Learning from Proverbs 2

I love Proverbs 2. The Lord will give us wisdom; but we are to seek it. From my understanding, we aren't to casually seek it. It is to be dug for and toiled for; we have to work at it. If we are to seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures; then we must dig and dig persistently to get it. If you were searching for hidden treasures, you would be doing so excitedly and fervently, voraciously. If you knew there was a hidden treasure, you wouldn't give up lightly. You would did until you found it.

But Proverbs 2 is about more than just seeking wisdom and understanding. It is about walking the right paths in life. And the wisdom we gain from God, when we seek it, will keep us from taking the wrong paths. We will be equipped to turn away from evil and from temptations.

We will be shielded by our wisdom and knowledge, knowing the right path to take when we are approached by devious men (and women) whose paths are crooked.

To me, this means the more I study and seek to find knowledge in Scripture, the stronger I will become. I think most of us know right from wrong generally. But we don't always have the strength and conviction to turn away from the wrong paths. Sometimes we go down them even when we know better, for whatever reasons we have; peer pressure, convenience, easiness.

Proverbs 2 reassures me that there is peace to be found from seeking wisdom in the Bible.

Proverbs 2
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.

Resources
Day 28 - Lessons In Proverbs 2

Good News & Crossway - English Standard Version Bible Online