Yesterday's Wisdom
W. Carl Ketcherside
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A number of years ago I delivered a series of radio talks which were later bound in book form under the title Proven Proverbs. The book is long since out of print, but I glance through it occasionally and am always reassured by the fact that its messages are as timely now as when I first gave them. I had been reading through the wisdom literature of the old covenant scriptures and meditating upon the gems of lore enunciated by Solomon, Hezekiah, and others, and copied down for posterity by the royal scribes. At the time I could not resist doing the radio presentations in which I demonstrated that the wisdom bestowed upon Solomon qualified him to become an adviser and counsellor of the ages. Wisdom does not die with its promulgator.
Solomon came to the throne in a time of change. The wars which had beset the land and exhausted its finances for so many decades had generally culminated under David and a period of peace had been inaugurated. With dreams of kingdom-expansion flooding his mind, Solomon resolved to make Jerusalem, the capital city, a showpiace of the earth. He began an inner-city slum-clearance and civic face-lifting project and under his Works Progress Administration, built the magnificent temple with skilled crafts-
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As a part of his strategy he formed an extensive harem made up of princesses from the royal families of other nations, and for each he constructed a palatial residence where the gods of their native lands could be enshrined and worshiped. The king also formed the first Israeli navy and used the ships to promote an import trade which brought exotic Oriental items for sale in bazaars of Jerusalem. The international traffic required ambassadors, translators, business executives and diplomats which had never been developed in an agrarian society where the simple ideal of every man was to "dwell under his own vine and fig tree." Under the impact of world trade a great transformation took place and the rural way of life gave way to an urban culture, a change which always produces certain characteristics and calls for a whole new approach to survival, which becomes threatened on every hand.
It is not at all far-fetched, as I view it, to think of the first nine chapters of Proverbs as a kind of orientation workbook prepared by the diplomatic corps for the initial preparation of young men applying for jobs in the Department of State. Beginning with chapter 10, you will read a collection of wise sayings, generally unrelated to each other and representing the kind of encapsulated philosophy with which kings of the day sought to instruct their subjects. The practice is still in vogue in the East as witness the little red book containing "the sayings of Chairman Mao," proverbs chanted incessantly by Chinese Communist youthful militants and revolutionaries.
One of the interesting features of "the workbook" is its warning of dangers in the city to which an unsuspecting small-town youth would be exposed and in which he might become involved if he were not careful. The very first one deals with street gangs, consisting of muggers and young hoodlums who do not scruple to murder, and who entice by saying, "We will rip-off every kind of place and person and fill our apartments with loot. Join up with us, man, and we'll give you an equal share in the swag" (1: 13, 14).
Prostitution presented a real problem and was probably increased as the population of the city became more cosmopolitan and people came from far-off lands where sexual perversion and deviation were linked with worship of the gods. The young man who did not want to forfeit his dignity or lose his chance for advancement is cautioned to stay out of the red-light district and avoid passing the door of a harlot's house (5:8). The problem of the wife whose husband is a commercial traveler, and who becomes jaded and fed up with the monotony of city existence and who decides to go out on the town creates another hazard. As the New English Version puts it, "The prostitute can be had for the price of a loaf, but a married woman is out for bigger game."
The tendency to sleep late and to take the day off and stay in bed is given pretty rough treatment, and it is implied that one who turns off the alarm and snuggles down in the sack again does not have as much sense as an insect (6:6-11). Other things discussed are the need for keeping your cool and not blowing your stack under pressure, of staying off the bottle and not getting talked into becoming a social drinker, and especially of resisting the plea of another to co-sign his note for a loan at the bank (6:1, 2).
Because the book of Proverbs is so explicit and helpful I sometimes get the urge to do another book in which I again use its advice to zero in on some of our modern hangups. The Bible is not dated at all, but the one who does not read it or who disregards it, is dated. He does not know where it all is, and he is missing the real values of life. If you really want to get your head screwed on straight I suggest you use the divine lug wrench.