Treasure God-given Wisdom!

Proverbs 2:1-22 

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.

The value of God-given wisdom is beyond our comprehension; it is to be treasured more than fine gold (Psalm 19:10, 119:127), beyond material wealth and possessions.  This wisdom comes through the knowledge gained from God’s word by His instruction to us as we walk with Him through life.  By hearing the words of God through the scriptures and from others who walk with Him, we learn to lean our ears to hear more and incline the affections of our hearts to beat in time with the understanding He provides.  As Solomon gave us the example, we should be yearning for discernment enough to cry out for more understanding in order to put it into our feet from our minds and hearts.  This wisdom should be the goal of knowing and following our Lord, desiring and valuing it more than any material riches which only fade away and are left behind when we sleep.  This attitude of the heart and direction of the life brings us understanding of the fear of the LORD, more than mere awe, and helps us to truly know Him.  He gives us the wisdom and understanding from the words of His mouth, and since He rarely speaks audibly to us, we listen through His word written down for us.  Yes, He also has written these words on our hearts to testify of the truth of the written and preached words, which gives assurance of the truth as we are taught by God in these ways (Jeremiah 31:33-34, Romans 2:15, John 6:45, 1 John 2:27).  When we then walk accordingly, He shields us from the wicked one and preserves our way as His saints made holy in the righteousness of Christ and His work.  Yes, this wisdom gives understanding of righteousness and justice which belong to God alone, and builds our reliance on Him instead of our efforts to justify ourselves.  Not only that, but the entrance of such wisdom in our hearts makes us desire the knowledge of God even more, treasuring it above all else.  From this we learn discretion from understanding providence in the sovereign work of God who has all situations well in hand which keeps us from doing evil ourselves.  As an example , it is not for us to force governments or leaders to bend to our sense of right, for it is God alone who turns the hearts like rivers (Proverbs 21:1).  He keeps His chosen ones from eternal harm and often from the worst that those opposed to righteousness can wield against us, those leaving righteous ways to live in darkness and rejoice in doing evil and perverse acts of crooked and devious designs, much as we see currently in forcing homosexuality and violence as things we should accept instead of stand against firmly in righteous opposition.  Wisdom also keeps us from the lesser evils of immortality than extreme perversion, such as the seductive allure and entrapment of women seeking to draw down God’s saints into debase behavior.  That way leads to death, while the wisdom of God’s commands brings life.  Instead of going along the road of no return, we choose wisdom to walk in the ways God calls good and not as the world would have us believe and accept by both violent and subtle persuasion.  The ones who remain in the land of the Lord are the upright and blameless; the wicked apart from God’s grace in Christ will only continue to pursue unrighteous paths to destruction as they are unfaithful to His words of understanding and wisdom.  May we not fall in with them even briefly, but treasure God-given wisdom to follow the right ways.