• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sermo Humilis

Humble Speech

  • Home
  • Topics
    • Just a Thought
    • Who we Are Instead
    • Life in Christendom
  • Series
    • Topical
      • Words that Matter
      • Jesus Through all of Life
      • 8 Weeks Before Marriage
      • Life and Times of Jesus
      • Rock of Ages
      • The Ten Commandments
    • Bible Book
      • Proverbs
      • The Book of Ezra
      • 1 Corinthians
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Let the Lady Speak / Old Wives Tales ~ Proverbs 2

Old Wives Tales ~ Proverbs 2

23 April 2020 By David Trounce

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Old Wives Tales - Proverbs 2 - Sermo Humilis

Life with God means leaving behind silly myths and old wives’ tales. It means becoming more permanent, not less permanent. It means a growing reverence for God. And where there’s a reverence for God, there’s wisdom, and where there’s wisdom, there’s life.

My son, if you receive my words and store up my commandments… inclining your heart to understanding…  then you will understand the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 2:1-2, 5)

Those who seek wisdom, who store up God’s commands, who lean into God for understanding are those whose lives reflect a deep reverence for God.

You can tell when this wisdom-borne-of-reverence is at work by the results. It’s a reverence characterised by a storehouse of God’s commands treasured in the heart, filling the conscience and overflowing in righteousness, justice, discretion and discernment (Proverbs 2:9).

But we live in irreverent times and so true justice, integrity and discernment are often absent.

Enter Madame Folly. The strange and forbidden women we are introduced to in Proverbs chapter two.

…the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God (Proverbs 2:16-17)

In 1 Timothy 4:7-8, these ideas of reverence, a dodgy woman and wisdom come together.

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

Literally, “irreverent, silly myths” reads more like, “the silly ideas of an old woman.” It’s where we get the expression, “old wives tales.”

There is a kind of thinking that comes from irreverence. It’s antithetical to wisdom, fills the mind with silly myths and is an enemy to life (Proverbs 2:18).

The irreverence of Madame Folly ranges from the silly myth that thirteen has magical power or crust makes your hair curly to smooth words promising that you can bed down with any Joe you want without consequence.

Those who reject her myths and lean with deep reverence into God’s commands are promised a lasting inheritance.

For the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it (Proverbs 2:22)

In the New Testament, the inheritance of the faithful is eternal life. The counterpart to this in the Old Testament would be the inheritance of the earth or “land.” Both promises convey the idea of permanence.

Unlike our nip and tuck culture which fades away, life endures for those who are growing in deep reverence for God. Life becomes more certain, more natural and more permanent.

So then, where might we begin to foster this deeper reverence for God? Sin is often reactive, unplanned and swift (Proverbs 1:16). And so, we might benefit by slowing down in almost every area of life.

Secondly, the father tells us that the fear of the Lord that leads to wisdom is cultivated by laying up his commandments like treasure in our hearts. It’s a day-by-day thing, a slow thing, and a very deliberate thing.

Related...

Turn Not Right or Left ~ Proverbs 3:23

Jesus, What Money is For

Keep and Guard ~ Proverbs 5

Equipped for Every Good Work

Filed Under: Let the Lady Speak Tagged With: Myths, Reverence, Wisdom


Writing Ideas on Sermo HumilisWhat do You Want to Read About?

 

Nothing like real-world issues to focus the mind. If you have something you would like me to write about, send me a message and let me know.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karen Mackay says

    24 April 2020 at 10:04 pm

    “It’s a day by day thing, a slow thing, and a very deliberate thing”. Thanku David. 🙏

    • David Trounce says

      25 April 2020 at 6:40 am

      Thanks Karen.

Primary Sidebar

Sermo Humilis

For the love of all things true, beautiful and good.


Welcome to Sermo Humilis, a digital home for biblical discipleship and cultural Christianity. A few new thoughts every week.

Please remember to like, subscribe and share. It really helps me out.

Categories

  • Life in Christendom
  • Just a Thought
  • Who we Are Instead

Find us on Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Medium
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Support Sermo Humilis

If you enjoy Sermo Humilis and want to say thanks you can support me here.

Support

Series

Sidebar Series - 1 Corinthians Sidebar - Words that Matter Sidebar - Jesus Through all of Life Series Sidebar Series - The Book of Ezra

The Most Popular Guff

Jesus, Persecuted

The Christian is not the old man trying to live out the new life. He

Jesus, Makes Clean

All societies have categories for labelling clean from unclean. These

The Resurrection of the World

Many Christians think that the resurrection is something that needs to

Low-fat Christianity

We live in an age of doubters. People who are constantly worried about

Too Big for Our Boots

In his book, Tremendous Trifles, G. K Chesterton tells of two boys

Death Saves the Day

The Hogfather, a movie based on a novel by Terry Pratchett, tells the

A Man Called John

While Peter was a married man and probably among the oldest of the

See and Hear

On the move? Weekly content can also be seen and heard via Youtube.

Topics

Beauty Charity Children Covenant Creation Death Discipleship Evangelism Faith Faithfulness Fear Forgiveness Gospel Grace Grief Guilt Holiness Hope Jesus Joy Judgement Kingdom Law Liberty Life Love Marriage Mercy Money Obedience Power Prayer Redemption Rest Resurrection Sacrifice Salvation Service Sin Suffering Truth Victory Weakness Wisdom Worship

Footer

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe to Sermo Humilis

Find us on Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Support Sermo Humilis

If you enjoy Sermo Humilis and want to say thanks you can support me here.

Support

Copyright © 2025 · Sermo Humilis

Thor's Oak

Around 723 AD, a missionary named Boniface entered Hesse in Germany. Upon finding a sacred tree named Thor’s Oak, he took an axe to it, cut it down and built a church. Many in the town, believing that the God of Boniface must be greater than Thor, left their paganism behind converted to Christianity.