Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. Today we will be going over Proverb 9. I will then key in on verse 9 - Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Friends, I predicate this entire podcast on nurturing the concept that everyone that will tune into this podcast needs to have more wisdom in their everyday lives. On today's podcast I will give a brief overview of the Old Testament. I'm of the belief that there are people who tune into this podcast that are not on a regular habit of reading the Bible. So - I feel the need to introduce the Old Testament to these people. The OT has 39 books, and these 39 books can be grouped into five categories - 3 groups of 5 & 2 groups of 12. That would be 15 + 24 or 39 books. The first grouping of 5 were the books written by Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The first grouping of 12 are known as the historical books. The 2nd grouping of 5 are the books of wisdom (or love books) - Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. The 3rd grouping of 5 are known as the major prophets (although there are only four men) - Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Lamentations of Jeremiah - so the author is still Jeremiah), Ezekiel, & Daniel. The final grouping is the second grouping of 12 and these books are known as the minor prophets.
Call to Action - How important is having wisdom to you? I encourage you to listen to this podcast every day, or, at least, to read the chapter of proverbs every day.
[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs. So, open and prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.
[00:00:27] Lord, I pray that you would bless everyone in the listening audience. I pray that as they go into the weekend that they would sense your presence
[00:00:37] and that they would have a renewed, unnauthing on their life to share the gospel. I ask this in Jesus name, amen. This is Proverbs 9, beginning in verse 1.
[00:00:50] Wisdom has built her house. She has hewned out her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also furnished her table. She has sent out her maidens.
[00:01:05] She cries out from the highest places of the city. Whoever is simple let him turn in here as for him who lacks understanding. She says to him, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
[00:01:24] For sake foolishness and live, and go in the way of understanding. He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer, less he hate you.
[00:01:45] Review a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a just man and he will increase in learning.
[00:02:00] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One to understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, and if you scoff, you will bear it alone.
[00:02:24] A foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knows nothing for she sits at the door of her house on a seat by the highest places of the city to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their way.
[00:02:42] Whoever is simple let him turn in here and ask for him who lacks understanding. She says to him, stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant but he does not know that the dead are there.
[00:03:01] That her guests are in the depths of hell. Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 9 and proper 9 verse 9 says this. I'm going to give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a just man and he will increase in learning.
[00:03:28] Friends, I'm going to do something a little bit different today. I know on my podcast I sometimes make reference to the fact that many of you or some of you that are listening today may not be in the habit of reading the Bible on a regular basis.
[00:03:48] Many of you have never read the entire Bible. You are not all that familiar with the Old Testament. So what I'm going to do today is I am going to give a brief overview of the entire Old Testament.
[00:04:06] Now, if any of you are interested in beginning a Bible reading program I suggest that you may want to take a few notes if you have the ability to do that.
[00:04:20] So I'm going to give you about a minute to go and fetch a piece of paper or a notebook, maybe a pen, try to get a glass of water or something or refreshment.
[00:04:32] And I'd like to read a little bit about this overview because I know a lot of people just I have heard people say I just don't know that much about the Old Testament.
[00:04:47] I don't read it that much, you know, and I don't know where to go in the Old Testament. So anyway, I am going to instruct you and give you a few pointers that I think might enlighten some of you and may give you a few ideas about where to dig in if you do have a desire to look at the Old Testament.
[00:05:12] The first thing that I want everybody to know is that there are 39 books in the Old Testament.
[00:05:20] And we can break these 39 books into five groupings. So at the top of your paper or your notebook what you can do is write the numbers five and then 12 and then five and then another five and then another 12.
[00:05:44] So this is very easy to remember the only two numbers you need to remember are the numbers five and 12. So we have three groupings of five which total 15 and two groupings of 12, which total 24 and if you add 24 and 15 together you obviously will get 39.
[00:06:07] So anyway, the first grouping of five books were all written by Moses. Now we are all familiar with Moses and the Exodus.
[00:06:19] But Moses also wrote the first book of the Bible, which course is Genesis. Personally I think that's pretty intriguing because Moses was literally born in the Bible in chapter two of the book of Exodus this is when he was born.
[00:06:42] But through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit instructed Moses about the beginning of the Bible. So the first five books of the Bible if you're not familiar with them are Genesis and then Exodus and then Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy.
[00:07:05] Now friends, I'm going to talk a little bit about Genesis because it's such an important book in the Bible. The book of Genesis explains the creation of the world and the course the world was created in six days and on the seventh day God rested from his labors of creating the earth.
[00:07:27] I think it's a fascinating book. We first learn about creation then we learn about the first couple Adam and Eve. We learn about their two children, Cain and Abel and we find out that the first recorded murder in the Bible took place very early in the first book and Cain murdered his brother Abel.
