Proverbs 1–9 unfolds like drama written for the stage. Characters are introduced one at a time; their stories develop gradually; then they all come together in a series of climactic scenes. That moment of clarity—the aha, where we see how these people and their stories connect—is a lot like what we encounter in this section of Proverbs.

By way of review we have encountered the parents and their instructions in chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapter 1 introduced the foolish and wicked brigands who tempt the son to follow ways forbidden by his elders. The chapter also ends with the voice of a personified woman called Wisdom. Now in chapter 3 we hear a description of this Wisdom and her role in creation.

Arranged in this way, wisdom appears as the key to navigating life in the world, avoiding the temptations of foolish life while holding fast to the instructions of one’s parents. One might easily overlook the fact that God’s creation is the uniting element for these characters. Creation emerges as the screenplay that holds the whole story together and wisdom as the director that helps to keep us playing our parts.

The Introduction discussed the liminal imagery of journeys, paths, houses, and thresholds in life. All of these give us a physical, communal, and tangible sense of the winding nature of one’s path through life. Today one dominant metaphor for life is the inward journey into the self in a search for identity and authenticity. We will discuss this again below.

  I.F.  Second Interlude: Wisdom and Creation (3:13–20)

1.  The Father’s Enticing Introduction of Wisdom (3:13–18)

2.  The Lord’s Use of Wisdom in the Founding of the World (3:19–20)

“Blessed” and True Fulfillment

What do we mean, exactly, when we say (or write) “blessings,” “bless you,” or “#blessed”? Is something supposed to happen afterward? From greeting cards, social media, and casual speech to memorized verses and book titles, “blessing” may be one of the most used and least understood words in popular Christianity.

As for the meaning of a blessing, words built on two loosely related roots in Hebrew must be considered. More familiar are the verbs “to bless” (barak) and the related noun “blessing” (berakah), which are used when God commands Abram to leave his home and family and become a blessing for “all the families of the earth” (Gen. 12:1–3). In Numbers 6:22–27 God instructs the Levitical priests to perform a ritual in which they raise their hands and call for God’s favor and blessing to be placed upon the people. In these ways blessings appear as both a way of life and a pattern of prayer that channels God’s grace into other’s lives. A blessed life is one that flourishes in God’s created world here and now.

The word ʾashre, which is used here in Proverbs, is used in a similar way in Psalms 1–2, only it is always a noun or a state rather than an action. And yet, like barak, it is not simply an emotional state that is in view but the flourishing of life.

That said, the translation “happy” used by some versions is not totally out place. Modern thinking tends to divide human nature into parts of mind, body, heart, spirit, soul, and the like. But as noted throughout this commentary, the ancient world used these terms to describe a whole interwoven and integrated being. Our minds, bodies, and emotions all work together and are mutually interdependent. What this means is that one cannot and should not isolate the blessing to spiritual or material matters alone. Rather, the blessing and the blessed life is one in which God bestows gifts on the whole of the individual and the community—vocations, households, marriages, emotions, thoughts, and worship—so that we might become what he always intended us to be. It would not be out of line to paraphrase “blessed” as “happy, prospering, on the path to true fulfillment.” In this light Jesus’ saying about the blessedness of those who suffer speaks to the way of life in this world that leads to the good, everlasting, and fulfilled life we will have with him forever.

The Wisdom of Human Desire

The word for “desire” in 3:15 occurs four more times in Proverbs (8:11; 18:2; 21:1; 31:13). All but one of these speak to our desire for the wisdom we need for pursuing the good life.

First, one must recognize the important connection between this desire and the tree of life in the garden of Eden and the tree of life in 3:18. The ancient picture of moral origins in Genesis pits not desire against non-desire but rather good desire against bad desire. It was necessary for Adam and Eve to engage their desires in order to continue life, flourishing, and fellowship with God.

Second, Genesis plays upon the good and forbidden “knowledge” of the two trees in the garden and the same word “knowledge” often used for sexual relations: “Adam knew Eve his wife” (Gen. 4:1). This association of sexual desire with the knowledge of God and his will often runs against the grain of some Christian thinking about sexuality. But it is natural to the Bible, especially in Proverbs 1–9 and the Song of Solomon (cf. Eph. 5:21).

The fourth-century church father Gregory of Nyssa wrote a treatise “On Virginity” in which he uses virginity and asceticism (or celibacy) as symbols for all human desires and self-control.43 Eros and eroticism have a similar double meaning in the book of Proverbs. C. S. Lewis argues in The Four Loves that Eros is that form of love that God wants us to imagine in our thinking about his love toward us and our love for him. Eros in this context is not to be reduced to sexual acts, which are only a part of Eros. True Eros is a much larger devotion to the Beloved, a love that is distinct from mere friendship or charity.44 It is in the larger realm of Eros that wisdom has its place.

And so, third, the wisdom literature and poetry of the OT act much like God’s how-to guides for human desire, whether for food, marriage, sexuality, work, or ownership of land and possessions. For example, we probably know Ecclesiastes as a book about the struggle with meaning or the loss of meaning in life and world—and in many ways it is. But the book also commends the (sometimes small) joys and desires of work, food, and marriage (Eccles. 2:24–25; 3:12–13; 5:12, 18–19; 8:15; 9:7). The long poem in Job 28 marvels at our human ingenuity in finding the rare and precious treasures of the earth. And the contemplation on the daily pleasures of work, wine, oil, and bread in Psalm 104 describes these as gifts of God and evidence of his wisdom (Ps. 104:14–15, 24).

The chief problem with desire in our day exists in what Charles Taylor has called the “ethics of authenticity” and “expressive individualism,” by which we define our identity and sense of worth by our freedom to choose whatever we want, to be whoever one wants to be, to do what one loves with one’s life,45 and to consume as much as one pleases.

Yet, Taylor notes, these choices are increasingly expressed without any moral horizons by which to measure the choices as good or bad, or good and better. All choice is deemed to be good and a means to achieve individuality and authenticity. But in such a world in which all choices are the same, true authenticity does not actually emerge—quite the opposite, in fact.

The scene in the garden stands as a critique of this individualized and subjective approach to selfhood and desire. Adam and Eve pursued their very personal and heartfelt desires, and doing so put them in conflict with God, with their God-given identities, and with his designs for living in this world. Desire is good within the moral horizons of God’s creation, and Proverbs 3 emphasizes this point in virtually every line.

This should lead us naturally to think of the language of the redemption in Christ; as Paul says, “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:19–20). We may call this the cosmic nature of salvation. We see its full scope hinted at in Proverbs 3 and fulfilled in the resurrection. God is repairing not only individuals but the whole moral and social world that has fallen to ruin in our sin.Proverbs 3:13–20

Proverbs 3:21–35