How to be a Wise Solomonic Father + How a Woman Saved Her Assassin + The Faith of Infants

Wisdom requires the willingness and fierce determination to pursue the straight paths rather than the crooked road (Prov. 3:5-6).

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Chapter Two

Kingly Wisdom

"Short cuts make long delays." –J.R.R. Tolkien

Proverbs offers a healthy dose of good fatherly counsel. We could summarize Proverbs as the wisdom of a king to his son. Solomon is preparing to send his son out into the world. He is equipping him for kingly duties. Similarly, God the Father sent his Son into the world to grow in wisdom and stature and favor of God and man (Lk. 2:52). Jesus was trained in covenantal wisdom to rule as the vindicated King in his ascension glory. Thus, the Trinitarian father is first and foremost a covenant trainer. One might say that a father rules over his son so that the son might rule; that the son may be lord over his home, over his family, and over his labors.[1]

The Trinitarian father is a Solomonic figure. As a king, Solomon shepherds over his own. He looks at his sheep and realizes his kingdom will perish without good fathers. Without good fathers, his sheep will be deceived by wolves or follow strange doctrines (Eph. 4:14). Without good fathers, there will be rampant adultery, promiscuous daughters, and undisciplined sons. The king knows what it takes to build a healthy society under his rule. He has already ruled under the sun. He is cognizant of the temptations and struggles of the world, the flesh, and the devil. He realizes that unless he instructs his son in the subtleties of human life, the allure for riches, the enticement to rule with a heavy hand rather than with gentleness and truthfulness, his son will be ill-equipped to reign.