Not an enigma

Proverbs 1:5-7 A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, 6 To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Sometimes I just love going back to the book of Proverbs; tidbits of knowledge in only a few short sentences that the Holy Spirit can speak volumes to me at just the right time. I am always amazed at how Solomon sums up life and it’s complexities so directly. Sometimes I am saddened that I don’t get the simpleness that it states, for my life is twisted into the complexities that sin and this world I live in have pulled me into. Life really doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it out to be; simplicity is found in following these tidbits of truth that Solomon penned for us thousands of years ago that still ring true today.

In the opening of his book, here in only the first seven verses are the prerequisites for everything that follows. If you don’t know God, if you don’t have holy reverent fear for the God of the universe, you won’t understand these proverbs. You can’t rely on your own understanding, your paths and supposed wisdom will lead you astray. If you don’t know God, and you don’t possess his Spirit, you will be blinded to the truths found here. The Holy Spirit is who opens the truths of God to your mind. John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

You must understand, you will not understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit living inside of you. You may pick up the Bible for the first time with a heart seeking God, and God do a work that no man can do; you find Him there and repent and believe on the Christ that you read and see and feel there. When you do repent and believe you gain Him living in yourself as the Spirit of God. That greater your respect and reverent fear of Him, the more he reveals to you. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. Without him the Bible would be just a book, and the book of Proverbs just some good riddles to live by. With Him it is the Word of God and Proverbs is a book of incredible knowledge stated in simple terms; not an enigma at all.