Week Twenty-Nine Reading Assignment:
Proverbs 17 - Ecclesiastes 8

"Many people think that what's written in the Bible has mostly to do with getting people into heaven -- getting right with God, saving their eternal souls.  It does have to do with that, of course, but not mostly.  It is equally concerned with living on this earth -- living well, living in robust sanity.  In our Scriptures, heaven is not the primary concern, to which earth is a tag-along after-thought.  'On earth as it is in heaven' is Jesus' prayer."

(Eugene Peterson, The Message) 

This Week's Teaching Video:
Wisdom at the Fork in the Road
Part 1

THIS WEEK'S TEACHING VIDEO:
WISDOM AT THE FORK IN THE ROAD
PART 2

How Proverbs Is and Are Put Together 

​While we think of the Bible as a single book, it is actually a collection of dozens of books. And, likewise, it is a collection of many different genres. "Bible" is not a type of writing, after all. Rather, the Bible includes many types of writings -- letters, prayers, national hymns, dirges, sermons, and on and on.

A proverb is its own sort of genre. The resource below will help you to understand how the Book of Proverbs is organized, as well as offering the reader some appreciation for the genre that characterizes the book. 
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Character Profile: Temple Builder

We first read Solomon’s story in Kings, and then we find a retouched version of it in Chronicles.  And now, in the poetry books, we get another peek into this famous king of Israel.

Three of the five Old Testament poetry books (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon) are traditionally attributed to Solomon.  And while the authorship of each is not certain, and the date of each is hard to pin down, they seem to give us a glimpse of Solomon at three very different periods of his life.

The Song is a love poem, and it reflects the consuming passion of youthful love.

Proverbs, meanwhile, reads like the product of a more mature man: a man at his prime; a man who has traveled a few miles, and who has learned how to navigate his way through the world.

But then comes Ecclesiastes.  It presents itself as the reflections of an older man.  It is the testimony of a man who has seen it all and done it all.  Yet, when all is said and done, this poor soul has found only emptiness, regret, and futility.  

This unhappy development over time matches rather well the story we find in 2 Kings.  Solomon begins with wisdom, vision, and strength.  He's the essence of healthy, wealthy, and wise, and his influence and reputation blanket the region. Ah, but the young man who had built the monumental Temple for God in Jerusalem devolves into a monu-mental disappointment.  In the end, he marries scores of women — mostly foreign — and builds temples for all of their gods.  And so the story ends the way that his writings seem to: tragic, empty, and full of regret. 
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