[00:07:50] Next we meet a man named Noah and we know of course that Noah built an art and the world was a great flood and the flood came destroyed all of the world except for Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives. So had it not been for those eight people, we may not be here today.
[00:08:15] God could have just cleansed his hands of all humanity and said you know it's just not worth it. The God so loved the world that he said no I'm not going to let that happen.
[00:08:29] So through Noah he rebuilt the entire world. Next we go to the book of Exodus and I already mentioned in the second chapter of Exodus Moses is born and Moses has lived alive 120 years.
[00:08:47] So Moses had three periods of 40 years in his life. So at the age of 40 he was called by God to go and check out his and stress tree. They Hebrew people.
[00:09:01] But very early during that time he actually murdered and Egyptian and a couple of the Hebrew people found out about it and they began to spread rumors that Moses had done this. So he had to escape into the wilderness for 40 years.
[00:09:20] So when Moses was 80 years old God called him out of the wilderness and said I want you to go and set my people free. So he went to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt and we all know the story.
[00:09:35] There were many, many plagues and during those plagues God revealed himself and over the course of time all of the Egyptian army was killed in the Red Sea.
[00:09:48] Fascinating, fascinating story. Next we have Leviticus numbers and due to ronomy and all I'm going to do is basically say that those are really the book of the law three books about the law.
[00:10:03] But that's all I'm going to say. Next we go to the first grouping of 12. These 12 books of the Bible are called the historical books. So I'm going to just name them Joshua judges, Ruth first and second Samuel first and second kings first and second chronicles Ezra and Nehemiah.
[00:10:33] And the last one is Ezra. Now friends at one point Ezra and Nehemiah were one book and sometime over history for some reason they divided Ezra into Ezra and Nehemiah. All of these books are historical. They talk about the history of Israel and Judah during this time period. I personally would recommend every one of these.
[00:11:02] Joshua is the person who took over once Moses died. Judges was a period of time in Israel when they got sent a certain judge to give the people of Israel an opportunity to come and basically you know come to God because the people, you know would not follow the rules that God wanted them to do.
[00:11:28] Ruth is an excellent book. Many people know of the book of Ruth a short four chapter book and basically it's a book of grace, a wonderful book. And if you want to like just get your feet wet a little bit with the Old Testament, I suggest that you may want to visit Ruth.
[00:11:52] Now first and second Samuel basically give the history of King David. Now of course in first Samuel he is not king yet actually second Samuel is when David is coronated king. So basically first Samuel is his exploits. This is when he kills the giant Goliath in chapter 17.
[00:12:16] And by the time we get to second Samuel he is now king. And then we go to first and second kings and that goes over the history of the kings of both Jerusalem and Judah.
[00:12:33] And first and second chronicles basically coincide with first and second kings. And what I mean by that is many of the stories in first and second kings are also found in first and second chronicles.
[00:12:49] And there may be a little twist here and there. But you go wow that's the same exact story and it is the same exact story, but there's a little bit differentiation between the two.
[00:13:02] As Re and Nehemiah as I mentioned was originally just one book. And of course Esther we all know that Esther is a wonderful book and Esther basically saved all of the Jewish people from being annihilated during the time that she lived.
[00:13:19] Now let's go to the second grouping of five and these are called the books of wisdom or Psalms. And basically these books and those are Job a 40 chapter book Psalms which is the most red book in the entire Bible, Proverbs.
[00:13:40] And this is what this podcast is predicated upon a crazy asteez which was also written by King Solomon and song of Solomon, which is basically a book on love.
[00:13:57] Next grouping of five are the major prophets and although it's five there were actually only four people. This is Isaiah many people consider him the greatest prophet that ever lived then we go to Jeremiah, but after Jeremiah is the lamentations of Jeremiah.
[00:14:20] So the lamentations which is a short five chapter book was also written by Jeremiah. Then we go to the book of Ezekiel, but I find it really interesting because the last grouping of the major prophets is a man called Daniel and Daniel is only a 12 chapter book.
[00:14:46] But many people have basically determined that the major prophets are different than the minor prophets because of the length of the book and the amount of material.
[00:14:58] But Daniel only has 12 chapters and yet there are two books of the minor prophets, Joseah which has 14 chapters as well as Ezekiel.
[00:15:10] So I really think Daniel is included in the major prophets because it is one of the primary books of prophecy in the Bible and because of the very momentous stories that are found in the book of Daniel.
[00:15:33] Many people know about the three people that were put in the fiery furnace and only three people went in. These were Daniel, his three friends that they were went in but then after that they looked and there were four people there.
[00:15:51] Jesus was actually among the three people in that and we also know the very famous story about the Dan of lions and how Daniel was thrown into a den of lions. He survived the entire night.
