So far we have seen that Proverbs is seeking to provide a teaching program for youth through adulthood to love God with all their heart, soul, and strength (Deut. 6:4-9). This, we have seen, is rooted in the gracious action of God, who regenerates us and is the source of all wisdom, giving wisdom to all who fear Him in Christ. It is important to know that Proverbs 3:1-12 picks up on the teaching of Deuteronomy 6:1-15, so it would be good to explore that background first.
Having laid a foundation up to this point in Proverbs, Solomon is now at the place where he teaches us more about what is called the Shema. The word “Shema” simply means “hear,” and the title refers to Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The Shema represents the summative relationship between God and Israel (their covenant). The One God desires that His people also have a corresponding oneness as His people. In other words, the one and only God has perfect faithfulness to His covenant, and His people are required to mirror this oneness of faithfulness back to God (with all their heart, soul, and strength, meaning the entire person with no part withheld). We become members of Israel through Christ, and so we partake in all the blessings promised to Israel through Him. Thus, just as the Israelites received a command from God to educate their children in God’s Law, so we also have a commission from God to both pursue this perfect faithfulness ourselves and to raise up godly offspring for Him who will also have this perfect faithfulness. Thanks be to God that He gives us the tools to move further and further in that direction! Christ also obeyed this on behalf of Israel, guaranteeing that we will one day—on the new earth—be made perfectly faithful.
Proverbs is a teaching program for the Shema, which is meant to help both us and youth to love God with increasing measure—unto perfect faithfulness in the Resurrection. We will take a brief look at some parallels between Proverbs 3:1-12 and Deuteronomy 6:1-15, then we can have the right understanding to properly apply Proverbs 3:1-12.[1]
While there are many more parallels, I will highlight six. (I included additional information in the endnotes for those wanting to look further into the significance of these parallels). The first is the father saying “My son, do not forget my teaching” (Prov. 3:1a) and “take care lest you forget the Lord” (Deut. 6:12).[2] To “forget” is never accidental, but to neglect or rebel against obeying God. It effectively means, “be careful to obey” or to keep this instruction before you always.
Second, Proverbs 3:1-2 says, “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you,” and Deuteronomy 6:1-2 says, “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.”[3] Both passages refer to keeping all of God’s commandments (loving God), resulting in the blessing of long life.
Third, Proverbs 3:1b says, “let your heart keep my commandments,” and Deuteronomy 6:6 says, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”[4] This means working to have our hearts conformed to the commands of God. Christians have a distinct advantage in this, since we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us who actively conforms us. Nonetheless, we are to actively strive to obey God from the heart, trusting that God will change us as we studiously and carefully seek to obey Him.
Fourth, Deuteronomy 6:7 says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (see also Prov. 6:22). This commission is then obeyed in Proverbs 3:1a, “My son, do not forget my teaching,” verse 11a, “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,” and verse 12b, “for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”[5]
Fifth, Deuteronomy 6:8-9 says, “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,” and Proverbs 3:3 says, “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.”[6] These both have the same reference to whole and enduring obedience to God’s commandments in every area of our inner being and outward working (see also Prov. 6:20-22, which applies Proverbs 3:3 in the same way as Deut. 6:7-8).
Sixth, Deuteronomy 8:5 also teaches that Yahweh is Israel’s Father: “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.” This is like Proverbs 3:12, which says, “for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” Both connect the teaching of a father who disciples his son to the love of God.
