The moral conviction of Proverbs is that eventually the proud will fall. “These men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.” (Pro 1:18, ESV) Like the people at the tower of Babel, they gather to build a tower to heaven and end scattered by God over the face of the earth.

Every good parent at some point worries about who her child is spending time with. We know “bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33, ESV),[1] and so we don’t want our children hanging out with any ne’re-do-wells. The book of Proverbs opens with a father and mother exhorting their child: “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” (Pro 1:8)[2] It ends with the sayings of a King learned by heart at the knees of his mother, and her description of his ideal bride. It is moral instruction, discipline, and exhortation for the way you want your child to go and who you would want her to marry. A conscientious parent hopes his child will marry well and make friends who are a good influence on him.

We see here a connection between wisdom and law, but that they are not identical. Wisdom can be defined as the experienced, discerning, and considered application of God’s law. Wisdom is illustrative, exemplary, and especially exhortative of living out God’s commandments on a practical level. In an imperfect analogy, the Law is the lecture hall and the Proverbs the lab. You learn the principles of chemistry or engineering or botany in the lecture hall, and you put those principles to test in the lab. When we walk into the world of Proverbs, we witness God’s law enacted in the mundane course of life as a son or daughter, and eventually, as we progress, as a full participant, or even a leader, in home, church, and civic life.

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