[00:16:07] I just think that's one of the most fascinating stories of the entire Bible. So another place you may want to consider is beginning in the book of Daniel.
[00:16:19] Now let's go to the 12 minor prophets and I will quickly go over these one is Joseah. One is Joel. Amos, Ovidaya and Ovidaya is and one chapter book.
[00:16:34] So if you want to check that out, that's an interesting place you could start and the Old Testament say, well yeah I've checked out the Old Testament. One chapter book. What do you have to lose?
[00:16:46] Then we go to Jonah and Jonah of course is one of my favorite books of the Bible only four chapters. I would recommend that you check that out. And of course, Jonah was called to preach the word of God. He was called by God to go to den of a at that time in the city of den of a and you know God called him to preach to them and Jonah said no a matter of fact he bought a ticket in for a boat that actually was going in.
[00:17:15] The opposite direction and many of you know what happened. God caused a great storm to come and the boat was looked like it was going to be lost and they went down and they found Jonah in the boat and they knocked on his door and said who are you? What's going on? And he said I'm running away from God and they were so fearful they feared for their lives and they said what must we do and they said you've got a throw the overboard and they didn't want to do it but they finally did.
[00:17:45] And as soon as they did the storm left one of the most awesome stories of the entire Bible next we go to Micah then we go to Nae home and Nae home is interesting. It's only two books after Jonah and yet it's 150 years later after Jonah had been in the belly of the fish for three days he accepted the call to go to the church.
[00:18:15] And then Nae and the church said that he was going to do the same thing but eventually over the course of the next 150 years they turned away from God and in the short book of Nae home another three chapter book very interesting book.
[00:18:41] And then we go to a great story. Zephanaya, Hagei, Zechariah and the Old Testament closes with a wonderful four chapter book of Malachi.
[00:18:59] Now friends I hope this has been beneficial for some of you and you know I still am going to recommend the book of Psalms and Proverbs.
[00:19:12] Personally I suggest that you read out of these every day if you possibly can. My podcast is predicated on wisdom and God told me the Holy Spirit told me to when I began this podcast that I was supposed to read the proverb of the day every day.
[00:19:32] And I believe this and I will believe this until I breathe my last hear on earth. I believe all people need wisdom. I think we all need more wisdom that we currently have.
[00:19:43] I think we should strive to build as much wisdom as we can which brings me to my verse of the day today. And I had picked.
[00:19:54] I have heard 9 verse 9 and what I'd like to do is just quickly review that before we close today. And it says give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser.
[00:20:08] If you want to be wise read the book of Proverbs teach a just man and he will increase in learning. Friends we should have the desire to have wisdom in our life, to use wisdom in our life and to live our entire lives predicated on wisdom.
[00:20:35] We should do the best we can in all we do using wisdom. And what I mean by that is basically do the next right thing be loving, be kind, be careful with the words that come out of your mouth.
[00:20:52] If you're going to give advice to people ask the Lord, the words that should come up out of your mouth. So friends very quickly my call to action today is a very simple one as we close out this week.
[00:21:07] I'd like to you to ask yourself this do I use wisdom and I wise and I familiar with the book of Proverbs is it interesting to me is it important to me to listen to this daily podcast on wisdom.
[00:21:28] Friends I always talk about wisdom I try to give you good advice I give you ideas that I believe will benefit you and friends I want to make one thing perfectly clear any time I offer a suggestion.
[00:21:45] I don't want anyone to suggest or even think I am telling you what to do I'm not you are free to do what you feel the Holy Spirit is telling you to do.
[00:22:02] I simply plant a seed in your mind. I try to give you the way and wisdom that I have learned to live my life by and it's working for me my life right now is better than it's ever been.
[00:22:23] I feel I'm more in tune with a Holy Spirit than I've ever been and I believe that I right now am in the perfect will of God and friends there's no better place to be in life.
[00:22:37] So friends I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. If there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that step I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.
[00:22:53] Jesus I believe that you came to earth and died on a cross for me. I believe that you are the son of God. I believe that by dying on that cross you have reconciled me to Almighty God.
[00:23:09] I believe that you've taken care and forgiven me of all my sins and I am eternally grateful for that. However, I still need your help. I have issues going on in other areas of my life. I ask you to come into my heart.
[00:23:26] I ask you to lead me and guide me from this point forward. I make you my Lord and Savior. Now, made a Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make it stay shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[00:23:42] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Friends, this is the weekend. Go out with your husband or your wife. Take your kids out. Go and have a fun time this weekend.
[00:24:00] Make it a nice family, get together, a family gathering. Go out and have fun and let them know how much God loves them and how much you love them. And I will see you back on Monday as we further explore wisdom today.