How Do You Read the Book of Proverbs?

      If you could ask God for anything what would it be?  Maybe a new car or a better house? When Solomon was crowned king, God came and asked him that.  And unlike what you’d think, Solomon asked God for wisdom. The book of Proverbs contains some of that wisdom.    

       I learned when I read the Life-Study of Proverbs that Proverbs shows God’s people how to behave and build up a proper character. So when people read all these wise sayings, they can take it in two different ways. If you like rules, you may take it as a code of conduct, or Proverbs can be a book of spiritual nourishment. But as you can see on page 5 of chapter 1, Witness Lee shares what Proverbs is to you will depend on the way you read it:

If we study the Bible by the way of letters, not by the way of the Spirit and of life, we make the Bible, regardless of what part, a book of letters....To Paul the apostle even the Old Testament was like the New Testament, of the Spirit and of life [John 6:63] Too many Christians have made the New Testament proverbs, precepts, exhortations, and instructions of letters. Our life-studies have made all of the Old Testament as the Word of God books of the Spirit and of life. By this we have to realize that what the book of Proverbs would be to us depends upon what kind of persons we are and by what way we take it.  (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Proverbs. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1995, Print).

     Throughout the eight chapters of this study, he repeatedly points out that for the word of God to be Spirit and life to us we need to read it prayerfully.  He says that when we do this, each proverb becomes a gem that strengthens our pursuit of Christ for the spiritual building up of His Body. I have noticed that whenever I pray over a verse, it become more personal to me.