Read Proverbs Slowly. Take a Year Over It

This morning, at Trinity Church Scarborough, we continued our preaching series in the book of Proverbs, looking at Proverbs 25-29.

One of the things we looked at was the fact that the proverbs in Proverbs are meant to be make you think. In this regard, they're a bit like the parables of Jesus. Read superficially, Jesus' parables entertain you with a good story and nothing more. If you take time to ponder and chew over the surprises, they get under your skin and transform your life. Proverbs are the same.

To illustrate this, consider these two Proverbs, both speaking of the danger of eating too much honey

• "If you find honey, eat just enough – too much of it, and you will vomit. Seldom set foot in your neighbour’s house – too much of you, and they will hate you." (Proverbs 25:16-17)
• "It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honourable to search out matters that are too deep." (Proverbs 25:27)

The first one is fairly easy to understand. The second needs thought. The warning against eating too much honey is clear. But we need to think what "searching out matters that are too deep" involves, why this is not "honourable", and what this has to do with honey. Listen to the sermon if you want to know what I said about that. (Apologies, there was a technical issue that affected the sound quality this week)

Many commend the practice of reading a chapter of Proverbs a day. There are 31 chapters, and 31 days in many months. So simply read the chapter corresponding to today's date. Billy Graham did this, as does John Piper.

This is good and helpful, and many have been greatly blessed. If that's you, please continue.

But you are likely to find you experience some indigestion. Simply put, you cannot puzzle over 28 proverbs in a day. Far more useful would be to read just one or two, ponder them, then carry them through the day looking for ways the wisdom can be applied.

So I offered our church family a simple reading guide that would take them through the book of Proverbs in a year. Most days, that's reading one or two verses. Occasionally, in the sections where the sense units are a bit longer, you read a bit more.

Here is that scheme. (The PDF version is designed to be printed back-to-back on A4 paper, then folded in half to make an A5 booklet)