The Power Of Proverb And Parable

Do you enjoy proverbs? There are hundreds and hundreds. Samples:

• Every compliment is a facelift. 
• Look closely; beauty is within the detail. 
• Doubters ask questions believers have answered—unsatisfactorily
• Scared to death, rare; afraid to live, epidemic. 

The Bible, as you may know, has an entire book called Proverbs. It begins in this way:

The proverbs (Hebrew: mashal) of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. - Pro 1:1-6 ESV

The Hebrew word for proverb is mashal. A mashal is an analogy, a byword, a taunt or word of derision (Isa. 14:3-4). It may also refer to a riddle or a parable. So Asaph speaks:

A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable (mashal); I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. - Psa 78:1-3 ESV

 Here is an example of an intriguing mashal as analogy from The Book of Proverbs.

There are three things which are too wonderful for me, four which I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the middle of the sea, and the way of a man with a young woman [b’almah]. This is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong.” - Proverbs 30:18-20

In the above three verses, King Solomon compares a man with an almah to three other things: an eagle in the sky, a serpent on a rock, and a ship in the sea. What do these three things all have in common? They leave no trace. After the eagle has flown across the sky, determining that the eagle had ever flown there is impossible. Once a snake has slithered over a rock, there is no way to discern that the snake had ever crossed there (as opposed to a snake slithering over sand or grass, where it leaves a trail). After a ship has moved across the sea, the water comes together behind it and there is no way to tell that a ship had ever passed through there. Similarly, King Solomon informs us that once a man has been with an almah there is also no trace of the fornication that had occurred between them. Therefore, in the following verse (verse 20) King Solomon explains that once this adulterous woman has eaten (a metaphor for her fornication), she removes the trace of her sexual activity by exclaiming, “I have done no wrong.”

This book of wisdom has several passages about the ways of prostitutes and adulterous women, all meant to warn young men about the dangers of these relationships. For instance, he uses the entire seventh chapter of Proverbs to warn them.

And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. - Proverbs 7:24-27 ESV

A mashal may also be a story-parable. The best known, perhaps, is the one Nathan told King David when he confronted him about this very thing, his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.

And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him." - 2Sam 12:1-4 ESV

In this manner Nathan was able to say to David in a deeply meaningful way,"You are the man! . . . You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites" (2 Sam. 12:7-12).

Again and again the Lord Jesus taught in this mashal tradition, using metaphor, simile, comparison and parable. In my following postings I will meditate upon one of the most informative of Jesus' mashalim, the parable or mashal of the Good Shepherd in John 10:1-6, a mashal that he had to explain in detail because his disciples could not grasp its meaning.

Law And Gospel For These End Times

As indicated earlier, I have a full preaching schedule from now until Christmas, something unusual for this "retired" preacher. BTW, I've emphasized again and again to friends and colleagues that the word and the concept "retired" is no where found in Holy Scriptures. Be that as it may, I'm beginning work now on next Sunday's sermon and I invite you to follow with me as I make those preparations.

I've already announced the theme for this 25th Sunday after Pentecost, the second Sunday before the church's year of worship ends. The new church year begins on November 28, immediately following our American Thanksgiving celebration. My sermon will be based upon the Gospel, Luke 21:5-28. My title is taken from that Gospel, verse 18, "Not A Hair Of Your Head Will Perish."

Preliminary observations:

Jesus is speaking to his disciples as they stood on the hillside looking down on the beautiful Temple, built under the patronage of King Herod. There is a model of that temple in a museum in Jerusalem. It was indeed a rather marvelous building complex, occupying some thirty-five acres in Jerusalem during Jesus' day. To learn more, study the links I am providing. 

It must have been a real shocker to hear Jesus say, "As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.” Can't we all see them looking at him with amazement and confusion? Surely not. How could this be? Why? OK, we believe you, Lord, but, but . . . “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

The remainder of this Gospel lesson is Jesus' answer. In the midst of that answer is His assurance to the disciples about their destiny, "You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives"(vv,17-19).  A very, very peculiar saying. And that's why I chose it as my theme, especially as I ask myself—and will want to ask my hearers—what that means for our lives today. 

Ponder Jesus' statement with me. I believe it is Gospel, not Law. Notes from The Lutheran Study Bible tell me this is an hyperbole, an exaggeration for the sake of emphasis (Acts 2:47; 3:9), but strongly emphasizing that Jesus' followers will experience persecution, as indeed they have down to the present day.

The same notes call my sermon title (v.18) a proverbial statement. That leaves me a bit confused. I'll have to re-study the Biblical tradition of proverbs, how they were used and how they were interpreted. This teaching is quoted in Matthew 10:22 as we read about Jesus sending the disciples out as sheep in the midst of wolves. He also taught that all of the hairs of his disciples' heads were numbered and not a single one forgotten by the Father, just as the Father also keeps intimate track of the sparrows. Fascinating and certainly comforting to know that our Father in heaven has such personal interest and concern for each of His children.

I'll leave this with you for today. We have lots of work to do before this sermon is ready, but already we have a warning from God's Law about false trust in human achievements and a very intimate word of comfort and strength from the Gospel about the heavenly Father's love for His children.