Something To Gnaw On

A Crash Course Throught The Old Testament, Part 9 (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, & Song of Solomon)

• Nathan Vainio • Season 2 • Episode 15

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Something to Knoll on Podcast, a short podcast for the Christian, with a short attention span, and this is a crash course through the Old Testament, where we're breaking down the Old Testament book by book, making it a little less intimidating and easier to process. And if you're a seasoned student of the Bible, well, just look at this as a refresher course. And I'm your host, nate Vainio. This episode is part nine, covering Proverbs, ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. He who chases two rabbits catches neither. Three can keep a secret if two are dead. He who would love life and see old age should not root for the 49ers while living in Southwest Missouri in 2024. As you can tell, today we're going to wrap up our crash course through the third section of the Old Testament, the books of wisdom, or poetry as some call them. Today we're going to hit the books that Solomon is believed to have written Proverbs, ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon.

Speaker 1:

I've worked in sales most of my life and I've always been humored by those who have had sales success and have had the guts to share their secrets. I say that somewhat sarcastically, but hang with me here by my own observations, which, admittedly, may be skewed. I've noticed a couple of things. First, the people who line up to hear the secrets are looking for a silver bullet, that one little nugget that will break wide open the gates of wealth, as if there was only one bullet needed. And two, the people speaking often present their secret to success as some new and grandiose way of doing business, and it's not. It may be new in the sense that some of the adjectives have changed in the products being sold, or new, but long before this present sales guru was a guy named Zig Ziglar, and before him was Napoleon Hill and a contemporary of his was Carnegie. And you could go back and play this Levitical family tree game all the way back to Solomon, who makes the statement that stands the test of time in the book of Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. Sure, it's repackaged, rewrapped, relaunched, reworked, regurgitated and presented as new, in the same way that the local convenience store leaves a sign up that says under new management. It's always under new management because they can't keep anyone employed. There's nothing new about it and there's nothing new under the sun. The beauty of the book of Proverbs is that it has 31 chapters. As a result, I know many people who make a habit of reading one chapter per day to stay sharp. It's one of the reasons I believe that this is one of the most read books of the Old Testament.

Speaker 1:

People long for the three main elements found in the book knowledge, wisdom and understanding. In Proverbs, you find these principles in bite-sized form. It's a quick reference guide in that sense If you're making a financial decision, read Proverbs. If you're making a relational decision, read Proverbs. If you're making an employment decision, read Proverbs. If you're making a decision regarding discipline or training a child, read Proverbs. If you're making a career decision, read Proverbs. If you're in conflict of any kind, read Proverbs. And if you have no decisions in front of you at the moment, read Proverbs anyways and see what wisdom the Lord lays on you for your protection and for your benefit. Consider it a collection of concise, practical sayings that provide guidance for righteous living. At least when I ask chat GPT for a quick definition of the book, that's what it gave me. You've got to give credit where credit is due, right? Anyhow, proverbs ends up being the synopsis of wisdom, jotted down in quick reference format by King Solomon, with two chapters written by a guy named Ager or Auger or Ager Depends on where you put the emphasis on which syllable and the other guy by the name of Lemuel. These names are killing me. Anyhow, moving on In this series, I spent a lot of time running through the history books and I think it's important here to also suggest that before diving into these books not just Proverbs, but Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon as well it'd be good to go to 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles and read up on the life of Solomon to get a background or context from which he writes.

Speaker 1:

I mentioned in one of the episodes of Handling Conflict King David style that Solomon's teaching and Proverbs is most likely an extension of what David had taught him. So having a handle on these relationships will help lay the context for this writing. And you can find that reference in Proverbs 4, by the way, I always find myself coming back to Jeremiah 31, 33 and 34. Where God speaks of putting his law on our minds and writing it on our hearts so that we will know him firsthand. And if ever there was a book of the Bible that cuts to the quick in terms of wisdom, it is this. Certainly it's great to read the latest bestseller and certainly it's great to hear great conference speakers, where the latest voices share their perspectives and experience, and wordsmith the same time-tested truth. But don't forget, god's promise is for you to know him firsthand, and this book is one of the quickest and clearest ways for him to clean the cobwebs out of your mental mechanism and guide you through the mental mind field of life.

Speaker 1:

I would challenge you, as this is the beginning of the month, to take this month and read one chapter of Proverbs a day. I doubt that everything you read will apply, but I guarantee you that something in every chapter will and it will be important for that day. I dare you One chapter a day. Book two for today's discussion is Ecclesiastes. If I could describe Ecclesiastes with a midwestern redneck proverb, it would be this there's some dumb and there's plum dumb. I'm going to shoot straight and blunt here. This is a tough book. Proverbs is pretty simple and clear and you can take one chapter or verse or a proverb at a time and run with it. Not the case in Ecclesiastes.

Speaker 1:

Ecclesiastes is believed to have been written by Solomon, as well as the other two books we're studying today, but the context here is a bit more complex. In broad strokes, ecclesiastes deals with the meaning of life, what's important and what's not. But he sure takes his time getting there and it's a brutal process. This is not a book that you simply read one chapter by itself and gain a clear understanding and move on. You really need to read it all, and probably with a study Bible of some sort, if not a couple of different versions as well. And why? You ask Well, was Solomon the wisest man ever?

