Proverbs, Dumbledore & the Gospel

I have been in sales most of my life, and received more trainings than I can count. Good selling recognizes it is futile to call out the benefits of your product until you have identified the primary needs, fears, and desires of the person you are addressing. Selling works in the theatre of mind and emotions. Arguments are made, and feelings are tapped into, but they are all directed to one arena: the will.

This dynamic is all over the opening chapters of Proverbs. A father is attempting to convince a son. Pull back a moment and grasp the immensity of the stakes. The father is speaking about life and death, success and failure, joy and misery… and the person he is addressing is his son - the progeny of his body, the apple of his eye, the joy of his old age. This is not a passive conversation, and the father will use every ‘sales technique’ available to reach his son.

As the rest of the book of Proverbs unfolds, it is blatantly a book of choices. “If/then” is the content of every chapter. There are two ways - not three, or four, or even gradients. It is black and white, right or left, great and terrible. Grab any proverb randomly and note the power of the words and the extremes that are identified:

• Truthful lips endure forever,
        but a lying tongue is but for a moment. - Prov. 12:19

• Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling,
        but a foolish man devours it. - Prov. 21:20

• Scoffers set a city aflame,
        but the wise turn away wrath. - Prov. 29:8

What Proverbs highlights is the centrality of the will. And this is prevalent throughout scripture. Bible teacher Derek Prince caught my attention decades ago when he stated the Bible is not emotion focused, but will focused. Paul in his arguments, appeals and warnings is speaking to his recipients’ wills. Isaiah in lofty speech, wondrous promises and threatening judgments is seeking to elicit change in the will of his hearers. The writer of the book of Judges in detailing story after story of failure and redemption is looking to affect the decision making process of his hearers, the will.

I just finished the second book of the Harry Potter series, The Chamber of Secrets. The predominant tension for Harry in the series so far is: who is he? There have been occasions where he sees similarities in himself to the currently banished Dark Wizard Voldemort. At the end of the book Dumbledore, the head of Hogwarts wizarding school, shares:

“Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue — resourcefulness — determination — a certain disregard for rules,” he added, his mustache quivering again. “Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think.” 

“It only put me in Gryffindor,” said Harry in a defeated voice, “because I asked not to go in Slytherin. . . .”

 “Exactly,” said Dumbledore, beaming once more. “Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

The glorious Good News that Jesus gave his disciples to proclaim was that because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, through faith we can once again choose! We were enslaved. We can now be set free. We had this past. We can have this future. I have a pattern of doing this thing. I can change course, repent, and walk in the opposite direction. This is Wondrous News!!

We are not defined by our past, our propensities, or other’s proclamations. In Jesus we have become new creations! (2 Cor. 5:17) We are born again to a living hope. (1 Peter 1:3) We have newness of life! (Romans 6:4)

Proverbs is powerful in how it presents clearly the choices. 

Jesus is Glorious in that he provides the means by which we can make those choices.