COMMON SENSE BOOK

Proverbs 4:7-10
When I became a Christian I was told that Proverbs was a great book to use for devotions because it had 31 chapters which worked perfectly with the days in the month. When February or months with only 30 days in them, you didn’t cover those chapters. So, whatever the day date was, that’s the chapter you covered. My dad called Proverbs the “Common Sense” book. It worked then, it still works well now.

Early in Proverbs we are told that ‘fear of the Lord’ is the beginning of wisdom. Here in chapter 4 we are told, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get Wisdom…” According to Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary, “wise and godly men, in every age of the world, and rank in society agree that true wisdom consists in obedience, and is united to happiness. Get wisdom, take pains for it. Get rule over thy corruptions; take more pains to get this than the wealth of the world, And interest in Christ’s salvation is necessary. This wisdom is the one thing needful. A soul without true wisdom and grace is a dead soul. How poor, contemptable and wretched are those who with all their wealth and power, die without getting understanding without Christ, without hope and without God! Let us give heed to the sayings of Him who has the words of eternal life.”

My dad also stressed to me that if you find words that cover a subject well and does not take volumes to do so, why try to improve them. My hat is off to Matthew Henry. He said it so well!