Grace Fellowship 09/14/08 “What Did He Say?“ Proverbs 22:17-29
Last week we looked at the first half of Proverbs chapter 22 and we talked about the touchy subject of raising our children as God would have us do. The reason that is a touchy subject is because if we bring up our children in keeping with biblical standards, and if we indoctrinate our children according to the truths of Scripture, we will be perceived by the culture around us as being ”fanatics’, or even worse, “puritanical”. A more grave insult you will not hear.
Therefore, having identified ourselves with those spiritual giants from our past, the Puritans, and with all the other saints who take God’s word seriously, we move on to the next section which begins in Proverbs 22:17. Let’s read the remaining portion of that chapter.
Sayings of the Wise
17 Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
And apply your heart to my knowledge;
18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you;
Let them all be fixed upon your lips,
19 So that your trust may be in the LORD;
I have instructed you today, even you.
20 Have I not written to you excellent things
Of counsels and knowledge,
21 That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth,
That you may answer words of truth
To those who send to you?
22 Do not rob the poor because he is poor,
Nor oppress the afflicted at the gate;
23 For the LORD will plead their cause,
And plunder the soul of those who plunder them.
24 Make no friendship with an angry man,
And with a furious man do not go,
25 Lest you learn his ways
And set a snare for your soul.
26 Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge,
One of those who is surety for debts;
27 If you have nothing with which to pay,
Why should he take away your bed from under you?
28 Do not remove the ancient landmark
Which your fathers have set.
29 Do you see a man who excels in his work?
He will stand before kings;
He will not stand before unknown men. (Proverbs 22:17-29, NKJV).
There’s not much here that doesn’t sound similar to things we’ve already read and heard in our study of Proverbs thus far, except for the introductory words of verses 17-21. Those verses introduce the next section of the book. But there is a great deal of uncertainty about verse 20 in particular. In the English Standard Version, and in other translations, verse 20 reads, “Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge … . . ” That is quite different from what we read in the New King James Version: “Have I not written to you excellent things, Of counsels and knowledge…“
What makes this particularly problematic is the existence of an Egyptian document during the same time period as the Book of Proverbs entitled The Instruction of Amenemope. In the last chapter of that book is this phrase: “Look to these thirty chapters.” That one blurb has caused a lot of Bible scholars a lot of heartache. Some wonder if this section of Proverbs was taken from, or was seriously influenced by that Egyptian text. And if we were to dwell on these questions and details, we could wind up missing the entire forest of Proverbs 22 for the sake of a couple of trees. We don’t want to miss the whole point of Proverbs in an attempt to try to decipher the undecipherable.
There are things that we know about this troublesome passage, along with every other passage of Scripture that contains interpretive difficulties. We know that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16a, NKJV). Every word of Scripture is the inerrant and infallible Word of God, even the difficult words and passages.
Let me give you an example of a difficult New Testament passage. Listen to four translations of 1 Corinthians 7:36.
King James - “But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin,…”
New American Standard - “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter,…”
New International - “If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to,…”
New English Bible - “If a man has a partner in celibacy and feels that he is not behaving properly towards her...” (Thanks to the book, Reading the Bible for All It's Worth)
All of this is for the purpose of illustrating how difficult the work of translating the Bible can be. When the apostle Paul wrote that phrase, we can be certain that the original hearers of that phrase understood what he meant because he was answering a question they had raised. But being 2000 years removed from that situation makes an accurate interpretation difficult. Was Paul talking about the relationship between a father and his daughter, between a man and his fiancee’, or did he mean something other than those two scenarios? No one is certain. We’re reduced to making a best guess based upon the information we have.
Here is another example of a difficult passage. In the New International Version, 1 Corinthians 13:3 reads, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” But in the margin of the NIV, there is another possible translation: “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body that I may boast, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
Why is there a problem deciding between “surrender my body to the flames” and “surrender my body that I may boast”? In English, the difference is pretty obvious. Those two phrases don’t look anything alike. However, in the original Greek, the difference between those two phrases is one letter, and there are numerous ancient manuscripts that contain both versions.
All of this presents a problem for us. We begin to wonder if we can actually trust our Bibles. Just how accurate is the Bible? The answer to that question is complicated, but the short answer is, it depends on which translation you are using. Some are much more accurate than others. The most reliable Bibles we have today are the New American Standard, the English Standard Version, and the New International Version. That being the case, I have given some thought to changing from the New King James to the English Standard Version as my main study and pulpit Bible.
It is because of the differences between ancient manuscripts, that we cannot say without reservation or explanation that this book which we hold in our hands is the inerrant and infallible word of God. What we can say is that the entire Bible, as it was written in its original form, was inerrant and infallible because it was God who wrote it by means of human agents. In other words, the original Scriptures were inspired, or God-breathed. The problem is we have no original manuscripts. No, not one.
