NOTES for Pro 3:1-35

Hope in the Lord proves inseparable from trust in His wisdom, which immeasurably surpasses human wisdom, and from a sober understanding of the limitations of our own reason. Such an attitude toward reason involves neither excessive self-abasement nor a renunciation of the right to use our intellectual abilities: the human being remains the summit of Creation, made in the image and likeness of God, and reason is one of the Creator’s most important gifts; no one takes this away from us. Yet it is reason itself that helps us understand the precise moment when it encounters a task beyond its abilities, and then we can turn to the One who possesses greater wisdom.

The words “whom the Lord loves He chastens” may seem strange, but let us consider this: if God incomparably surpasses the human being and His deeds are unlike human deeds, can what human language calls punishment resemble the way people punish one another? What people perceive as punishment is in essence protection from evil, a warning against something worse, and in many cases the consequence of what we ourselves have done.