Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 119 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Proverbs - The Background

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 119 of our Trek. For the past three days, we had an extended trek as we explored the reasons we make excuses, which are primarily based in fear. Then, we discovered the types of excuses we make, and yesterday we learned how we can eliminate excuses forever. If you missed any of the past three days, please check out the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal to catch up.

Today we are going to deviate a bit from our scripted wisdom lessons and begin an overview and commentary of the ultimate book of wisdom, which is the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs has more nuggets of wisdom condensed into a short, easy to read book, than any other book ever written.  The truths contained in Proverbs are the basis for most other books of wisdom. We won’t go straight through the book of Proverbs all at once, but we will intermix the commentary with other wisdom nuggets.  As we go through the book of Proverbs, we will be assembling a complete commentary that will be available as an eBook in the future. I will also be assembling the Wisdom-Trek journals into a series of quarterly eBook volumes that will be available for downloading.

Before we get started, I want to remind you of the drawing in celebration of the 100th day of our Wisdom-Trek.  There are only four more days to register and you can register once per day. We will have the drawing on October 5th and will be giving away 7 Wisdom-Trek t-shirts.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. On Saturday, we spent the morning with our four Marietta grandchildren as Elizabeth ran some errands. In the afternoon, we celebrated our granddaughter Hazel’s 1st birthday.  She has just started to walk and is a sweet little redhead with bright eyes and a cute little smile. It was a treat. My dad was also able to attend, so it was really good to spend time together once again as family.

On the days that we spend studying the book of Proverbs, we'll just sit around our campfire, relax, and enjoy the wisdom nuggets that we will consume. These tidbits of wisdom that we will explore are like making s’mores over the fiery coals. They are sweet to our taste and delicious to consume. It also gives us an opportunity to reflect on gaining wisdom.

I am going to keep it more conversational as if we were literally sitting next to each other.  Through the magic of our modern technology I am there right beside you. If you have any comments or questions, please share them in the comment section of our daily journal pages.

As I share the wisdom of Proverbs, I will also weave some related scriptures into our lessons as they apply. So, let’s get started on our time together for today.

Proverbs - The Background

All we will be able to cover today is a background to the book of Proverbs. Most of the book of Proverbs was written or assembled by King Solomon who ruled the nation of Israel for 40 years. He was the third King of Israel after Saul, who was killed in battle, and then his father David who died of old age and chose Solomon as King after him based on God’s direction. Solomon brought peace and wealth to the nation. Solomon’s workmen built palaces, and the great temple which was a permanent house for God in Jerusalem.

When he was young, Solomon obeyed God. He asked God for wisdom, and God gave it to him. The account is found in 1 Kings 3:3-15.

3 "Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of w...