Proverbs 3:13-26

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 89:5-8
• Prayer of Invocation
• Congregational Prayer Requests
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Proverbs 3:13-26
• Sermon
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Value of Wisdom for Mankind, Creator, and Son

Scripture: Proverbs 3:13-26

I. The Value of Wisdom for Mankind (Proverbs 3:13-18)

A. The meaning of blessed (Hebrew אַשְׁרֵי, ashre)

1. Distinct from בָּרַךְ (barak) — immediate, tangible conferral of blessing
2. Ashre denotes a present state of blessing whose full, tangible manifestations come in the near or distant future, conditioned on a right relationship with God
3. Parallel to Jesus's Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12 — "blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"
4. Paralleled also in Job 5:17 — those whom the Lord disciplines are called ashre

B. The significance of "Adam" in verse 13

1. The ESV renders the Hebrew adam as "the one," but it should be understood as Adam/man/mankind — all three senses are present
2. The unit is bookended: verse 13 opens with adam (mankind) and verse 18 closes with the Tree of Life — a deliberate allusion to the Garden of Eden
3. The first Adam, representing all mankind, failed to heed wisdom, followed the word of the serpent, and was barred from the Tree of Life; the result was thorns, thistles, strife, and death (cf. Genesis 4)

C. Wisdom contrasted with worldly riches (Proverbs 3:14-15)

1. Silver, gold, and jewels symbolize worldly kingdom power; wisdom surpasses them all
2. Paralleled in the temptation of Christ (Matthew 4) — Satan offers the last Adam the kingdoms of the world; Christ refuses, citing Deuteronomy 6:13
3. Christ is the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22) — where the first Adam turned from wisdom, the last Adam perfectly heeds it

D. The Tree of Life restored in Christ

1. Revelation 22:14 — blessed are those who wash their robes so they may have the right to the Tree of Life
2. All humanity represented in the first Adam inherits thorns, thistles, and death; all represented in the last Adam receive access to the Tree of Life and eternal blessedness
3. This maps onto Romans 5:12-19 — the two-Adam framework that encompasses all of redemptive history

II. The Value of Wisdom for God as Creator (Proverbs 3:19-20)

A. Wisdom's role in establishing creation (verse 19)

1. "Founded" and "established" both carry the Hebrew sense of something firmly fixed and immovable
2. Parallel structure with verse 13: just as finding wisdom and understanding characterizes the blessed man, so wisdom and understanding are the means by which God founded the earth and established the heavens
3. The one who heeds wisdom will be as firmly fixed and unshakable as creation itself — as immovable as the mountains

B. Wisdom's role in sustaining creation (verse 20)

1. "The deeps broke open" alludes to Genesis 1:9 — God gathering the waters and letting dry land appear
2. The dew dropping from the clouds pictures God refreshing and sustaining his firmly established creation from the heavens above to the depths below
3. Not only does wisdom firmly fix — it also refreshes and sustains

C. God's divine intelligence in creation

1. Creation ex nihilo displays God's power; the grand complexities of what he makes display his wisdom — his divine intelligence
2. The Hebrew word for wisdom, חָכְמָה (hokmah), denotes holistic knowledge — knowing all parts of a thing and how every aspect connects
3. In Job 38-41, God meets Job in the whirlwind and surveys the entire universe — a lesson not primarily in power but in wisdom; Job is silenced
4. Proverbs 30:1-4 — Agur confesses he cannot ascend to heaven or comprehend the ways of wind and water; such holistic wisdom belongs to God alone
5. This is why Proverbs 9:10 insists the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom — only by coming before the Creator in awe does wisdom begin

III. The Value of Wisdom for the Son (Proverbs 3:21-26)

A. The narrowing of the lens

1. Verses 13-18: wisdom for all mankind — the widest scope
2. Verses 19-20: wisdom in God's own creative work — the widest possible scope
3. Verses 21-26: the father narrows the focus directly to his son — "My son, do not lose sight of these"
4. Analogy: a father who recounts the courage of ancestors through history and then says to his child, "My son, be strong and courageous"

B. Symmetry between God's care of creation and God's care of the son who heeds wisdom

1. Verse 22 — wisdom will be life to the soul, just as God establishes life in creation
2. Verse 23 — the son will walk securely and not stumble, mirroring the firmness of God's established creation
3. Verses 24-26 — sleep will be sweet; no fear of sudden terror; the Lord will be his confidence and keep his foot from the snare — God sustains the obedient son just as he sustains creation

C. Jesus's application of this principle in Matthew 6:25-30

1. "Look at the birds of the air… your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
2. "Consider the lilies of the field… if God so clothes the grass, will he not much more clothe you?"
3. Jesus draws the same line from General Revelation to special Revelation that Proverbs 3 draws

D. The marriage of General Revelation and Special Revelation

1. General Revelation cannot communicate the Plan of Salvation, but it is not merely disconnected from special Revelation
2. Special Revelation reveals our adoption as sons in the household of God; creation then shows us what our Father's care for his children looks like
3. Creation is an instruction manual for God's love and sustaining grace toward his blood-bought children
4. Calvin (Institutes) emphasized that creation teaches us of God's love and care — opening creation up as a living display of the Father's heart
5. God is not a different God in General Revelation than in Special Revelation; the God who creates and sustains the cosmos is the same God who creates and sustains his new creation in his Son