Wednesday – Proverbs – Lesson 12 – Proverbs 3:7-8 (July 15, 2026)
Proverbs – Lesson 12 – Proverbs 3.7-8 (July 15, 2026)
PROVERBS
God’s Handbook for His Image Bearers
Wednesday Bible Study • Lesson 12 • July 15, 2026
Wisdom Restores God’s Image Bearers • Proverbs 3:7–8
Review
Proverbs 3:1–4 (KJV)
1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: 2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. 3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
In these verses, Solomon warns his son not to forsake or neglect the laws of God.
He assures his son that obedience to the laws of God results in long life and peace. These are principles, not promises — not every person who obeys God’s law will live a long life or a life free from problems.
He also encourages his son to bind mercy and truth about his neck, meaning that people see this in his character.
Then he writes it on the tables of his heart, meaning he lets the law of God determine his actions.
Proverbs 3:5–6 (KJV)
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
In these two verses, the son is warned not to listen to a very dangerous voice: his own. This voice will feel right, sound right, and reason out sin. Instead of listening to this voice, the son is to turn to the voice of God for every decision.
The greatest challenge in these verses is to follow God’s laws even when they don’t feel right, or even when it leaves us vulnerable.
Trust
We learned that the word “trust” in the Hebrew means to place your entire weight onto an object.
One example was Peter walking on the water. He transferred his weight from the boat to the water.
In the next few sermons, we learn what it looks like to trust God fully.
Lesson 12
In verses 5 and 6, Solomon warned his son about the danger of trusting his own voice. Verse 7 shows him what it looks like to listen to God instead.
Proverbs 3:7–8 (KJV)
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
What does Solomon mean by these verses? How would Solomon’s son, or those in his lifetime, understand this warning?
Verse 7 gives three connected steps. First, the claim to being your own final authority is renounced — “be not wise in thine own eyes.” Second, that authority is replaced with the fear of the LORD. Third, real fear of the LORD proves itself through a changed direction — “depart from evil.” Each step causes the next: you cannot truly fear the LORD while you are still wise in your own eyes, and you cannot truly depart from evil without first fearing the LORD.
Be Not Wise in Thine Own Eyes
The Hebrew understanding of “wise in your own eyes” means to be self-confident in your own wisdom. This implies there is no need to hear from God or the Bible, because “I already know what to do.”
The next several passages use a few closely related Hebrew expressions — “right in his own eyes,” “clean in his own eyes,” and “wise in his own eyes.” Each describes the same problem: a person who treats their own sense of right and wrong as the final say, instead of God’s word.
Deuteronomy 12:8 (KJV)
8 Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.
Judges 17:6 (KJV)
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Judges 21:25 (KJV)
25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Isaiah 5:21 (KJV)
21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Proverbs 12:15 (KJV)
15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
Proverbs 14:12 (KJV)
12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Proverbs 16:2 (KJV)
2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Proverbs 26:12 (KJV)
12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.
These verses span judges, kings, and prophets — the same warning surfaces again and again because being wise in your own eyes is the default condition of every heart, not a rare mistake. Solomon doesn’t just tell his son to stop being wise in his own eyes. He tells him what to replace it with.
Fear the LORD
Fear of the LORD in Hebrew means reverence for God: treating His word as final, above our own opinions and feelings.
Proverbs 1:7 (KJV)
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
This is the same verse that opened our whole study of Proverbs. The fear of the LORD is the starting point for everything wisdom does in us.
Reverence doesn’t stay internal. It moves outward into action — which is exactly where Solomon takes the verse next.
Depart from Evil
Depart means to turn aside from the road you’re on. It’s related to the idea of repentance — a change of mind that changes your direction.
Verses that support this teaching
Proverbs 8:13 (KJV)
13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverbs 16:6 (KJV)
6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
Proverbs 14:16 (KJV)
16 A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.
Job 28:28 (KJV)
28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
Each of these ties fear of the LORD directly to departing from evil — the inward reverence and the outward turn are never separated in Scripture. Solomon’s son now has the full pattern: reject self-wisdom, fear the LORD, depart from evil. The next verse tells him what that pattern produces.
