Solomon’s proverbs: Proverbs 25−29
As part of his religious reforms, Hezekiah’s officials selected some of Solomon’s 3000 proverbs and copied them into a single collection. It makes the fifth group of proverbs that we now have.
Some stand out for readers of the New Testament:
25:6-7 Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence
or stand in the place of the great;
for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here’,
than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
When Jesus noticed people fighting for the best seat at the table, he told this parable:
Luke 14:8-11 When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honour, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’
Jesus’ Jewish audience would have had to have known the reference.
It reads as if a Rabbi took the scriptures, then extended their application to everyday life. Jesus, of course, went one step further, and made the point that even the most humble would be accepted into a rich man’s banquet:
Luke 14:21-23Then the owner of the house … said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
(This parable is about more than that … so go and read the it for yourself.)
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