OUR NEED TO KNOW THE PROPER WAY
TO TAKE THE BOOK OF PROVERBS
We may know the position of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs in the Bible, but we may not know the way to take the book of Proverbs. Proverbs gives us wisdom to be a proper person and to do the right things. But for whom is this wisdom given, and how should this one use it? Is the wisdom in Proverbs for the fallen man? The Old Testament does not reveal the proper way to take the book of Proverbs because the divine revelation had not progressed to this extent at Solomon’s time. Solomon did not receive very much of the divine revelation. Rather, he wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs according to his observations of humanity and of the universe and according to his experiences of falling away from God, of repenting, and of returning to God.
GOD’S REDEMPTION
BEING A GREAT PART OF HIS ECONOMY
To use the book of Proverbs properly, we must know God’s economy. God’s economy is that God became man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead to produce the organism of the Triune God, the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem.
The Need for Redemption
A great part of God’s economy is His redemption. Redemption indicates that something is wrong, requiring a rescue and a remedy. Redemption is needed because after God created man for the fulfillment of His economy, the subtle one, Satan, came in to seduce man from the line of God’s economy to sin. Man fell into sin, and sin as the sinful nature of Satan was injected by Satan into man’s nature. As a result, the God-created man became sin, poisoned by Satan.
God’s Way to Carry Out His Redemption
How does God carry out His redemption to rescue fallen man? None of the traditional theological systems provide a clear and adequate answer to this question. The answer can be found only through a careful, thorough, and detailed study of the Bible.
To understand the Bible is not easy. We have spent more than seventy years to study the Bible. The Bible is like a big jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces scattered throughout it. We need to put all the pieces together in order to have the complete picture. Brother Nee read through over three thousand classical Christian books on various subjects and collected many precious items, or "pieces," from them, which he passed on to me. During the past seventy years we have been putting together the pieces of this great "puzzle." Now we have a picture of the whole Bible, and we can see in a detailed way how God’s redemption is related to His economy and how His redemption is carried out.
(Life-Study of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
