Reading through today’s passage, we see a number of themes weaving through the proverbs compiled here. You will recognize some themes we have seen in earlier chapters, along with some that are new twists on what Solomon has previously taught. Using the principles we have examined in the last few days, you should be able to pick out subjects, evaluate the parallelism, and find groupings with common ideas. I hope you are beginning to see Proverbs not as a haphazard collection of unrelated verses that are hard to digest but as a collection of wisdom from the wisest man who ever lived, arranged to make you think as you apply what you know to what is written.
While this kind of collection of sayings is not something we commonly see in modern English literature, there is an advantage to writing proverbs this way. If this were a modern book, we’d probably just bunch together all the proverbs that we thought went together, then move on to the next subject. By writing the book of Proverbs this way, Solomon (or perhaps a later collector who gathered Solomon’s sayings) requires the readers to think through each one on its own, as well as looking for connections with other proverbs in the collection. This not only gets the reader thinking about the meaning and impact of each proverb but allows for the reader to find more than one link between any given proverb and others in the book.
One example of this can be found in our first verse today, Proverbs 19:1: “Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.” If you recall some of the themes we have encountered in previous chapters, we find several of them expressed here. We see a discussion of the condition of the poor, the desirability of integrity, the moral failure of those who speech is crooked, and the plight of the fool. In some verses we have read these concepts are all dealt with distinctly, but here we find them combined in a different way and with alternative emphases.
Usually we have seen “poor” contrasted with “rich,” sometimes negatively and sometimes positively. Here, however, the form of the parallel contrasts “poor” with “crooked.” The poor here is not the one who suffers due to laziness or misfortune (which other proverbs in today’s reading deal with), but the one who struggles due to honesty. What matters is living life in accordance with what is right and just, even if material success does not follow. Likewise, we see a contrast between “integrity” and being a “fool.” In much of Proverbs, the antithesis of “wise” and “foolish” is the main point brought home by a proverb. Here we see that “integrity” is also placed in opposition to “foolishness,” which draws a connection between wisdom and integrity. The wise person will demonstrate integrity in his or her life, while a lack of integrity shows a person to be a fool.
This is just one illustration of how a knowledge of all the elements of Hebrews poetry and ancient wisdom literature work together to help us draw out meaning in a proverb. As you look over today’s chapters, see where you can find more that discuss these subjects we see in 19:1. You may see similar ideas, perhaps some that go further than this verse with this teaching, and maybe even some that teach an entirely different aspect of each of these areas. As you do this, allow the Holy Spirit to use this ancient wisdom to teach you what you need so that your life will follow the Lord’s will, glorify Christ, and touch the lives of others with truth and integrity.
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