Proverbs 2 - Seek and you will find
If you want to understand goodness, shut off the noise of this world and seek God's wisdom.
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Proverbs 2 (ESV)
1 My son, if you
receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you
call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you
seek it like silver
and search for it 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 in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
9 Then
you will understand
righteousness
and justice
and equity,
every good path;
10 for
wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who
rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men
whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.
16 So you will be delivered
from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17 who
forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for
her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;
19 none who go to her
come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you will
walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For
the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
22 but the wicked
will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
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Proverbs 2 Summary
Proverbs 2 continues the monologue of a wise father passing down wisdom to his son. Chapter 2 is constructed in the form of an if/then statement.
IF (v1-4):
you listen to words of wisdom;
you seek out wisdom as if it's treasure;
THEN (v5-15):
You will be in a right relationship with God (v5);
You will understand goodness and wisdom for yourself, for the Lord gives gives wisdom;
There are two additional key benefits to seeking out and listening to wisdom:
You will be delivered from temptation. All through the Proverbs will will see temptation personified as a seductive woman, as she's described in v16-19;
You will enjoy God's blessings. All through the Old Testament, God's blessings are symbolized by having land (v21-22). Having land meant a certain amount of security, ability to grow food, pass down an inheritance and having a sense of shalom, the peaceful condition in which all things are as they should be.
Dig Deeper
We often note that Christians are able to see and notice things that unbelievers miss out on because they're blinded by their sin and wandering around in the dark.
Verse 9 is a perfect illustration of this phenomenon. Certainly unbelievers can do things that are righteous, just and equitable. They can do this because of God's common grace in their lives, by which God restrains sin and evil.
But those who receive [God's] Word and treasures up [His] commandments (v1) will not just be able to emulate good things, but you will be able to understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path for yourself, for you will understand the fear of the Lord and