Proverbs 2
"My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God" (verses 1-5).
Wisdom leads us to the fear of God, and Proverbs 2 begins with a father point his son in the direction of wisdom. He offers his teaching because he knows that his words contain the greatest truth he can give. This lesson that is passed down is a teaching that is pointing a son to God.
If the son will follow his father's words, he will discover the God that his father worships. But in this there is something crucial, the father must be a worshiper of God in order to point his son to Him. When I was in school we were told that one of the best time to reach a family is right after they have a baby. Parents want their children in church but don't feel the need for it themselves. The problem comes when parents want the Church to spiritually raise their children.
Certain things can only be learned in the home. So often a childs view of God comes from their father. If dad is angry or abusive, then they have a hard time seeing God as loving. If dad is absent they dont' think God will have time for them. If dad doesn't even know God, then he can't point them to Him, and they may grow up not feeling the need for Him at all.
"For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;" (verses 6-10).
God guards the righteous and grants them wisdom. Wisdom only comes from God, it is only from Him that we find knowledge adn understanding. God grants wisdom to the upright and He guards their path.
When we are filled with wisdom from God we are able to discern righteousness and justice. We are able to discern what God would have us do becuase we know Him and are learning His ways. Wisdom only comes from God because it only comes from knowing God. Wisdom is living out what God would have us do. When fathers point their children to God they are showing them how to live in relationship with Him.
"Discretion with guard you, understanding will watch over you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things; from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of eviel; whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways; to delvier you from the strange woman, from the adulteress who flatters with her words;" (verses 11-16).
Wisdom delivers us form evil and those who walk in its ways. The more we know God the more we can recognize what is not of Him. And the more we know what is not of God, the more equipped we are to avoid it. Wisdom delivers us from evil becuase it guides us to God. Wisdom is only from God, and so it cannot point us to anything else.
"So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off form the land and the treacherous will be uprooted from it" (verses 20-22).
Wisdom is from God, guides us in His ways, and delivers us from evil. These are the messages of Proverbs 2.
"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."
To God alone be the Glory!
Peace be with you
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