Discerning & Discovering Spiritual Blessings Series

PROVERBS 2:1-8

DISCERNING AND DISCOVERING SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS

When Betty Goldstein of Staten Island, New York, entered the hospital, her husband Ron wrapped her 3.5-carat diamond ring in a napkin for safekeeping. But in a forgetful moment, the 63-year-old Goldstein threw the napkin in the trash. When he realized his mistake, he dashed out-side, only to see the garbage truck rumbling down the street. So he called the local sanitation department and got permission to follow the truck to a transfer station. Workers began sorting through hundreds of garbage bags and recovered the ring an hour later.

The writer of Proverbs urges us to search diligently for something far more precious, wisdom. This strenuous search for wisdom is actually a search for God Himself (vv.3-5). In chapter 2, a father encourages his son to do whatever is necessary to get insight and wisdom. He encourages his son to search diligently for this rare jewel because wisdom is not usually discovered by the casual observer. Wisdom is discovered and enjoyed only by those who are diligent, devoted, and determined to seek it (CIT).

So wisdom, having completed her warning concerning the rebellious in the previous passage, now instructs her diligent, devoted, and determined children in spiritual excellence.

When by faith we humbly submit to God and trust His will and way, we can be led to a true knowledge of God. This is where duty turns to enjoyment and an enduring source of consolation. The influence of the knowledge of God then begins to outshine all earthly pleasure and becomes stronger even as the organs decline and the earthly frame dissolves. Wisdom appears as the evening star of light at the end of life promising the believer that one day they will rise to look upon "the Morning Star."

The whole passage consists of a command to seek and a promise to bestow. Let us hear and hopefully heed the cry of wisdom.

I. Seeking and Receiving, 2:1-4.

II. Results and Benefits, 2:5-8.

How is spiritual excellence attained? Our text teaches us the method for attaining spiritual excellence through six principles found in verses 1- 4. Verse 1 begins with the first couple of prerequisites for attaining wisdom. "My son, if you will receive my sayings, And treasure my commandments within you,"

The first principle for attaining wisdom is the Reception of Divine Truth. "If you will receive my sayings." The receptivity faculty must by employed if we are to attain wisdom. We talk of joblessness and underemployment, but the real tragedy of our time is the unemployment and underemployment of such faculties as the one which should be receiving divine truth.

God’s truth must be taken into the soul and spirit. It is glorious that our new nature can take into us ideas from The Eternal Intellect, that we can pull in the seeds during this time of God’s implanting for His eternal Harvest. His thoughts alone can break the coldness of our souls and warm them to spiritual life.

Notice the conditional "if." The blessings of God, the grace of God, is contingent upon our desiring and seeking them. All that God desires to do for us cannot be done if we will not place ourselves within His will so that He can bestow them upon us (Lk 8:15, 10:39, Acts 17:11, 1 Thess. 2:13).

2nd, by Retention of Divine Truth--"Treasure my commandments within you." What we receive from the divine mind we must hold fast. We must keep the seed in the soil, nurse and watch over it that it may germinate and grow. There is danger of losing it. The winds of temptation, the fowls of evil, and the drought of selfishness will eat away the grains unless we watch.

Carry them constantly with you as your choice treasure. For great is the security in knowing you live for something that cannot be stripped from you like earthly treasures can.

Verse 2 emphasizes attentive listening and reflective thought. "Make your ear attentive to wisdom. Incline (apply) your heart to understanding."

The third element in attaining spiritual blessings is: By Research after Divine Truth. "Apply your ear to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding."

First wisdom comes to the receptive ear then one must bring it into his heart to understand it. The ear must tune out the sounds of earthly pleasure, the call of worldliness and the voices of human speculation and must listen fully to communications from the spiritual and eternal.

Principle number four (of six principles) on how to obtain true wisdom is found in Proverbs 2:2b. The focus of this principle is found in the word natah. This word means, "to stretch," "to extend," "to unfold," and is a term used in pitching a tent. Tents were widely used as dwellings in ancient times and one would unfold and stretch out his tent over the spot where it was to be built upon or erected. Thus the fourth principle is, "apply the Word!"