Proverbs 3:1-12 is itself built around the word “heart,” which appears three times (Prov. 3:1, 3b, and 5a). This communicates that the passage is meant to teach how we are to love God with all our heart. Let’s look at these three instances. In Proverbs 3:1, we are to “let your heart keep my commandments.” This means that God does not desire external obedience, but a true obedience that stems from who and what we are (requiring a heart change from God). No other form of obedience can qualify as the obedience that God desires. The reference to the heart in Proverbs 3b says, “write them on the tablet of your heart.” This means not only allowing ourselves to be trained to obey God with our hearts (verse 1), but teaches that we are to actively pursue this whole-being heart obedience. This is to be our approach to Proverbs and to the rest of Scripture, using the whole Bible as doctrine for practicing the whole Christian life. This pursuit is the pursuit for God’s wisdom, which leads to growing righteousness. The third occurrence takes the obedience of the heart to its maximum end: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” The words “Trust in the Lord” are being used in parallel to “Love the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:5), and both are to be “with all your heart.” “Trust” in Hebrew usage refers also to acting upon, and not only to trusting in one’s own mind. In this way, loving God and trusting in Him with all one’s heart have parallel meaning. Proverbs then expands on the definition of heart obedience to include God’s Word shaping all of our understanding, causing us to rely on the truth of His Word above all. It is to govern our minds and actions, leading us to acknowledge God in all our ways. God and the truth of God cannot be compartmentalized, but must stand as the foundation for all of our understanding of the world. Likewise, to love God with all our heart requires that the truth of God (wisdom) manifests itself in everything that we do—whether this refers to acknowledging His providence, or work in us, or work through us, or His sovereignty over all things. This is giving God the glory for everything in our lives, and its result is blessing. The opposite of this all-encompassing acknowledgment of God is to be wise in our own eyes, and the solution to being self-wise is to “fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” So here we come full-circle back to fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. (Some apply Proverbs 3:8 to loving God with all one’s soul and verse 9 to with all one’s strength, and there is merit to that, but this may have to be left for another time).
Next time we will be looking at Proverbs 3:13-4:27, with a focus on keeping or guarding our hearts.
[1] Note that credit for the next five parallels goes to this source: G. T. M. Prinsloo, “Reading Proverbs 3:1-12 in Its Social and Ideological Context.” Hervormde Teologiese Studies 58, no. 4 (2002): 1382-1383. The first sentence of each of the five following footnotes is a quote from him.
[2] “Yahweh should never be forgotten (Deut. 6:12 and Prov. 3:1a).” To “forget” the “Torah” (instruction) in Proverbs 3:1 is a “deliberate act of neglect,” and the solution is to make his commands a “part of his being, his thoughts, his will, his life.” Potgieter, J.H., “The (Poetic) Rhetoric of Wisdom in Proverbs 3:1-12,” Hts Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 58, no. 4 (2002): 1368.
[3] “As in 3:1ab the people are called upon to keep the [instruction] of Yahweh (Deut. 6:1-2), and promised a long life as a result of obedience (Prov. 3:2ab and Deut. 6:2).” The promise of long life and peace in Proverbs (3:4, 8) for obedience to the father’s commands point to the same truth in Deuteronomy (5:33; 6:1-2). In Deuteronomy 5:33, the promise is given to obeying the fifth of the Ten Commandments: obedience to one’s parents. In Deuteronomy 6:1-2, the promise of long life is connected to the command to love God (Deut. 6:5). Bruce Waltke’s commentary on Proverbs also tells us that “Length of days . . . elsewhere is attributed to wisdom ([Prov.] 3:16) and to the fear of the LORD (3:16a), suggesting that the father’s teaching is co-referential to the fear of the LORD (see 1:7). Waltke, Book of Proverbs 1-15, 190. What this means is that the promise of long life in Proverbs 3 relates to obeying God’s commandments (i.e., loving God), which shows wisdom, and thus the fear of the Lord.
[4] “Like the son/pupil (Prov. 1:1b), Israel should keep the commandments in their heart (Deut. 6:6).” This refers to not only knowing the commandments of God, but seeking to obey them according to the gracious provision of God. In other words, this refers to being conformed to God’s commandments by God’s Spirit, exhibiting a true growth in holiness.
[5] “In Deuteronomy 6:7 the Israelites are called upon to teach the commandments to their sons (Prov 3:1a, 11a and 12b).”
[6] We are “to bind [the Shema] (in Deut. 6:8 and Prov. 3:3b) on [our] hands and forehead and to write them (in Deut. 6:9 and Prov. 3:3c) on the doorposts of [our] houses.” In Deuteronomy, the forehead represents all of our thought and belief, while our hands represent all that we do. Together they represent the whole person (all one’s heart). In Proverbs, binding something to one’s neck referred to binding it to one’s life, and writing it on the tablet of one’s heart refers to embodying it with one’s whole self. Proverbs 6:20-22 ties this also to Deuteronomy 6:7, but gives it as a command to sons: “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. 22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.”