Saying One

Proverbs 22:17-21

Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge; for it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; let them all be fixed upon your lips, so that your trust may be in the LORD; I have instructed you today, even you. Have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge, 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?

Let the logic truck run you over.

Reason is like a cattle prod; it doesn’t work on ghosts. When a fool ignores the earthy, practical truths of wisdom, he loses his stake in reality, and becomes as untouchable as a ghost. He casts himself adrift in a realm where moral laws no longer apply. Logic cannot touch him; he is immune to rational thought.

The mark of a wise man, on the other hand, is that he listens to reason. Reasons hold sway with him. They hurt, and jab, and shock him. When they lie in his way, he trips over them. It is worth besieging a wise man’s castle of sin with an army of reason, because he will eventually come out, starving for moral food. Ghostly fools do not even know what such hunger feels like.

This is why the Thirty Sayings begin with an appeal to reason. Why should the reader ‘incline his ear’ and ‘apply his heart’? Reasons are given, and they rest on the heavy word ‘for’ (v18).

Of note, all but one of the sayings are addressed to a would-be wise son. The exception, the twenty-seventh (Prov 22:15-16), although spoken to the wicked, seems to be hollered mockingly from the heights of heaven as the wise son listens on, nodding his head with a half smile. It is fair to say, therefore, that if you aren’t a wise son — or at least, a person seeking wisdom — then the Thirty Sayings won’t touch you. You won’t get them. They may even seem like inside jokes to you, referencing some common knowledge only available to members of a close-knit family.

If you are part of that family, on the other hand, you will see yourself loud and clear in Saying Two (Prov 22:22-23), and it will jab at your conscience; you will agree unreservedly with Saying Six (Prov 22:29), without resorting to exceptions; you will chuckle unashamedly at Saying Nineteen (Prov 23:29-35), appreciating the lofty satire; and you won’t try to spiritualise Saying Twenty-Six (Prov 24:13-14), no matter how fashionable it is. In a word, you’ll get it.

As mentioned, Saying One exhorts the wise son to ‘incline his ear’ to wisdom, because there is good reason to do so. To ‘incline’ one’s ear is to humble it from the lofty shadows of ghosthood, to listen receptively and with discernment. We have two ears, and, unlike the eyes, they are designed to capture input from every angle, at any time. When the body sleeps, for example, it tucks the eyes in with a comforting, filmy blanket of skin, but leaves the ears out in the cold, slaving away all through the night. Someone has to let you know when your alarm goes off.

The ears, therefore, are the main receptacle for God to access our minds, no matter what circumstance we are in. All of earth speaks to the wisdom of God — more than this, it is the speaking of God — so we must be open to all that God has to say, at any angle, at any time.

The ‘inclined’ ear is an ear that has been brought down to earth, and notices the crickets at night. It takes in the speaking of God, funnelling it through to the heart. At this point, the ‘applied’ heart must willingly convert the words to knowledge. 

Now, although the writer of the sayings begins with the assumption that his words are wise, he still seeks to give a reason for heeding them. Four reasons, in fact.

Reason One

For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; let them all be fixed upon your lips.

The person who knows what to say, and when to say it, is indeed delightful. And the promise of reason one is that if you store up words of wisdom inside of you, they will not languish in the basement, eating Cheetos. Words of wisdom kept within, and watered regularly, will eventually speak themselves back into a world that needs them. In the eyes of the wise, this is good and pleasant.

Reason Two

So that your trust may be in the LORD; I have instructed you today, even you.

To heed the wisdom of another is to acknowledge that your own ingenuity did not produce what it should have. You needed someone else to tell you. Such humility grabs one’s internal centre of trust by the scruff of its neck and hurls it far out of reach. By analogy, suppose it were possible to do the same with your centre of mass — to hand it off to someone else for safe keeping. Were you to do this, you would become entirely dependent upon this person for your movement. As absurd as it seems, we are required to do this with our centre of trust.

It is quite possible to misplace this trust — perhaps in an unworthy friend, or a godless mentor. However, the promise of reason two is that if you heed the wisdom of the writer, you are really heeding the wisdom of God Himself. You are handing Him the reins, asking Him to take the driver’s seat. The offer is for God to be your personal chauffeur through life, which seems like a good deal.

Reason Three

That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth.

Nothing opens the eyes like obedience; nothing gives peace of mind like applied wisdom. Upon hearing wisdom, and obeying it, one sees the miraculous effect it has on the world, and this engenders conviction. It is like being a no-touch chi master who really can influence opponents with an invisible force.

So the scriptures say ‘a soft answer turns away wrath’? Try it, and you’ll see it is true. ‘A good name is better than riches’? Give generously, and you’ll see it is true. A man who lives in wisdom is blessed not only by the tangible good he produces, but also by the intangible conviction that is produced within himself by seeing the repeated confirmation of what he has learned. Wisdom, having marched out into the world through his fingertips, returns triumphantly with the spoils, taking up residence in his chest. The spoils are: certainty, conviction, and courage.

Reason Four

That you may answer words of truth to those who send to you?

Heeding wisdom steers a middle course between two ditches: on one side is having nothing to say; on the other, erupting with a whole lot of nonsense. Men are so often like the old backyard tap — screwed shut with an impossible tightness, before finally bursting open with an uncontrollable flood. The restrained, filtered, kitchen stream at which children grasp is rare.

Yet, the writer promises that you will be that stream if you internalise his wisdom. You will have a good answer when your children ask you difficult questions. You will know what to say when a friend is in dire straits. You will know how to speak to kings and slaves alike. Your words will have the weight of truth, and you will move them around like chess pieces made of brass — carefully and without blunder.

For these four reasons, then, we ought to heed the Thirty Sayings, and internalise their wisdom in our hearts:

1. To equip your lips with pleasant words.

2. To shift your centre of trust to God.

3. To convict you of the truth.

4. To give you answers in life’s most difficult situations.

Scriptures for Comparison

Proverbs 3:5-6

James 1:5

Psalm 119:105

Proverbs 4:5-7

Colossians 3:16

2 Timothy 3:16-17

John 8:31-32

Psalm 19:7-8

Matthew 7:24