Proverbs 2: 1 – 22
The Good Life
1 My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, 2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, 4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her 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 uprightly; 8 He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. 10 When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, 12 To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, 13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked; 15 Whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths; 16 To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words, 17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God. 18 For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead; 19 None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life— 20 So you may walk in the way of goodness, and keep to the paths of righteousness. 21 For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; 22 But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.
In case you did not know, Solomon is credited with being the writer of three books of the bible. As a young man being in love, he wrote the Song of Songs. Then at the end of his life after he had forsaken the directions of our Adoni Yahweh, Father God, he penned the book of Ecclesiastes where he looks at his life and freely admits that he blew it. As he matured as a Father, we see his thoughts of passing along truths and wisdom to his children in the form of Proverbs.
As a professor with eager students Solomon expresses to his readers the conditions that are needed in acquiring this wisdom. First of all one needs to be ready and willing to receive God’s Wisdom.
1 My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you 2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding 4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
Some of you who have gone to college can relate to my thoughts here. I think to a large degree all colleges and universities rip the students off by having us all go through the first two years as freshmen and sophomores. They make us take what I would call advanced high school courses. As you know the last two are where you can finally get down to the courses in your field of interest.
Solomon points out to us that you have to have a keen interest in obtaining God’s Wisdom. If you do not have this in effect you are just wasting your time.
Please take note here that the purpose in seeking wisdom is to be in order to understand the fear of The Great Holy Adoni Yahweh, and in order to find the knowledge of God, and that great effort must be exerted to that end. A key thing to remember is that The Holy Spirit is interested in the ‘serious’ not the ‘curious’ to impart His Wisdom and Knowledge to.
Men like to make lists so our Wonderful Holy Spirit gives us the steps to take if we truly want to obtain wisdom. Please note the progression of thought.
1. ‘incline his ear and apply his heart/mind’ to wisdom and understanding;
2. then he is to ‘cry after’ discernment and understanding
3. ‘seek’ and ‘search for’ wisdom and understanding as men seek silver and search for buried treasure.
In our last study we looked at Proverbs 1. Remember the greedy and violent men in verse 13 who sought ‘all precious substance’ and to ‘fill their houses with spoil’. There they wanted ill-gotten gain and would do anything to obtain it. But here the search is to be for the precious substance of truth. The seeker after truth is to have the same eagerness for truth as the sinner has for wealth, but in his case it is to be an eagerness to obtain the discernment and understanding which will enable him to understand the fear of Almighty God.
I have to admit that I am not in any way, shape, or form mechanically gifted. Therefore, I follow all the recommended maintenance applications in order for my car to run. It is that simple. They say that in our lives that one needs to find a gifted medical doctor. I add to that list an honest gifted car fixer. I know from observation that these licensed specialists have gone through many car repair books. If they come upon a need to replace a ‘starter’ for example they will reference the correct part from a book whether it be in bound form or on the computer.
Our Great and Mighty God has done the same for us. He has not just left us down here to struggle on how to live our lives rightly, but has given us His ‘Manual For Righteous Living’ which is the Bible. In it we can learn His Commandments and ways in order to best live out our earthly existence. If we have trouble for example in our marriages, we can turn to His Wise advice.
In verses 1-5 the concentration has been on earnestly seeking after God through gaining wisdom and understanding. Now the concentration is on God’s activity as He imparts that wisdom, and on His word (what comes from His mouth) which gives that knowledge and understanding. And what He achieves by this is the storing within the upright (those who fear Him, that is, who truly believe in Him and submit to Him) sound wisdom, so as to guard the paths of justice and preserve the way of those who are set apart to Him. Were He not to do so moral chaos would take over and His people would be left floundering. And the reason why that has not happened is because God has safeguarded it. Truth must ever be guarded, and here we learn that it is God Who watches over it.
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 uprightly; 8 He guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
What then is the source of true wisdom and knowledge of life? The answer is that it is found in Jehovah Elohim, our God. It is Yahweh – Father God - Who gives wisdom, and He mainly does so through His words. For it is ‘from His mouth’ that wisdom and understanding come.
In counseling Christians I like to think of myself as a traffic cop. You know like the one you see out in the middle of the street directing traffic. In my case though, I want to say to the couple that I am nothing. I am only one voice who is trying to point them in the right direction, that is, to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In a way like I try to do, here we see that Solomon does not see himself as simply passing on ‘wisdom teaching’. He sees himself as having sifted it and brought it into line with God’s word, and as having only accepted what he sees as ‘words from God’.
