Wisdom’s one liners in Proverbs chapters 10–29 are challenging for the preacher. This collection of bite-sized wisdom has been described as ‘freeze-dried narratives’.
Perhaps you have had one of those packet soups where all you have is a sachet that looks as if it contains nothing more than dust and shrivelled up vegetable bits?
But, when adding water, bringing it to the boil and simmering for 5 minutes everything comes to life and you have vegetable soup.
Something similar happens with a biblical proverb when you allow it to simmer for a while in your mind.
The main proverb I used this week was Proverbs 18:24
“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
The first thing I noticed was that it appears in a chapter that begins with a statement about an unfriendly or isolated person and is set in a part of the book of Proverbs that has a number of verses about friendship (Proverbs 17: 9, 17; 19: 4, 6, 7) and a statement about a man’s best friend. No, not a dog, a wife (Proverbs 18:22).
This wider context helped to enrich my thinking about what friendship is and is not.
The second thing I noticed was that the writer used two different words for friend in this text. The writer is reminding us that there are friends and there are friends!
It is possible to have many passing acquaintances, who might be here today and gone tomorrow but still not have many friends.
A recent report from Harvard University speaks of a ‘friendship recession’ in which the art of connection has been lost.
For the Book of Proverbs “the significance of friends is seen in their quality, not quantity” (Bruce Waltke),
This led to the third observation that the word used for ‘sticks’ is the same one used in the book of Ruth concerning Ruth clinging to Naomi, when she refused to leave her but committed herself to sticking with here whatever the cost.
That type of friend is to be greatly prized.
“Friend” in Proverbs is not a verb — an action accomplished with the push of a button; “friend” is a noun — a person in the flesh who actually sticks by you and loves you along the pathway, in joys and in adversity” (Kathleen Nielsen).
Ultimately, we find this friend in Jesus. All Biblical wisdom finds its terminus in him. Perhaps one of the most moving parts of the New Testament is when Jesus speaks to his disciples about friendship.
“Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:13–15).
If we are in a friendship recession we need to be wise enough to learn to be Christlike in our ability to grow our capacity to be friends.
Having a break from the blog until 18th August – see you soon.
Photo by William Warby on Unsplash