VI. THE POSITION OF PROVERBS
IN THE DIVINE REVELATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
Now we need to consider the position of Proverbs in the divine revelation of the Holy Scriptures.
A. The Divine Revelation Being Progressive
The divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures is progressive, from the creation of man in God’s image in the first chapter of Genesis, through many processes in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, to the consummation of the New Jerusalem in the last two chapters of Revelation. Thousands of things are covered in the Bible. The first thing is God’s creation of the heavens and the earth, and the last thing is the New Jerusalem. Between these two ends, the divine revelation goes along with the course of human history.
B. Difficult to Locate
As Proverbs is a collection of the words of the wise of many centuries up to Hezekiah in the seventh century before Christ, it is difficult to locate it in the divine revelation of the Holy Scriptures.
C. A Subsidiary to the Law
Since the proverbs were collected mainly by two kings of Judah in the age of the law, the book of Proverbs may be considered a subsidiary to the law. The law is the portrait of God, demanding God’s people to keep it that they might be made copies of God for His expression and glorification. Proverbs as a subsidiary to the law helps God’s people to keep the law.
Because the law was written according to what God is, the law tells man how to behave and how to build up himself according to God’s attributes. God is love and light, and God is holy and righteous. These are some of God’s attributes. For God to create man in His own image means that God created man according to what He is, that is, according to His attributes. The law, which was written according to God’s attributes, demands that man behave and build himself up according to God. Regarding this, Proverbs is a subsidiary part of the law, instructing people how to behave and how to build themselves up according to what God is. This helps us to see what the position of Proverbs probably is in the divine revelation in the Scriptures.
(Life-Study of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