Our Majestic Adoni Holy Spirit Is a shield in protecting truth on our behalf, and protecting truth within us. And this is confirmed by the fact that He ‘guards the paths of justice’, and ‘preserves the way of His loyal ones’ (those who are loyal to covenant love), so that they will ‘understand righteousness and justice, and equity, yes, and every good path.’ He ensures the means of sound understanding of His ways.
The Apostle Paul, I believe, is referencing this point with his words of instruction in his second letter to Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, ‘all Scripture, being God-breathed, is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness’.
10 When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you
If you seek God with all your heart, mind, and strength, then wisdom will enter your hearts that is you’re their inner beings. The knowledge of God’s ways will be pleasant in your inward lives. This will bring about genuine spiritual experience. You will have a new heart and right spirit created in you. And the consequence is that the one who receives it will be watched over by Discretion, and preserved by Understanding. Truth will be his/her preserver, delivering you from false steps. He will thus be discreet and be able to understand when you face up to the temptations of life which are now to be described, a discretion and understanding communicated to you by God.
The giving of wisdom, knowledge and understanding will deliver you from the way of evil. This is necessary for the great need of the godly person is to be delivered from those who would lead you in wrong paths. This is important because the world is full of people who seek to lead astray those who are seeking to truly follow God. At first the descriptions might appear to be describing people who are obviously particularly evil, but that is to misinterpret them. The greatest danger comes from those who might outwardly appear to be respectable, but who nevertheless are pleased when they can corrupt a godly person. They can be very persuasive, and even appear good and rational, but their wisdom is not that of God but of the world. And the way of deliverance is to hold tightly to God’s revealed wisdom which will be a shield to his mind and heart, to know God, and to understand the fear of God.
12 To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, 13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked; 15 Whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths;
It is made clear that the ways of sinfulness are the ways of darkness. Men who walk in sinfulness, walk in darkness and do not know the way in which they are going. They have left the straight path, and follow crooked ways. Thus the purpose of the wisdom that comes from God is to deliver men from coming short of goodness. It is to ‘deliver them from evil’ as our Lord Jesus taught in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 verse 13 - to deliver us from darkness. Men and women are constantly prone to allow their standards to slip, or even to allow them to disappear altogether.
We also can be hampered by men who ‘speak perverse things’, whether religious or secular. Often such men have once had high standards. But they have allowed those standards to slip. They have forsaken the paths of uprightness. They can now do what once they would never have thought of doing. They have forsaken the way of the wisdom of God, and replaced it with the wisdom of the world. Their consciences have become dulled, and by their lives they encourage others to do the same. The New Testament is full of examples of this. But the point is that constant attention to God’s wisdom, as revealed in His words, will prevent all this from happening.
One of a man’s greatest dangers in walking in the way of wisdom is the allurement and attraction of women.
16 To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words, 17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God. 18 For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead; 19 None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life
Please note the statement, ‘who forsakes the companion of her youth’. This is not talking about high school sweethearts, it is talking about marriage. The woman is on the hunt for other men having left her desire for her husband. She also ‘forgets the covenant of her God’. Thus she betrays both man and God, as is so often the case when one breaks God’s Commandments – Though Shalt Not Commit Adultery.
Once having given in, it is unlikely that a man will return to the good paths of life. Thus the clear message is that sin leads to death. We have in mind here that it is not only physical death but the death of the spirit within. Such behavior takes a man away from the Lord of life. Such people are dead while they live.
Remember back in the book of Genesis, when our Holy Master told Adam that on the day that you eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil that he would surely die. Well, what happened when he ate of the fruit, did he die? In a way the answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. He did not know it but he died spiritually that day and then ultimately physically.
20 So you may walk in the way of goodness, and keep to the paths of righteousness. 21 For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; 22 But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.
People who fall victim to this way will no longer enjoy wholesome life. They will know nothing of the joy of the Lord, or of the rejoicing of a truly good life. Whilst they may appear to be gaining for a time in lustful pleasure, in the end they will lose all that is good. Their consciences will become atrophied. In contrast are those who walk in the way of good men, and observe the paths of the righteous, will be allowed to dwell in the land.
In the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the bible our Holy Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High said often about conditions for obedience. If His ways were obeyed then blessings would occur if not then curses.
If you are listening or reading this message then the choice is yours to make, will you obey our Lord fully or suffer the consequences. God promised that apostasy, impiety, immorality and injustice would result in drought, disease, disaster, and deportation. He says what He means and means what He has said.
If you are like me then let’s all pray together. “Lord, please forgive me for my sins of rebellion and disobedience. Restore to me your loving grace and favor again as your son [daughter]. In Jesus’ Name I pray Amen.
