Wisdom Truck 33

 

We move to Proverbs 2, which has a double split.  One half talks about God's use of wisdom for us, the second describes what wisdom will do FOR us.

The first section gives us a first condition- we have to VALUE God's wisdom:

Pro 2:1  My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 

Pro 2:2  making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 

Pro 2:3  yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 

Pro 2:4  if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 

Pro 2:5  then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 

The writer goes on to describe 4 ways God uses wisdom in us- one verse per:

-First, He GIVES wisdom to us- connecting us to Father, Son, and Spirit. (v6)

-Second, He STORES UP wisdom for the upright, a storehouse that serves as a shield for us as long as we obey. (v7)

-Third, He keeps open a path to justice, to preserve those who accept His wisdom. (v8)

-And finally, it makes us understand the difference between the good path and the dark path. (v9)

Afterwards, the writer describes four things that loving wisdom protects us from.  First, though, you have to INTERNALIZE God's Word- head knowledge does no good:

Pro 2:10  When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasing to your soul...

Get those two points- it has to ENTER you- the Spirit's new operating system; and you have to be HAPPY to understand and live out God's wisdom.  It needs to become your goal, not just your back-up plan.  If you get this far, there are five things it will shield you from:

-First, v12 tells us it protects from someone who SPEAKS evil things.  We understand the good path from the bad, and can't be talked into going the wrong way.

-Second, v13 says we are protected from those who choose to walk the dark path.  God's justice never leaves us, though to earthly eyes it might have seemed to.  God is still on the throne.

-Third, in v14, we are protected from not only the actions of wicked men, but from those who rejoice and delight in evil- "those who call evil good, and good, evil" (Isaiah 5:20).

-Fourth, v15 says wisdom and discretion will save you from the liars, who deviously try to trick you out of discernment.

-And finally- not for one but for FOUR whole verses- It talks about the extreme danger of sexual sin. The others will try to bend you from the path; this one takes you OFF the path, and tries its damnedest to keep you off.

This chapter closes with a stark warning-

Pro 2:21  For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. 

Pro 2:22  But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. 

Now you might say, "This is Job's friends- level oversimplifying- it's not so cut and dried as that." And you'd be right- IF the land mentioned was this current world.  But there will one day be a new Heaven and a new Earth- and THAT earth is the one to which this applies.