The book of Proverbs - quite possibly the most subversive book of the Bible
The book of Proverbs is the combined knowledge of generations of people, and much of it is the collected sayings of King Solomon, who was the wisest man ever to live. The Bible specifically says that no man wiser than Solomon has come before him nor will come after him. This is shown in the book of Kings, where Solomon asks God for wisdom. Here we see God's reply:
God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.
1 Kings 3: 11- 13
We see here than Solomon was granted wisdom by God. Assuming he is the wisest man ever to have lived, then if we desire to follow words of wisdom we should pay particular attention to the parts of the Bible that are attributed to Solomon. These writings are written by someone far wiser than the wise men of today such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.
The part containing the most direct instructions on wisdom and life is the book of Proverbs. It is at first tempting to view Proverbs merely in a "legalistic" manner, where we are told "do this" and "don't do that".
After the fourth time reading Proverbs, I went through it on the assumption that these are literally the way we should aim to be.
Proverbs therefore can be a lens that we can turn toward ourselves. Viewing myself through Proverbs was rather scary, because there were many areas where I didn't measure up. I attest that it's not an easy or "nice" exercise to do, and I don't expect any human being will find it a flattering lens with which to view themselves. However, it's worth doing. I then turned this lens toward some leaders and viewed them through it. While some leaders came out not too different before and after viewing them through the lens of Proverbs, other leaders looked really bad after viewing them through the lens of Proverbs. These leaders were the ones who did a lot of things opposite from what Solomon recommends.
At this point, I had a revelation, which was that man was never meant to be led by man. Human leaders are imperfect, and all fall short. I'm not suggesting we resort to anarchy: for example, better-than-average leaders might be good bosses in the workplace, for example. We still need leaders just to keep the community functioning. But the human leaders we have today are merely a poor stand-in for the time when we will be ruled by a perfect leader in Heaven: Jesus.
Therefore, the leaders of today are the equivalent of duct tape or of using the spare tire. They are a temporary stand-in for our true leader, Jesus Christ.
This inevitable conclusion would clearly be painful for an unscrupulous leader to hear. I wondered whether some leaders were tempted to ban the book of Proverbs. But in a way, much of that book is "hidden". It's hidden in plain sight as guidelines for daily living, which are useful in themselves. Yet the book of Proverbs can also be turned into a lens, which I think is fascinating.
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