Unlike many chapters of the Proverbs, chapter 2 is a complete unity. It
is a chain of reasoning that follows a consistent pattern from start to finish.
We have considered the foundation and several of the stories built on it,
and now we have arrived at the top where we see the practical goal and
reason for all that has gone before. In verse 9 Solomon said that by
fulfilling the conditions of a diligent search for God's wisdom his son
would come to a point of righteousness, justice, equity and every good
path. He says that if you fulfill the conditions then wisdom will come into
your heart. This is why you will know what is right, just and good. You
will not need a set of rules to go by, for it will be a part of your very being.
It will be imbedded in your heart.
The Old Testament saint could gain the same inner insurance and
leading of God as those in the New Testament. The only difference being
that God used different means. The New Testament saint is guided by the
Holy Spirit, but the Old Testament saint is guided by wisdom. This means
that one of the basic differences between the Old Testament and New
Testament is that the New Testament is far more personal in the
relationship of God and man. God still uses the means here to guide, but
we refer to the person of the Holy Spirit as the one making the means
effective. The Old Testament said had a great salvation, and a wonderful
relationship to God. Not only is the heart filled with wisdom here, but the
soul is filled with joy in knowledge. Knowledge will be pleasant to the
mature and godly man. It is no accident that Jews have produced so many
mighty men of the mind. They have high educational standards. Unfortunately,
not all Christians are aware of this great heritage from
the Old Testament, and many have assumed that love of knowledge is some
sort of worldliness. In reality, the greatest method of overcoming
worldliness is to make knowledge pleasant to your soul. When you once
discover the fun and thrill there is in knowing the truth, you will lament
every hour you wasted in the silly pleasures of the world. Next to the lost
the ignorant are most to be pitied. What loss can be so sad as to lose one's
love of learning? Any believer who does not desire to grow in wisdom and
knowledge is in real need of revival. To have a mind that does not hunger
and thirst for knowledge is to break the greatest of all commandments.
Jesus said in Matt. 22:37, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and
great commandment." All believers differ in capacity, but God demands
the full capacity of your mind in His service. It is seldom thought of as a
sin to be anti-intellectual, but the Bible certainly implies that it is.
Every believer is to be a philosopher, which is a love of wisdom, and
no field of learning is so vast and exciting as that of biblical wisdom. For 3
months after I committed my life to Christ I got on my knees by my bed
and asked God for knowledge, wisdom and understanding. I felt God
wanted me in the ministry, but I was such a poor student, and so slipshod
at study that I doubted if I could make it. College always scared me, and I
never even considered it until I sense the call to the ministry. I needed
some proof that God could use me, and so every night I prayed with a
sense of desperation. There has never been a prayer in my life so clearly
answered as that, and it left me with no doubt as to my call. Knowledge
became so pleasant to my soul that I went from a C and D student to
straight A's, and it wasn't even work, it was fun. God forbid that we get
the idea, however, that this is only for those going into the ministry. Every
layman has the same obligation to love God with all his mind. Certainly it
is the goal of every believer to come to the point where knowledge is
pleasant to the soul.
In verse 11 Solomon goes on to indicate other blessings, which will
result from diligent search for God's wisdom. Discretion will protect you.
Discretion is the power of free choice, and the power to discern and decide
what is proper. The discrete person always acts in good manners. This
was so important to the oriental people who make so much of manners, but
it is to be important to us as well. All the education in the world will be
ineffective if you do not have the discretion to guide you in your use of it.
Increased knowledge can lead to greater blunders without discretion to
watch over you and guide you on the right path. Someone said, he is wise
who knows what not to say providing he doesn't say it.
He goes on to say understanding will guard you. In verses 7 and 8
Solomon said that God gives wisdom and He is the guard of the righteous,
and now he attributes the same things to discretion and understanding.
He is making it obvious that God works through means. He refers to
God's acting directly so there could be no doubt as the source of wisdom
and protection, but then he goes on to show what means God uses to guide
and protect. These means will give the righteous the power to distinguish
in matters of conflicting interest, and then be able to choose the best. Lord
Brougham wrote, "Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to
drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave." This describes what the
believer ought always to be.
In verse 12 he tells us just how wisdom will protect us. It will save us
from the ways of wicked men. Intelligence comes from 2 words. Inter
meaning between, and legre meaning to choose. So to be intelligent is to be
able to choose between. The sign of Christian intelligence is the ability to
choose the right way as over against the way of evil. The greater the
wisdom, the greater the ability to discern between good and evil. The
immature do not see the difference and so often walk in the way of folly
not seeing the danger. Most foolish sins of the believer are due to lack of
discretion.
