Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

POOR RICHARD Six hundred years before Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, Solomon wrote three thousand proverbs. Solomon lived four hundred years before Cyrus, during whose reign seven wise men of Greece lived. The Bible says: Thus Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men... (1 Kings 4:30-31). The book of Proverbs is largely from Solomon's pen. Written for young people, the book of Proverbs distills the wisdom of the ages to make it available to youth in an attractive and hard-to-forget form. Falling into five general divisions, the proverbs deal with the advantage of wisdom, the destructive nature of sin, righteous living, virtue, and successful living. Agur wrote some of the proverbs, and an unnamed mother passed others along to her son, Lemuel. Some commentators believe this may have been Bathsheba's instructions to Solomon and that he used the name Lemuel rather than his own. The last chapter of the book is the world's most beautiful tribute to a virtuous woman. Poor Richard gained prominence and popularity for his pithy proverbs. However, most of the sayings Ben Franklin put into Poor Richard's mouth were from other sources. The book of Proverbs in the Bible stands apart because of its originality. It is a practical guide for living, and believers would do well to make a habit of reading the Proverbs regularly. Here, more clearly than any other book, we see the meaning of Paul's words: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16).