The Reward
Proverbs 3:8 (KJV)
8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Health
The word “health” means healing, or medicine that heals and restores.
The progression is that when a person is not wise in their own eyes, fears the LORD, and departs from evil, the LORD restores them.
Consider that mankind was made in the image and likeness of God, but sin distorted that image. Following God instead of self — fearing God and departing from evil — restores us to become image bearers again.
Solomon names two specific pictures to describe that restoration, starting with the navel.
Navel
What is the navel, and how does this help us understand the concept of health and healing?
The navel was once the connection to the body of our mother. Through that umbilical cord we were fed, nurtured, and connected to life.
The second picture moves from where life began to what holds you up now.
Marrow to the Bones
Literally, this is not the bone marrow we typically think of, but rather it means to water, or irrigate, the bones.
When someone in Scripture described something being wrong at the deepest, unseen level of a person, they spoke of the dryness of bones.
Psalm 32:3–4 (KJV)
3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
Proverbs 17:22 (KJV)
22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Put these two pictures together. The navel points backward, to the place that first gave you life. The bones point inward, to the deepest structure holding you up right now. Solomon is describing restoration that reaches from where your life began to what’s holding you up today — the whole person, inside and out.
Conclusion
So what does Solomon want his son to walk away with? Wisdom is seen through rejection of our own wisdom, dependence on God’s law, worshiping God, and turning from evil.
Those who follow this example will be restored as image bearers of God.
Living It Out: Biblical Examples
Scripture doesn’t only give commands — it gives examples, both of people who lived this out and people who didn’t.
Positive Examples
David & Saul
1 Samuel 24:1–7 (KJV)
1 And it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. 3 And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. 4 And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. 5 And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. 6 And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD. 7 So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.
Saul walks into the very cave where David and his men are hiding. David’s men see the opening immediately — kill him now, and the throne God already promised is yours today. “Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee.” It looked like God handing him the throne early, not murder. David got close enough to cut off a corner of Saul’s robe before his own heart “smote him” (v.5) — this was a real temptation he had already begun acting on.
David refused to take Saul’s life. He preserved Saul’s office and left the timing of his own kingship in God’s hands.
Joseph
Genesis 39:7–12 (KJV)
7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. 8 But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; 9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? 10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph dayby day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. 11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within. 12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
Potiphar’s wife wants Joseph, and she doesn’t ask once — “Lie with me,” repeated day after day. Joseph says no, and tells her exactly why: sleeping with her would mean betraying the trust Potiphar placed in him. He’d made Joseph overseer of everything in the house. “There is none greater in this house than I… how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Adultery and betrayal, named in the same breath.
This happened privately, with no witnesses. Refusing put Joseph at risk — Potiphar’s wife held power in that household, Joseph held none. Genesis 39:13–20 shows her falsely accusing him afterward, and Joseph goes to prison for the integrity he just showed. The reward comes later, in Genesis 41, when God raises him to the second-highest position in Egypt.
Negative Examples
Adam & Eve
Genesis 3:6 (KJV)
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Eve is standing in front of the one tree God told her to leave alone, and she starts making her own case for it: good for food, pleasant to look at, and able to make her wise. She’s already decided God’s warning — “thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17) — isn’t the final word. Then she wants what she’d been promised: to “be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Then she eats. Adam is standing right there the entire time — “gave also unto her husband with her” — and says nothing.
The consequence was expulsion from the garden, and death, toil, and broken relationship with God entering human experience (Genesis 3:16–24).
Rehoboam
1 Kings 12:6–8 (KJV)
6 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people? 7 And they spake unto him, saying, Ifthou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever. 8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:
Rehoboam asks the same question to two different groups of advisors and gets two different answers. The old men tell him to serve the people and win their loyalty. The young men tell him to come in strong and show he’s in charge. He picks the answer that makes him look powerful — the exact problem Proverbs 12:15 already named earlier in this lesson: “he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.”
The consequence outlasted his reign. The kingdom split — ten tribes revolted, and Israel divided permanently into two kingdoms (1 Kings 12:16–19).