Because discretion and understanding are means that are possible to
be used by the unbeliever also, we see how it is possible for a pagan to set
up a system of ethics that protects him from the follies of man's sinful
nature. Education and wisdom cannot save and bring a man into
relationship with God, but the facts of history and life compel us to
recognize that even unregenerate man can be lifted to a higher level of
ethical living by being taught the principles of God's plan for life.
Christian ethics has played a major role in the founding of our nation, and
so millions of unbelievers have been kept from paths of evil they certainly
would have followed without the influence of Christian teaching. It is
important to see this, for it shows us clearly what it means for believers to
be the light and salt of the earth. It also ought to frighten us to remember
that if the salt ceases to work it is good for nothing and will be cast out. If
Christians in America cease to have any effect on the moral and ethical
lives of its citizens, there can be no doubt the judgment will begin at the
house of God.
As individuals we must each strive to gain the wisdom of God so as to
be personally able to discern and escape the way of evil, and be an example
to those around us of the superiority of a life lived in obedience to God.
Solomon says we will be saved from the man whose words are perverse.
This is as great a danger in one age as another. Evil is always promoted
through speech. America is filled with propaganda and perversions of
every kind, and without discretion and understanding almost every
student who goes on to college will be snared by one perverted voice or
another.
Justin said, "By examining the tongue of a patient, a physician finds
out the disease of the body and philosophers, those of the mind." A man
reveals all he is by his use of the tongue. Listen to a man talk and you can
determine much of his personality. A man reveals in his speech his values
and attitudes in life. He reveals his goals and purpose for living, and the
philosophy that guides him. Evil in the heart can first be spotted on the
tongue. The sinner gives himself away every time he opens his mouth.
One of the greatest tests of a man's conversion is the use he makes of his
tongue. The unsaved, for the sake of position and manners, can often
control their tongue to a great degree, but almost always reveal in his
speech their shallow concept of God and the things revealed by God.
Perverted speech comes from the Hebrew word meaning to turn
upside down. It consists of willful misrepresentation of the truth. This can
be done without the means that God has ordained to guide the believer.
The believer will be in danger of being duped and lead astray by subtle
perversions. You can see how important this whole chapter is for every
day life and guidance. Solomon has a pattern so necessary that to miss it,
and not begin to build your life according to it, is to reject or ignore God's
means of using your whole life and mine for His glory. You leave yourself
open for attack, and are in danger of following the evil man whom He says
in verse 13, "Forsakes the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of
darkness. Note that Solomon is referring to one who was a Jew who apparently
had the teaching necessary to guide him, but he forsook it. It is clearly
revealed that within the body of the chosen people there were those who
rejected God and His revelation, and often they became the dominate
group, and they led the whole nation astray. The history of the church,
which is the New Israel, reveals the same pattern. The danger is always
from within. Whenever the people of God forsake the paths of
righteousness and begin to walk in darkness, they break down all
fellowship with God, and the only alterative then is repentance or
judgment. There are those today within the frame work of Christianity
who are forsaking the paths of righteousness, and are like those in verse 14
who rejoice to do evil. Men are tearing down the whole fabric of Christian
morality, and they are doing so with pleasure. God will impart to us,
however, the necessary wisdom to avoid all the errors around us.
Solomon does not limit the danger to men of perverted speech, but he
warns also of the danger of the strange woman, or loose woman. Solomon
failed to follow his own wisdom and was ensnared by the alien women he
married. They led him into idolatry and perversions of all kinds. He knew
from experience the danger of being led by flattering lips and smooth
words. Again, the tongue becomes that agent of evil. Christian youth need
ears that are committed to God and that are able to discern between truth
and error.
Henry Ward Beecher wrote, "If the frequency of warning against any
sin measures the liability of man to that sin, then none is worse than
impurity." Every believer must be consciously aware of the danger of
being deceived by words and beauty. Beecher again wrote, "When our
passions enchant us, how beautiful is the way to death." Strong Jewish
teaching and warning led the Hebrews to survive in spite of the great
temptations that led both Greek and Roman culture to destruction. The
Jews were very frank in their warning to youth. Plout, the Jewish scholar,
said, "Vague allusions and embarrassed similes are worst than useless."
Solomon does not beat around the bush. He denounces the woman
who forsakes her husband and God's covenant. He warns that to be
partner with her in her evil course by having sexual relations with her is to
commit your self to the path of darkness and death. Those who forsake the
path of purity for her get on a path so steep heading downward that they
cannot return to the high level of righteousness even if they try. The habit
of lust is like a chain dragging them into the abyss of death. A girl in a
white dress asked the coal miner if she could go into the mine with her
white dress on. He said she could but it would be very difficult for her to
be wearing a white dress out again. There is no way to follow the path of
lust and keep unspotted from the world. Wise are those who listen to
Solomon and stay on the path of purity.
