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 Ecclesiastes 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, but I'm asking

him to give us all eyes to see him on these pages. Whenever we're covering Proverbs,

you'll notice that many of the verses are standalone ideas. I won't have time to address each verse individually,

so I'll just cover the ones I think might be confusing or problematic or just the ones I really

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