A Woman's Wisdom: How the Book of Proverbs Speaks to Everything by Lydia Brownback Read Free Book Online

to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.
(Prov. 6:16–19)
    We may think we aren’t fools until we realize that haughty eyes are walking into someone’s home and taking pleasure because we have better taste in décor or because our outfit is more appropriate for the occasion. We may think we don’t shed innocent blood until we remember Jesus’s words that anger is murder. We may think we don’t stir up trouble unless we realize that we do so by participating in gossip. Each one of us is, in some way, a foolish woman.
    Proverbs doesn’t sugarcoat the outcome of folly. The end of a fool is terrible indeed, and recognizing that we are numbered among fools can be quite discouraging. As we noted earlier, foolish women will hear wisdom laughing (Prov. 1:26). Perhaps you have heard that laugh. It is echoed in the why-oh-whys and the if-onlys:
    “If only I hadn’t done that!”

    “Why did I go there!”

    “If only I hadn’t eaten that!”

    “Why did I listen to him!”

“If only I hadn’t bought that!”

    Fools, according to Proverbs,
shall eat the fruit of their way,
and have their fill of their own desires. (Prov. 1:31)
    Christ our wisdom
    So where does that leave us? Wisdom cries aloud for our attention, but so does folly, and because we are inherently sinful, folly doesn’t have to shout as loudly. What are we to do? Again, the remedy is found not so much in exercising ourselves in wise principles but primarily in resting in the source of wisdom: “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). Christ is the foolish woman’s remedy. That is how we are meant to apply this proverb:
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight. (Prov. 9:6)
    It bears repeating that overcoming folly and growing in wisdom simply aren’t about culling advice from the book of Proverbs, as if it were the biblical version of How to Win Friends and Influence People . Apart from Christ, the earthly blessings that flow from right living are merely a shadow of the real thing. From the Bible’s viewpoint, wise living and its fruit are impossible apart from Christ because the fear of the Lord—Proverbs’ definition of wisdom—is known only to those who are in Christ. If we eat of this bread and drink of the living water he offers, we will know increasingly the wisdom that banishes the folly that clings to us today.

the world . . .
    Lying is very stressful. It actually can make you feel really worthless—a crutch you get in the habit of using when you really don’t need one. But because lies beget other lies, you start to think that who you really are does need all that cover-up, so you end up with very little faith in yourself. We need to get you out of this rut. There’s a golden rule that you need to embrace if you want to stop lying: There is nothing and no one that is better than you.
    — Seventeen magazine

    the word . . .
    Lying lips are an abomination to the L ORD ,
    but those who act faithfully are his delight.
    —Proverbs 12:22

Our words carry tremendous power, and perhaps that is why Proverbs contains so many sayings about how we use our tongues.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Prov. 18:21)
    And
A fool’s mouth is his ruin,
and his lips are a snare to his soul. (Prov. 18:7)
    We find the same perspective in the New Testament. The apostle James wrote, “The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:6–9). So it is clear that we can