The Hebrew sages who compiled Proverbs personified God as “Wisdom,” a motherly figure giving her son (and all people) wise advice about life (cf. Proverbs 1:20). The Proverbs were generalizations about life, not promises of specific individual outcomes (e.g. verses 8, 10). But their central message is valid across centuries and circumstances: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”
- Verse 3 said, “Don’t let loyalty and faithfulness leave you. Bind them on your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.” What do you see as the day-to-day, practical realities behind those poetic Hebrew words? How can you, today and every day, “bind” loyalty and faithfulness “on your neck,” and “write them on the tablet of your heart”?
- When verse 5 paired “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” with “don’t rely on your own intelligence,” do you believe that was teaching that we should lack confidence? Resurrection calls itself “a church for thinking people.” In what ways can a thinking, intelligent approach to life recognize the value of trusting God’s wisdom to be greater than our own?