Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

As we begin to make our way through the proverbs, it's important to set up our

expectations for this book well. This is wisdom literature. It's compiled by

multiple authors over time, though Solomon is the primary author.

As a reminder, wisdom literature has to be handled kind of differently than other categories of books

in scripture.

The things we read here aren't God's laws or advice, they aren't prophecies or promises.

These proverbs are the accumulated wisdom and general insights of a variety of people who

have observed the world closely and then aim to demonstrate the moral mindset

of what it means to love God in every aspect of their lives. We have to be careful not

to act like these general rules are promises we can cling to because there are exceptions to these rules.

In fact, the other wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiasties show us what those exceptions

look like.

For instance, Proverbs may make it sound like the wise

and godly will avoid pain and suffering, but Job proves the exception. That's one of the

many reasons why it's important for us to read all of scripture and not just pluck

things out of context that make us feel good or empowered or worse yet entitled.

I know it can be challenging if you're having to adjust your mindset on these things

but hang in there.

Keep looking for what these verses reveal to you about who God is.

It might be extra challenging in the Proverbs because so much of it can feel like a

personal to-do list.

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