Blogging through the Proverbs provides an interesting challenge; unique in my experience.  We have completed the first major section, chapters 1-9, and now we enter the second major section, chapters 10-22. This section, called the “proverbs of Solomon, contains 375 maxims that are loosely organized and more or less disconnected from each other; each one can just as easily stand alone. Thus, the challenge is: How does one “blog through” something like that?

This question has been banging through my mind since January when I decided to take this project on, and I’ve been hoping for a brilliant idea by the time I arrived at this juncture, but sadly none has come my way. I have consulted the writings of others on the subject, and what I have largely found is that they “force” their way through these chapters as though there was something more cohesive to write about, but the best of the lot simplely divided things up along the lines of its loose structure and then paraphrase each proverb, making them more complicated than they really are. Since I do not have a publisher demanding a commentary that includes Proverbs to complete a larger commentary set, I am free to reject this approach… and I have.

My plan through these chapters is to introduce each subsection briefly, and choose a proverb from each chapter (at minimum) and post my reflections on it in an afternoon post on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting tomorrow. No attempt will be made on my part to cover each and every one of the 375 maxims in this section, so those of you who may have favorites along the way will likely not have any comments from me on them, unless you drop me a note to request one in particular. If you do so, then that’s the one I’ll pick. If all of you send in requests, as long as time permits, I’ll do all that are requested. In addition, there are a couple of “bonus posts” on Proverbs that I’d like to add into the mix as time goes on, and I’ll do that as well.

Starting tomorrow morning, I’ll begin a new series of posts on 1 and 2 Timothy which should be a lot of fun for one and all.

Introduction to the first section

The first subsection in the “proverbs of Solomon” is chapters 10-12. Most of the subsections within this unit begin with the words “a wise son” as found in 10:1and 13:1. This first subsection contains maxims that are antithetical in their construction, meaning that each one contains a statement that illustrates a life of wisdom, and then an opposite statement that shows the principle in the life of folly. It is as if Lady Wisdom and Ms Folly are still debating their two sides of each issue, or more correctly, the results of their respective ways of life. As you will notice when you read these maxims, they are both powerful and practical for life’s application of their lessons.