Proverbs 2

Proverbs 2

The Value of Wisdom

1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; 10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, 12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, 13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, 14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, 15 men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.

16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, 17 who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; 18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; 19 none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

20 So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Devotional

Introduction

Wisdom is a word you are going to hear a lot in this devotional, for obvious reasons. And it may become a little grating, but its repetition has the same purpose as there being a whole book written about it: it's valuable. And if you don't know what wisdom means the basic definition is usually "the application of knowledge" - which is pretty true. Especially in knowing who God is an what he requires, we must act in a way in line with that. Which is probably why 1:7 says "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge [or wisdom]", because once we fear God, we will respect his wishes.

So we know what wisdom is, and why it is. But how is it valuable? Let's take a closer look at the text...

Study

1)It gets us on the right track to become more wise (vs.1-6)

Check out verse 1-4. If you are looking for a little engagement, circle all the words and phrases that talk about how the Son get's wisdom. In my Bible, these include "receive...", "making your ear attentive...", "inclining your heart...", "call out...", "raise your voice...", "seek it...", and "search for it...". Solomon is making it very clear that this desire for wisdom requires action, and not just half-heartedly, but wholly. It actually gets progressively more physical. To go to such lengths to receive wisdom means there is something great about wisdom.

Well, what happens when he receives that wisdom? "Then [he] will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God"(vs.5). Perhaps you're like me thinking: huh? If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, how can we be wise and then receive the fear of the Lord. Well, after a little talk with Reverend dad, I think this might help...

1. To start with God in and of itself is a wise course of action, which is what 1:7 says. To begin with God is actually wise.

2. To pursue wisdom is a wise course of action, which is what 2:1-4 explain.

3. In our lives, if we continue along this path in starting with God and submission to him, and look to him in our pursuit of wisdom, then we will be given more wisdom, which is what 2:6 tells us.

You might be more confused then you were when you first read the passage so how about I clarify: You are wise if you go to God in your pursuit of wisdom, because you will receive more wisdom from him. Wisdom is valuable because it helps us grow to become more wise. Weird, huh?

2) You will be protected and saved (vs. 7-8; 11-19)

Perhaps in these verses, underline the words/phrases that take about being protected. In my Bible these are "shield", "guarding", "watching over the way", "watch over", "guard you", "delivering you", and "delivered from". I think the explanation for this one is fairly simple: there are people who reject wisdom - "fools" - who live in sin, they are out of line and are on a dangerous path. In your wise ways, in your wisdom, you will be protected because you will not stray like them. So in our pursuit of wisdom, it is not wise to live like a sinner. If we grow in wisdom by fearing God, how is sinning fearing God and thus growing in wisdom?

And it uses an example of a fool to clarify: the "forbidden woman" (vs.16). She has essentially cheated on her husband and, in doing so, abandoned God as marriage is a covenant of God (vs.17). It says that "none who go to her come back nor do they regain the paths of life" (vs.19). It is a foolish path, because it leads to death, not wisdom. Which is one of the main values of wisdom: not only does it protect us, it saves us.

3) We will be on a good and prosperous path (vs.9-10; 20-22)

In receiving wisdom, we understand righteousness, justice and equity (vs.9), three main virtues that the book of Proverbs wants us to receive according to 1:3. And these good paths are ones we will be able to follow if we don't stray (vs.20).

But why are they good paths? The knowledge and we have is "pleasant to [our] soul" (vs.10). It is comforting and a nice place to be - a kind of haven. But even more than that, it leads to great blessing:

"the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it" (vs.21) 

whilst...

"the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it." (vs.22)

I suppose with this blessing we must consider the context. For the Israelites to inherit land would be a very big deal. Consider the promised land - Canaan. Consider the unfortunate circumstances that arose. They could not inhabit the land because they were not wise, because they were not fearing the Lord. I think this is used more as a metaphor for that kind of thing. People who live in righteousness will be blessed whilst the wicked will be cursed.

Conclusion

I suppose I could talk about other values of wisdom till the ears fell off your head, but I think all three of these cover the value of wisdom for us as Christians. We become more wise, are saved, and will be blessed. And isn't that the gospel narrative once again shining through. I have been so surprised to see so many ties to the gospel in this book about wisdom. As Christians, we are saved by wisdom, blessed by wisdom in receiving eternal life, and grow in our wisdom as we live our lives in fear of the Lord.

This very chapter may feature in the Old Testament, where they could only look forward to a Saviour, but we have knowledge of the Saviour Jesus - the wisdom of God. We have even more reason to find value in wisdom, to walk in wisdom.

And before I close, I want to point out one thing: this passage has only good things to say about wisdom, and only bad things to say about foolishness/wickedness. And, yeah, the passage is biased because it comes from the Bible, but where does the Bible come from - the very mouth of God. This chapter says that "from his mouth come[s] knowledge and understanding" (vs.6). And from God's mouth, only truth will flow. So don't think that his way is not good for you, consider his wisdom, his holiness, his righteousness more valuable than anything your sinful heart could desire. Seek his wisdom and fear his holy name.

Thanks for joining day 2 of #31daysofproverbs. God bless you!