More than once has the story been told by missionaries of how quickly
some pagans have responded to the Gospel. An old man in India once
responded to the first sermon he ever heard and confessed Christ as
Savior. When the missionary asked him why he said that it was really not
a quick reception, but a product of years. He gave this account: “Years
ago I gave myself to the task of searching my life. I found it full of
imperfection and sin. My sense of guilt was overwhelming. For days and
nights I wept bitter tears. At last in an agony of despair I cast myself upon
the ground and cried to the Power who brought me into existence to send
someone to save me. I cried for mercy and acknowledged my sin. I left,
there and then, everything with that Power. I have pictured to myself the
one whom that Power would send. When you preach Christ I recognized
Him at once. I have been trusting in Jesus Christ for years, but I did not
know what to call Him.”
Like the ancient Athenians to whom Paul preached, he worshipped the
unknown God, but God did not leave him in ignorance, but gave him light
and revelation through the Gospel. This illustrates in a concrete way all
that Solomon has said in the first 5 verses of Prov. 2. We have been
stressing the importance and necessity of man’s part in attaining God’s
best for life. Those who fulfill these conditions will certainly find God’s
wisdom. Now that we have considered the conditions, we need to move on
with Solomon to consider the consequences and the basis for them. The
basis, of course, for all our blessings lies in the very nature of God, so
Solomon describes just what God is like and what His attitude is toward
those who fulfill the conditions He has laid down.
In verse 6 he says, “For the Lord gives wisdom.” Now let’s put
Solomon’s argument into a statement that will clarify all he has been
saying. Do your best in seeking wisdom, and God will see to it that you
find it, for He is the source of all wisdom and delights to grant it to those
who really want it. This means that the wisest people in the world ought to
be believers who are children of light, for they have the greatest contact
with the source of all wisdom. James says in 1:5, “If any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids
not, and it shall be given him.” All that is required is that we have the
desire for wisdom and ask for it. Since, however, God gives to all men
liberally, just as He sends rain to all, and not just to His own children, it
remains true what Jesus said, that the children of darkness are wiser in
their generation than the children of light. It does not follow that because
a person is a Christian that he will automatically be wiser than an
unbeliever.
The Lord gives wisdom, but we must never take that statement out of
the context where the picture is so clear that it is given only to those who
seek it as for hid treasure. If the conditions are not filled a believer may go
all through life ignorant and unwise, and very foolish in many areas. He is
not lost thereby, but his life is lost as a ideal instrument for God’s glory. It
may even be that they will be a hindrance to the work of God by the lack of
wisdom. The Lord gives wisdom because it is needed to accomplish His
will. The Christian is not to be concerned about eternity only, but he is to
also be concerned about time. He has an obligation to be the best possible
servant for God in this world, and this he can never be without godly
wisdom. The ultimate folly is to refuse God’s gift of salvation, but it is also
foolish to refuse any of God’s lesser gifts such as wisdom, knowledge and
understanding. Our prayer ought to be that of Boethius,
Give me unveiled the source of good to see!
Give me thy light, and fix my eyes on thee!
The second part of the verse says, “An from his mouth come
knowledge and understanding.” All that is true has its origin in God, and
through His mouth it is communicated to man. This, of course, means that
it is through His Word. We are to live not by bread alone but by every
word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That means all of Scripture
is valuable, and it is to be a part of our spiritual diet. It I mover slow in
my study of God’s Word it is because of my conviction that all of it is
valuable and ought to be chewed and well digested. The Bible contains
knowledge and understanding on many subjects, and the better a person
knows it in detail the more he is truly and educated person. There is much
knowledge that is not in the Bible, but the person who knows the Bible well
is better equipped to gain non-biblical wisdom as well. The Psalmist says
in Psa. 119:99, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy
testimonies are my meditations.” It is possible to be one of greater
understanding than those who are older if you are filled with the
knowledge of God’s Word.
In verse 7 he says that he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless.
For the Hebrew mind only that which is practical is of any real value. No
amount of theological knowledge is of any worth if it does not lead one to
walk uprightly. One Jewish scholar says that the truly righteous man will
be the truly wise and practical man. He will not be giving himself to
abstract speculation like the Greek mind loves to do, but will be concerned
about the practical day by day experience of life and its relationship to
God. We are products of the Greek mind as well as the Hebrew mind, and
we need to constantly be aware of the danger of losing the balance that
comes from stressing one or the other. The New Testament gives us this
balance where the two minds are combined.
Paul is more concerned about theological foundations than most of the
Old Testament, but he is still always concerned about the practical
applications of theology to life. He makes this clear in I Cor. 13:2, “And
though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and though I have all faith so as to remove mountains and
have not love, I am nothing.” Wisdom is to recognize that without love
you are nothing, but with it you are an instrument of God. God gives
wisdom, and He guards from the folly of enemies. Paul did not conceive
the idea of the armor of God. The Hebrews often thought of God as their
armor and protector. In II Sam. 22 David refers to God as his shield
several times. In verse 3 he writes, “My God, my rock, in whom I take
refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation.” In verse 31 he writes,
“…He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.” The Old
Testament is filled with this concept of God as shield. One of our well-
known hymns says, “Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.”
There is no greater protection in life than to walk uprightly according
to God’s will, for in doing so you place yourself in the care of God. With
all the weapons that Satan and the powers of evil have devised to make the
saint fall on the battlefield in defeat, there is no other shield adequate for
protection but God himself. Solomon knows his son is going to need a
shield to save him from the darts of temptation and from bad companions
both male and female. We have in this concept of God as our shield the
idea of security. The Old Testament believer needed assurance of
salvation just as we do in the New Testament. They had it on the same
basis. Their security was in God who was their shield. He was a certain
and unfailing protection. This was their security. They had all the
blessings of the Calvinism idea of eternal security, but they also had all the
challenge and responsibility of wise use of their free will as stressed by
Arminianism.
God is our guide only if we follow, and He is our shield only if we are
walking in the path of righteousness, which He has promised to protect. It
is inconceivable to me that anyone could read the Bible and not see the
clear demand for man’s obedient response before God gives forth His
reward. Let us remember, however, that man’s response is not the cause
for the reward, but only the condition. The cause is none other the
sovereign grace of God, who by His very nature wants to be a giver, a
guide and a guard to those whom He created in His image and for His
glory. The greater our response the greater is His reward of being our
guard and guide.
