Choosing Wisdom will give you God's Gifts which you will never lose! 

                                                                             Choosing Folly will give you the World's Gifts which you can never keep!

 

PROVERBS MAIN CHARACTERS

 

The Book of Proverbs contains an enormous amount of teaching and advice: statements about money, marriage, sex, work, relationships, communication, education, discipline, godliness….and the list goes on.

 

The teaching can be organized around four main characters who keep surfacing through the book.  Two characters the Wise and the Godly, are presented as models for those who follow the teaching of Proverbs.

 

Their counterparts, the Fool and the Wicked, are presented as warnings against ignoring what Proverbs teaches.  Carefully study these four characters as models and warning.

 

The references to each of these characters are too numerous to include, so as you read this chart understand that the passages included are extremely limited. You might want to do a more thorough study on your own.

 

In Proverbs the wise person is seen as one who develops fours skills and uses them well.

1. The ability to gather information, to learn facts, to seek and find knowledge.

2. The ability to develop insight, sharpness of understanding and discernment. A wise person works to understand the information he gathers.

3. The ability to comprehend issues, develop mental sophistication and expand breadth of experience.

4. To combine the three functions in a way that results in skilled use of the mind.  The word translated "wisdom" in Proverbs is translated "skill" in many of the Old Tesament Passages.

• He is equipped for a life of growth.

• He is protected from problems and tragedy.

• His mouth is guarded.

• He has power over the powerful.

• He is equipped to help others.

Three words are translated "fool" in Proverbs:

1. The first kind of fool has no desire to learn and is interested only in foolishness.  He is characterized by insufficient mental ability.

2. The second kind, a bit more intense in his foolishness, is morally perverse and insolent.  He is more sinful than stupid and he is a trouble maker.

3. This kind of fool is ignoble. He has no sense of ethics or religion and is shameless and uncaring.

• He rejects learning and growth.

• He creates problems for himself and others.

• He is unrepentant

• He becomes known for his Folly.