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CHRIST IN PROVERBS CHAPTER 1Verse 8: “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” Jesus did just that. He always pleased the Father (John 8:29), yet He grew up in submission to his earthly parents also (Luke 2:51).Verse 28: “Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.” Such will be the case with millions who reject Christ today and then turn to him tomorrow for help. It’ll be too late: “. . . because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (II Ths. 2:10-12)CHAPTER 2Verse 1-5: “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.” No son of God has ever been more obedient to this command than the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, no one has ever gained more “knowledge of God” than He.CHAPTER 3Verse 6: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” This well describes Christ’s relationship with the Father. Even when His will ran contrary to the Father’s (Luke 22:42), he chose to acknowledge the Father’s will above His own.Verses 25-26: “Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.” This was the case with Jesus as His enemies tried to capture Him numerous times (John 7:30; 8:20; 8:59, etc.)CHAPTER 4Verse 10: “Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.” Christ heard and obeyed His Father, so He will live forever as “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16).Verse 18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Prophetically, the “perfect day” is the Millennial Kingdom of Christ (Re. 20:1-6; II Pet. 3:8).CHAPTER 5Verses 3-6: “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.” The warning is for the young man to beware of the strange woman who will steer him away from the “path of life.” The phrase “path of life” is found only one other time in the Bible—in a messianic Psalm that just finished a comment on the resurrection of Christ: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psa. 16:10-11)CHAPTER 6Verse 5: “Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.” This is basically what Jesus did when He raised Himself up from the grave. Satan was the hunter that sought after His soul (Psa. 70:2), but He had power to deliver Himself (John 10:17-18).CHAPTER 7Verses 19-20: “For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.” Today the “goodman” is Jesus. He is presently on a long journey, so people are living in sin as if He will be gone forever. But there is “the appointed day” in which is will judge the secrets of men (Rom. 2:16).CHAPTER 8Verses 8: “All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.” All the words of Jesus were in righteousness.Verse 17: “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” Those that seek Jesus Christ early find Him (Luke 11:9; Pro. 1:23), but those who reject Him early usually never find Him at all (Pro. 1:24-33).CHAPTER 9Verse 11: “For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.” One receives eternal life by receiving Christ, so his days are definitely multiplied.CHAPTER 10Verses 29-30: “The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.” Jesus referred to His enemies as the “workers of iniquity” (Luke 13:27). They shall perish while the righteous enter the Millennial Kingdom.CHAPTER 11Verse 1: “A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.” Jesus Christ is the “just weight” by which every man is to be judged (Rom. 2:16). No one goes to heaven by doing “more good than bad.” The only criteria for salvation whether or not a man’s name is in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 20:15; 13:8).CHAPTER 12Verse 28: “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Our “way of righteousness” is Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:3-4), in whom is “no death” (John 11:26).CHAPTER 13Verse 9: “The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.” Our “light” is Jesus Christ (John 8:12), and He rejoices over our salvation and service (Luke 15:10; Pro. 27:11).CHAPTER 14Verse 19: “The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.” So every knee shall bow before Jesus Christ and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord (Phil. 2:10-11).Verse 25: “A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.” According to Revelation 3:14, Jesus is “the faithful and true witness,” and He has delivered hundreds of millions of souls.CHAPTER 15Verse 20: “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.” Certainly Jesus Christ qualifies.Verse 24: “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.” Jesus is “the way” according to John 14:6, and He is from “above” (John 8:23).CHAPTER 16Verse 12: “It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.” Christ committed no wickedness, so His throne will be established in righteousness (Isa. 16:5; 32:1).Verse 14: “The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.” Jesus Christ is the “wise man” that pacified God’s wrath toward us.CHAPTER 17Verse 17: “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Jesus is “friend that sticketh closer than a brother” (18:24). He loved at all times, even when He was being crucified at the hands of sinners (Luke 23:34), and He was “born for adversity.” The New Testament reference is John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”CHAPTER 18Verse 24: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” See above comment and references. Jesus showed Himself friendly, even to His enemies (Mat. 26:50).CHAPTER 19Verse 11: “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.” So Christ is glorified in passing over the transgressions of millions by seeing their blood covering instead of their sins (Exo. 12:13—and don’t miss the “pass over”).Verse 12: “The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.” Christ is “the Lion of the tribe of Juda” in Revelation 5:5, a book that deals heavily with His wrath on this world. Jeremiah 25:30 is also good: “. . . The LORD shall roar from on high . . .”CHAPTER 20Verse 2: “The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul.” See above comments.Verse 26: “A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.” The verse refers to the Second Coming of Christ when the “unified” followers of Antichrist will be scattered like the builders of Babel (Isa. 24:1; Psa. 68:30; 144:6).CHAPTER 21Verse 1: “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Christ’s heart was in the hand of the Father, leading Him to do always those things that pleased the Father (John 8:29).CHAPTER 22Verse 1: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” Jesus didn’t accumulate material riches during His time on earth; instead, He earned for Himself a name above every name (Philp. 2:9).Verse 29: “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” The idea is that such a man will accomplish great things and have dealings with men of authority. Jesus certainly qualifies. He was diligent about His Father’s business (Luke 2:49), and He did “stand before kings,” or a least one king and a governor when He stood before Herod and Pilate (Luke 23:8-12).CHAPTER 23Verse 24: “The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.” Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father (John 1:14, 18), and He was such a “righteous” and “wise child” that twice the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat. 3:17; 17:5).CHAPTER 24Verse 10: “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” We all have days of adversity, but “the” day of adversity must have prophetic reference to Christ at Calvary since He was born for adversity (Pro. 17:17). Being the “strong man” of Psalm 19:5, Jesus passed the test and did not faint.CHAPTER 25Verse 5: “Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.” The wicked will be taken away and cast into hell. Then the kingdom of Christ will be established in righteousness.Verse 25: “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” The good news is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the far country is heaven.CHAPTER 26Verse 27: “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.” They rolled a stone over the tomb of Jesus (Mat. 27:60, 66), but it was to no avail. In fact, it is the stone cut out of a mountain that renders vengeance to Christ’s enemies (Dan. 2:34-35).CHAPTER 27Verse 26: “The lambs are for thy clothing. . .” The first piece of clothing that God ever accepted was from a lamb (Gen. 3:21), picturing the robe of righteousness that all believers have in Christ. The New Testament references are I Peter 1:18-19, John 1:29, and Revelation 13:8.CHAPTER 28Verse 1: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” The first coming of Christ presented Jesus as the meek and lowly Galilean Prophet who came to save sinners. The second coming presents Jesus as a bold lion, the King of Kings and the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5), coming to establish His kingdom. This is when the wicked will flee and the righteous will flourish under Christ’s rule.Verse 28: “When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.” See above comments.CHAPTER 29Verse 2: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” The righteous will be in authority during the coming Millennial Kingdom of Christ, and people will rejoice as a result.Verse 14: “The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever.” Christ will faithfully judge the poor in accordance with Psalm 72:2, 4.CHAPTER 30Verse 4: Jesus Christ meets all the requirements. It’s also interesting that the statement “Every word of God is pure” (vs. 5) follows the question regarding the son’s name because the Son of God is also the Word of God (John 1:1-3; I John 5:7).CHAPTER 31Verse 21: Most everyone has heard the standard Mothers’ Day message on the Virtuous Woman, but some good applications can also be made for the church, the bride of Christ. One is in this verse where we are told that “all her household are clothed with scarlet.” The church is covered by the blood of Christ, so she is clothed with scarlet.Verse 28: “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Christ will praise and reward the church at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Mat. 25:23; II Cor. 5:10).