In the school of wisdom, the boy is still in his freshman year, but the instruction is very important.
12:1 – The man who loves instruction is a man who has a true estimate of what is top priority and what is really of superior value. That means that he will listen to instruction. However, I must say that after getting folk to listen to the Word of God, one of the great problems is getting them to obey what it says. Obedience is absolutely essential.
12:2 – Regardless of fame or riches or standing high in the estimation of men, the ungodly man will come to a sorry, sad ending. God is certainly going to judge such men. “A man of wicked devices will he condemn.”
12:3 – Our Lord gave a parable that deals with this. In the Sermon on the Mount, He told about a man who built his house on a rock, and another who built his house on the sand (Matt. 7:24-27). The rock, of course, symbolizes Christ, the solid foundation of the Word of God.
Now here in his freshman course, the young man is given advice about choosing a wife.
12:4 – Think of the wonderful wives who are mentioned in the Old Testament. Eve must have been a wonderful person in spite of the fact that she listened to the serpent. Sarah was a model wife according to 1 Peter 3:6. The mother of Moses, Jochabed, was undoubtedly a remarkable woman.
Then there are others who were not so good and could be described as “rottenness in his bones.” Job’s wife was not much of a help to him. It is interesting that Satan took away from Job everything that he leaned upon except his wife, which must mean that Satan knew she wasn’t very much help to Job. Then there was bloody Athalia whose mother was the wicked Jezebel. So there are many illustrations in the Scriptures of this proverb.
Ogden Nash gave advice on how to make marriage a success in a little poem that he wrote:
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.
That is good advice, by the way.
12:5-7 – You can see that God believes in law and order. He has a great deal to say about lawlessness.