Speaker 1:

Yes, did Solomon make bad choices? Yes, that phrase, bad choices, is the term they use in school these days. Make good choices, make. He made bad choices. I've heard that from a teacher too, as of late. I won't point out any one of my kids at this moment, but I'm just saying I have experience with those words in schools in these days. So, anyhow, solomon made some bad choices. Yes, in his book, the wisest man ever doesn't just make a mistake, he paints a masterpiece with mistakes.

Speaker 1:

Give me a minute to dumb it down by painting a few pictures of my own. They're pretty simple. Picture number one there's a mouse trap with a piece of bright yellow cheese at the center. The trap has been sprung and there's a girthy mouse with a metal bar that has nearly decapitated him. He's lifeless, his days are over, and the proverb caption would read yellow cheese is the trap for the lazy, or something like that. Picture two there's a mouse trap with a piece of bright yellow cheese at the center, a mouse with an Arthur Fonzarelli black leather jacket and an evil, conical red, white and blue helmet on. At a distance, he's contemplating the speed at which he will have to leap onto the cheese and the proper angle with which he should have to exit the trap and at what speed it is absolutely necessary to do so to avoid the metal bar so as to outsmart, outwit and otherwise defy the laws of physics to gain said cheese with superior intellect. Picture three Picture three is almost the same as picture one, except the mouse has a black leather jacket and a helmet on, and he isn't quite dead yet. Eventually, yes, but incapacitated at the moment and capable of reliving the error of his way without ever being able to correct it.

Speaker 1:

This picture three is more like Ecclesiastes. It's like a man at the end of his life, regretting, or at least lamenting, the decisions that he's made with his years on earth and realizing what things in life really matter. And I would encourage you to read it for yourself and to dig into the whole book. It really is a good book, but I would simply caution that it is a bit tough to process at times and could be problematic to read in short pieces. For instance, he talks at one point about work being vain and striving after the wind, and obviously if this is not set in context of the whole book, we end up with a totally inaccurate perspective of work. The insanity or the humanity of this book is that Solomon is like us all. We look at the rules and we think to ourselves they were written for the other guy. I can use wisdom and I can work around the consequences and I can get the cheese. And one of the messages in Ecclesiastes is that those who employ this Solomon-like attitude will end up looking like the mouse in picture 3. So one last broad stroke on Ecclesiastes. Where Proverbs offers practical advice for righteous living, ecclesiastes delves into the complexities of humanity, questioning the ultimate purpose and meaning of life in a world filled with endless attractions and distractions.

Speaker 1:

Be sure you have your study Bible ready with this one, as well as a few translations or commentaries maybe. If this book was a college course, it would most likely be a 300 or 400 level course. Take your time with it. It's good stuff, so take your time with it. And now for the third book in today's crash course through the Old Testament, the Song of Solomon. And I am going to totally chicken out here and I'm not going to spend much time here. Some of you may be laughing because you're aware of the nature of the book. If you're not laughing but you're scratching your head, well, let me give you enough info to bring you in on the joke here. And keep in mind this is a crash course and that is always my get out of jail free card for things like this. So the deal with Song of Solomon is that it is a book of banter between Solomon and one of his wives, referred to as the Shinnomite, and let's just say the banter gets a bit descriptive and it's all about the topic of marital affection.

Speaker 1:

The classic question about this book then becomes whether or not it was to be interpreted allegorically or literally, and I will say that the language is so graphic that I don't even want to talk about this anymore. I know it's kind of odd, can you tell? I'm uncomfortable with this? I'm okay with that. Thank you, solomon.

Speaker 1:

Anyhow, as a father of four, I have always reserved the right to drive the car past certain exits, like the Song of Solomon in this case, in search of more intriguing points of interest, like section four and five of the Old Testament, which would be the major and minor prophets, which we will get into next week. So, anyhow, I'm done with Song of Solomon. That's all you're getting out of me for this series. Anyhow, moving on, if you feel that you have been cheated out of your bird's eye view of the Song of Solomon, well, I beg your forgiveness. God bless you, but let's not lose sight of the blessing of the books of wisdom, especially Proverbs, and let's dig into them A chapter a day. That's the challenge. We're at the beginning of a new month here. As long as you're not listening to this down the line, if you're listening to this, when this episode has dropped, we're at the beginning of February. What a great time to start reading Proverbs, one chapter at a time. So get after it.

Speaker 1:

In the weeks ahead, we're going to be diving into the prophets, both major and minor. I can't tell you that. I have a guest lined out that I am looking forward to introducing to you. I'm going to be talking to one of the prophets, but I also want to give you a heads up that we will probably not go through all of the prophets. I guess I have to leave a little bit of meat on the bone, so to speak, for you to dig into it in your own study. But I'm guessing maybe four more episodes in the series. But I'm thoroughly stoked for this last look at the prophets. I think it's really going to help people tie the old and the New Testament together in a better way.

Speaker 1:

Also, before we sign off today, please be sure to check out our merch store. The link will be in the show notes. For the month of February, we'll be having free shipping on purchases of two items or more, and we've added several shirts and hoodies different styles and colors, as well as well as a few mugs and water bottles to kind of broaden the collection there. And for those who would just want a little sticker, we've got some cool not on scripture stickers for you as well. Check those out. Anyhow, as always, thank you for your support. Thank you for your ratings and your reviews and liking and sharing episodes that you think will have an impact on those you know and love. We appreciate you greatly and trust that this is a blessing to you. Until next week, god bless.