Some of the best advice I have ever received was told to me shortly after I entered college: In every month that has 31 days read one chapter a day from the book of Proverbs. In two days, we begin the month of December. It has 31 days; I highly recommend that you dedicate five to ten minutes each day in December to read the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month. Such a practice will bless you abundantly and help you to develop the practice of looking at matters of time from heaven’s viewpoint.
Solomon explains it like this: “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion” (Proverbs 1:1-4). The fourfold purpose of the book of Proverbs is:
- To inform—to state what is right and wrong, wise and foolish, and to instruct how to act correctly and shrewdly.
- To make perceptive—to develop the ability to discern truth from error, wheat from tares, and to winnow Satan’s chaff away from divine truth.
- To instruct—to show the hook that is hidden by the bait of temptation, and to tell of the yet unseen destination that the broad way of sin always leads to.
- To avoid foolish mistakes—to elude the ravenous spiritual predator called Satan who seeks to prey upon the naïve and gullible.
The promise of success given in verses 5 and 6—”A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles”—makes this a pursuit worthy of all diligence.