What to do? The only thing left for us is to just get rid of our Bibles! Obviously they are not trustworthy! The skeptics and the critics are right! There are so many translations, and those translations have been handed down over so many years, and so many errors and contradictions have been introduced over the centuries that, if the truth were known, what we have in our hands as the Bible barely resembles the original texts! The original writers wouldn’t even recognize our Bibles as the product they wrote. So we should just toss all these translations and give up because we have no original texts upon which to base the Bible.
That is exactly the argument of Islam against the Bible. Many scholars within Islam and, if I am not mistaken, the average Muslim, believes the Bible is hopelessly unreliable. The reason for this thinking is because of its many authors. There are 66 books from 40 authors over a span of 3000 years. Logic leads one to the inevitable conclusion that it MUST have errors and contradictions. This is in contrast to the Koran which was written by one man. Well, not actually written by Mohammed because he was illiterate. But presumably he was heard by others who wrote his thoughts down infallibly. And presumably, that original text has been preserved since the 7th century without error.
There is a great deal of faith exercised in both camps in order to believe the things we do. Muslims are convinced of the authenticity of their primary document. Most Evangelical Christians are also convinced regarding theirs. But there is no ancient document anywhere, including the Koran, that has even a fraction of the amount of supportive evidence for its authenticity that the Scriptures have.
Critics point to the absence of the originals to discount the Bible, but biblical scholars like F. F. Bruce note, "there is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament." Slight variations among copies do not obscure the original, Bruce continues, "the wealth of attestation is such that the true reading is almost bound to be preserved by at least one of the thousands of witnesses." And although the copies of the Old Testament are fewer, their unique copying standards "give us ground for greater confidence than might be supposed," confirming "that no serious changes were introduced into the text of the Old Testament" through the centuries. 1
Why is all of this important? What difference does all of this make? Why am I concerned to discuss this with you? Because the Scriptures are always under attack.
- If the Bible can be proven to be grossly inaccurate, or
- if someone can find the body of Jesus, or
- if we can prove that Jesus and Mary Magdalene got married and had children, or
- if we can change the message of the Scriptures with the so-called hidden gospels from the Gnostics and Leonardo Da Vinci, or
- if we can just convince people that Christianity is a huge Roman Catholic conspiracy to control the world, or
- if renowned scientists and atheists just tell us often enough and loudly enough that there is no God,
THEN we can get rid of this troublesome Bible once and for all!
And that is the goal of Satan. That has been his tactic since he spoke his first words to Eve in the Garden. His aim is to cast doubt on what God has said. If he succeeds, if we are persuaded to have no assurance that God has spoken to us clearly, accurately, and in a way that can be understood (even if it is not all understood perfectly), then our faith becomes nothing more than superstition, and the foundation upon which we think we stand is sinking sand. If in this book we do not have the word of God, then we have no real foundation for anything we believe about God, creation, Christ, Satan, good, evil, or ourselves. Genuine, legitimate confidence in the Scriptures as God’s revelation of Himself to us is the cornerstone of our faith. Everything we believe begins with the Scriptures. If we lose that cornerstone, we lose it all.
We have many good reasons to be confident that this book is what we believe it is. Certainly not the only reason, but one of the most compelling reasons we have for believing the Bible is of divine origin is its effect upon those who read it, or hear it taught, and believe it. We read in the Scriptures that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” More specifically, by hearing the gospel message. People who hear the account of the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus are often changed by it. Not everyone is changed. Not even the majority. But many are affected, and millions have been affected by this ancient message over the centuries even to this day in ways that cannot be explained except in terms of the miraculous.
The Bible speaks of the new life that is given to those who believe these words. People who once hated God and His word, and His people, are transformed permanently simply by the power of the Gospel message, the word of God preached. People who have lived in utter bondage to all kinds of sinful behavior have been delivered from slavery and set free from the sins that once had dominion over them. People who once had no concern for the things of Christ become missionaries willing to go to the most remote places and the most primitive people on earth in loving obedience to His call upon their lives. Millions of people who were once stubborn rebels against God’s claim upon their lives now gladly call Him Lord and Master and Savior. And the gospel message reaches across all racial and cultural barriers, reconciling all kinds of people in every language and from every religious background, making them all brethren, all sons of the living God, all worshippers of the same Savior. That is compelling evidence that this book really is true, that it really is from God.
So we come back to Proverbs 22 and look again at verses 17-21:
17 Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
And apply your heart to my knowledge;
18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you;
Let them all be fixed upon your lips,
19 So that your trust may be in the LORD;
I have instructed you today, even you.
20 Have I not written to you excellent things
Of counsels and knowledge,
21 That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth,
That you may answer words of truth
To those who send to you?
These are the words of truth, every single one of them, as they were given to us by the Spirit of God through the apostles and prophets. You can be certain of it.
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1 http://www.answers.org/bible/reliable.html ; F. F. Bruce. The Books and the Parchments. Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1984 revised edition, pp. 112-113, 168-169.