Daniel J. Estes, Hear, My Son: Teaching & Learning in Proverbs 1-9, (Inter-Varsity Press, 1997), 174 pages.

Estes’ third chapter unpacks goals for education.  He gives four goals.  The goals for education “focus for the most part on the cultivation of the learner as a mature godly person, rather than upon the transmission of a discrete body of knowledge” (85).  The first three speak to the kind of person that biblical education seeks to equip and disciple.   These goals answer the questions: Who should you become?  What is your character?  The final goal speaks to the reward of becoming that kind of person.

1. Commitment (Knowing God).  “A primary goal for education is that the learner may accept for himself the values that wisdom propounds so that his life is shaped according to Yahweh’s desires” (85).  Commitment requires conversion and faith.  This is the first goal of a Christian education–that learners might know, fear, and trust in God.
2. Character. Commitment leads to godly character, which “provides the learner with an internal compulsion to keep learning and growing in wisdom” (85).
3. Competence in Skillful Living. Proverbs uses many words for wise living, but this is the most obvious point of the book.  The learner should be skillful in the way that he learns to live within God’s world.  How often do we really teach for this kind of response?  How often do we connect the truths of the Bible to life in a way that equips our children and students to live in a way that is wise?
4. Prosperity and Protection.  The  result of becoming a faithful, godly, and wise person is the prosperity and protection that wisdom affords.  The Lord’s way of wisdom generally leads to well-being, success, stability, wealth, honor, protection, and satisfaction.  This does not mean that suffering is totally avoided.  Suffering is inevitable in a sinful world.  But one can follow God and generally expect good to follow rather than harm.  One can follow God and know that ultimately (even if this is only in heave) good will follow rather than harm. This is an important part of our teaching for kids.  Without making prosperity the point of the gospel, we should be clear that following God generally brings success.

Daniel J. Estes, Hear, My Son: Teaching & Learning in Proverbs 1-9, (Inter-Varsity Press, 1997), 174 pages.

Estes’ second chapter unpacks values for education.  He gives four values:

1.  Wisdom is skillful living within God’s ordered world.  Ultimately this is found not merely in doing what appears to be wise but in fearing God and shunning evil (Proverbs 9:10).  When we teach, we must teach for response, because the Scriptures value more than mere knowledge.  Knowing is not enough.  It must be put into practice.

2. Teachability is the humble willingness to accept instruction both from God and human teachers.  As Estes states, “Rejection of instruction is a degenerative condition that leads to scoffing and folly” (46).  Proverbs presents three kind of unteachable people.  The simple love their simple ways, because they don’t possess the knowledge necessary to make wise decisions.  Mockers despise wisdom because they take pleasure in tearing down what they don’t accept.  Fools have settled into a fixed pattern of antagonism against the Lord’s way of wisdom.

3. Righteousness. The righteous man conforms to God’s wise standards.  “Wisdom declares in Proverbs 8:13 that to fear Yahweh is to hate evil in all of its forms.  Because Yahweh is righteous, reverence for him necessarily entails both embracing what is righteous and rejecting what is unrighteous” (50-51).

4.  Life is substantial, meaningful existence within God’s world.  On the one hand, this can be seen as a value for education in Proverbs.  On the other hand, it can be seen as the reward which comes to those who esteem the first three values.   Life in the Lord must be valued above all other counterfeits.

This is why, as Christians, we must value Jesus in our education.  He is our wisdom, righteousness, and life.  And only he can make us humble and teachable.

Daniel J. Estes, Hear, My Son: Teaching & Learning in Proverbs 1-9, (Inter-Varsity Press, 1997), 174 pages.

Over the first quarter of this year, Sojourn’s Student and Family Ministry team has been learning together by reading Dan Estes’ little book on education in the book of Proverbs.  Over the next seven weeks, I’m going to unpack his book chapter by chapter.

Chapter 1 gives an overview of the worldview behind Proverbs 1-9.  The worldview of the sage (the writer of Proverbs) can be seen in three basic statements: (1) God made and ordered the world, (2) God’s order is mysterious but knowable, and (3) People must reverence God with their whole life.

God made and ordered the world. God made the world, and because he made the world, he makes the rules.  There is a common ethical system behind all of creation.  This is why the author of Proverbs is not afraid to use so many illustrations from nature.  We talked at length about whether or not we are prepared to speak about God’s order in nature.  The sage taught lessons based on ants, and the sage taught lessons based on fig trees.  Training our eyes to see God’s order in nature will prepare us when there are teachable moments with our students and children.

God’s order is mysterious but knowable. Since God reveals his order, the student can learn to be skillful in the way that he lives.  Do we focus on teaching our kids how to live skillfully or simply on helping them learn intellectual truth?

People must reverence God with their whole life. We discussed how seeing God’s will in his world requires a radical re-orientation–a conversion.  “The search for wisdom… is not a supplement, but it must be the radical re-orientation of life in which wisdom becomes the prime priority” (31).  Do we help students live in reverence under God’s rule?  Do we help them understand that one day they will stand before His judgment?  What does it mean to help them live in light of eternity but yet by God’s grace?  Thank God that it is our crucified Savior that sits on the judgment seat.