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God's Wisdom in Proverbs
by Dan Phillips
(Kress: 2011)
reviewed by Jay E. Adams
This is a different sort of book. Obviously, the writer has done a lot of preparation before he wrote—It shows throughout the volume. Again, and again, he makes the point (rightly) that we don’t get direction from God in any other way than through the divinely-inspired book, the Bible. Good! Good! Good!
The book considers the purpose of Proverbs, what proverbs are. How they may (should ) be used, etc. You will learn much about Proverbs, in general. Very few verses are considered out of a book as large as Proverbs, but from those that are, you learn how to go about understanding and using the book. There is a large section on the home and marriage/parental relationships as set forth in proverbs (a major reason for Book).
There is much help in this work—it is useful for preachers and laymen alike (the latter need not be afraid—get it and use it). Indeed, the Book would be a good group study guide. I cannot commend it for such purposes highly enough!
Thanks, Dr. Adams, and God continue to bless and use you in His service.
Remember: today is the last day to get the 50% off. Christmas is coming. Counselors, pastors, teachers, friends of all sorts would find use for the material in the book. Find out more for yourself in this post.
Perhaps some of you who've been reading it can add your thoughts to Dr. Adams'.
19 comments:
I can definitely say that I am excited for our small group study of the book which we're starting on Friday. We have six families getting together to work through the book...I'm expecting that we'll spend about 5 months going through it (we're meeting every other week).
The feedback I have gotten from others in the group has been positive so far. And I have heard the same comments from others reading the book that it is firmly based on Scripture and that you have packed a lot into the book from Scripture.
Personally, this book challenged me both in my reading and in my application of Scripture. I think that anybody who really takes the time to read this book and think about it will be better off for having done so. At least I have found that to be the case for myself.
Thanks, Robert. Praise God.
Oh, BTW, your (and my) regularly-scheduled Turk should be up tomorrow. We traded because of the sale deadline.
That's Frank for you. Always thinking of our readers.
"Again, and again, he makes the point (rightly) that we don’t get direction from God in any other way than through the divinely-inspired book, the Bible. Good! Good! Good!"
That is the major selling point of God's Wisdom in Proverbs. We get to share in the riches of what Dan has studied because He takes Sola Scriptura seriously.
OTOH, if you're dense enough to be so inclined to a more PO-MO liberal worldview, well, this book ain't that at all.
Also, this book leads you to be actionable. Just praising/thanking your wife, or something like that, goes a long way in being blessed and building a godly home.
I'm telling y'all-GET.THIS.BOOK.
Okay, Okay... I'll buy a copy :)
I'm giving it to my Dad because he struggles with Proverbs 26:4-5.
And he won't read TeamPyro :(
Well, get one for yourself, too. It's a 2-for-1 price!
I just bought the book. I purchased it primarily because I'm interested to see how you treat the fear of the Lord and singleness. I live in a theological wasteland and I simply havne't seen Sola Scriptura applied in the realm of singleness. Too much talk of feeling, waiting, peace, "the one," etc.
Thanks, Raine. There is a good deal of material on both subjects. I hope it's helpful to you.
Just ordered one for my wife for her stocking (and one for my library). She likes to mark up books a lot more than I do.
She must not be a Pyro reader, or... poof! There goes the surprise!
Between my wife and me, I'm the marker. She likes to say she prefers to read books after I do, so she can read my marks along with it.
(c:
I've bookmarked Pyros, Biblical Christianity, GTY and Hip and Thigh on her laptop recently, but she hasn't commented yet what she's read. Know she was listening to something from John MacArthur the other day. All this came about after we had an excellent discussion about this crawling infiltration of 'hearing God speaking', in this case dealing with the book Jesus Calling, in this case also writing down what He says. My wife is solid on this, but some of the women in her Bible study think this is a 'wonderful resource'. So, I gave her these sites because all are so consistently and firmly cessational (is that a word). Anyway, if she sees it, that's OK because she'll know that she's getting something from someone I think highly of, and, if she doesn't, she'll be surprised with a book by someone I think highly of. Either way--win!
Oh, as Adams notes, she'll see a lot more about that in the book.
DJP,
Do you seek to put the book of Proverbs in its wider canonical/theological context? If so, how so? If not, ... :-)
Seriously, yes, that is a constant refrain in the book, at basically every turn.
Wonderful! I figured you did that. Can you give a brief synopsis? I'm just wondering becasue I am reading Beale's new book and he mentions this issue.
"OK, I've said enough about my books. What do you think about my books?"
Before reading this book, Proverbs had been one of the most-neglected books for me, because I had never gotten much out of it. The reason is simple enough - I always read Proverbs during a through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan where you read 3-4 chapters a day, or in a "hey, this month has 31 days, read a chapter of Proverbs a day!" plan. Predictably enough, those plans fail miserably at getting anything worthwhile from this book, which is not meant for raking but digging.
So now I take a different approach - take them one at a time. Not one chapter. One. Take a single 2-line proverb, and work at it, and reconstruct the parable behind it, and work at it some more, and try to wring every last drop of insight out of it. That also can make a 7-hour drive over Thanksgiving a lot more enjoyable, and makes great conversation with the wife (and theoretically kids, when they're old enough to participate).
That all to say, I've benefited greatly from this book, and look forward to benefiting even more from Proverbs.
So yeah, if you haven't got it yet, get a few. Read one, give the others away.
trogdor,
Just think of how many years you get to work on digging deep into these Proverbs and discussing with your wife in preparation for when you do get to talk to your children about them. That is a great blessing. My boys are old enough and I've been having some of those conversations with them and it is quite a blessing. Just another reason that I am thankful for Dan's work on this book.
Variety is the spice of life and while I'm certain this is a good book that can stand on it's own merits, it will be hard-pressed to stand alongside Bridges work. Especially so now that Bridges commentary can be added FREE to e-Sword!
At $24.99 I'm afraid I'll have to wait until someone can loan it to me.
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