and avoid bullying him. Doctrine eliminates all of these terrible things that destroy the relationship of a believer with a believer.

Verse 31 – “Envy thou not the oppressor.” Behind all of the relationships is mental attitude, so we come to a mental attitude—envy not. This is in the piel stem, the stem of intensity. Mental attitudes bring intensity, the antithesis of being relaxed. Relaxation is a mental attitude; it is love produced by the Spirit; it is inner happiness produced by Bible doctrine. The oppressor is the person in the previous verse who is a bully or the person in the verse before that who doesn’t mind his own business.

“and choose none of his ways” – do not retaliate as he does.

Verse 32 – “For the froward is an abomination to the Lord.” The word froward means the perverted one, actually the person who does not have doctrine. His scale of values includes the things on the periphery: the details of life. Doctrine is not important to him.

“but his secret is with the righteous” – his secret is Bible doctrine, and Bible doctrine is unknown to the perverted. He may be a believer and may have been saved for fifty years and still not know any doctrine.

Verse 33 – “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.” The wicked and the just simply refer to the carnal believer as over against the spiritual believer. The just is the one who has Bible doctrine; the wicked is the one who is minus doctrine. This is the story of David and Absolom.

Verse 34 – “Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.” This is the same principle. Before we had the wicked and the just. David is plus doctrine and therefore he is the just, he is the lowly. Absolom is minus doctrine and therefore he is the wicked and also the scorner. The word scorner is the qal active participle which denotes linear aktionsart. It is the Hebrew word lutz which means someone who is indifferent to something that is important. The scorner is habitually indifferent to doctrine. It says here that God scorns the scorner, and God’s scorn is in the hiphil stem—causative active voice. God is caused to reject or discipline the scorner, the believer who rejects doctrine. He is caused by minus doctrine. The constant rejection of doctrine on the part of Absolom caused God finally to remove him. There is the scorning of the scorner!

“but he giveth grace to the lowly” – David failed many times, but David simply transferred the Word of God into his soul. Therefore he was lowly. Doctrine gave him the perspective. Lowly is a mental attitude, it simply means to have a mind loaded up with doctrine.

Verse 35 – “The wise shall inherit glory.” The wise is the believer who learns doctrine and applies it to experience. Glory is simply divine good and the reward that comes from it.

“but shame shall be the promotion of fools” – David walked from the Absolom revolt with glory; God’s glory. Absolom was carried away by shame.