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Seeking Wisdom: Proverbs 2:1-22 (Thomas Schreiner)

It is interesting to observe what people want in life, what they seek, what they prize above all other things. I remember watching an interview with Tiger Woods during the controversy he was in during the Master’s Tournament. Woods has won 14 major golf championships, and the record is held by Jack Nicklaus who has 18. The interviewer asked Woods if he still wanted to surpass Nicklaus, and Woods didn’t hesitate. He said he still wants to win more than 18 majors. We know what Tiger Woods longs for in his life. He wants to be the best golfer who ever lived. I was struck in the interview when he said that he is strong and healthy enough to practice all day long. All day long. What a passion to be the best.

Proverbs 2 tells us that our passion in life should be to seek wisdom, and it tells us why we should seek wisdom more than anything else in our lives. Proverbs 2 consists of the advice a wise father gives to his son. As we explore this advice, I want to ask those who are young this question especially: What is it that you want out of life? What excites you? What do you dream about doing or accomplishing?

The father tells his son what he should be longing for in this chapter. At the same time, the temptations of life should spur us as parents and older people to pray for the children in our church. Charles Bridges says,

“This passage furnishes us with a frightening picture of the temptations to which our children are exposed. It should make us cry to God for their deep and complete conversion. We should pray that they may know the Gospel, not only in the convictions of their consciences and in the excitement of their feelings, but in the complete renewal of their hearts before God. This, and nothing less, will keep them safe from the traps that have been laid by their cruel enemy” (23).

Treasure wisdom

First, we are exhorted in vv. 1-5 to seek wisdom, to receive it, treasure it, making our ear attentive to it, inclining our heart to it, calling and crying out for it, seeking it like silver and searching for it like we search for hidden treasures.

Let’s reflect a bit more on these verbs in vv. 1-4. “Receiving” refers to accepting instruction. We are to be like Mary who chose what is best: sitting at the Lord’s feet to receive instruction. She stands in contrast to Martha who was so focused on making the best meal imaginable. Martha’s perfectionism prevented her from taking time to hear God’s word. Is your perfectionism preventing you from acquiring wisdom? Is the perfect becoming an enemy of the good? Is your insistence that everything be done just this way actually a hindrance to wisdom? It was for Martha. She was so consumed with making the perfect meal that she failed to listen to Jesus’ words.

We also see that we are to treasure God’s wisdom . My wife, Diane, wrote me a Valentine’s card a year ago that I treasure. I keep it in my top drawer in the dresser and I read it from time to time. When we treasure something we read it again. Sometimes when I get a note or an email from someone that is specially encouraging, I read it several times. I meditate and ruminate upon it. That’s how we treat God’s Word when we seek wisdom.

V. 2 says “Making your ear attentive”: we can half listen even as we hear God’s word. Listening is active and demands all of us: it means we incline our heart. It isn’t like doing email on the one hand and listening to someone talk on the other. That isn’t intense listening. That isn’t even half listening. Our culture encourages half-hearted listening today. We do so much listening, if you can call it that, while we are multitasking.

For example, more and more students watch videos and do emails while they are taking classes. There was a study at an Ivy League school a few years ago now which showed that students did better in class when they didn’t take notes with computers. They learned more by taking notes by hand.

Let’s continue with the verbs v. 3. You are to call out and raise your voice for wisdom. In raising the voice there is an urgency, there is a longing, and there is a passion. Searching for wisdom requires intensity. We cry out for it like a baby cries for milk.

V. 4 says we are to seek for wisdom like silver/search for it like hidden treasure. The issue is whether we really want wisdom. We can’t be half-hearted. We can’t say, “I will meditate on the scriptures while watching a game on TV.” Do you pray for wisdom? Call out for it? Do you raise our voice like a small child cries for help when they are in a difficult situation? What is it that we are seeking?

Look at the nouns in vv. 1-4. We looked at the verbs and now we will look at the nouns. We are to seek: v. 1 “my words” (the words of the father) or “my commandments.” Or, as v. 2 says we seek wisdom and understanding. V. 3 has the same thought: we seek insight and understanding. The words and commands of the father are not just any words in v. 1, nor is the wisdom, insight, and understanding just any understanding. For v. 5 tells us that the wisdom and understanding and commands and words have to do with God. Those who seek wisdom “will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.”

We saw this in my previous post when we talked about the fear of the Lord. True wisdom is God-centered. True wisdom means you know God. True wisdom means that you have an awe, respect, and even a holy terror before God. This isn’t a terror that paralyzes us, for perfect love casts out all fear. But it is a fear that reminds us that we are creatures and that God is the creator.

Let me ask you a question? Do you know God? Do you know the fear of the Lord? If you don’t know him, it is because you don’t want to know him. You haven’t cried out to know him with longing. You haven’t searched for him. Jesus taught that those who ask receive, those who seek find, and the door is opened for those who knock. So, if you don’t fear God and you don’t know Jesus Christ, it is because you don’t want to know him. You have sought other things besides God.

On the other hand, if you fear God and know him should you congratulate yourself? It would be easy to say after reading vv. 1-5: I know God because of my search for him. I know God because of the effort I put into getting to know him. I know God because I am intensely running after God. We might even start thinking and saying, What’s wrong with all those people who don’t know God? Why can’t they be like me? Why can’t they be godly.

Wisdom, a gift from God

Verse 6 corrects that way of thinking. Verse 6 nips any pride we might have in the bud. And that brings us to the second truth in this text. It tells us that wisdom is really a gift of God. Solomon says, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” Yes, those who seek find, but ultimately wisdom is a gift given by God. It isn’t a human accomplishment but a divine gift. We can’t take credit for it but can only give thanks for it. If we understand and know God, it isn’t because we are nobler than others. We have nothing that we haven’t received from God.

2 Timothy 2:7 expresses a very similar idea. Paul says “consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” This verse teaches the same truth we see in Proverbs 2. We are to consider and think and strive to understand what God is saying to us. It takes time and effort to understand the things of the Lord. I heard it put this way once: God doesn’t put his cookies on the lowest shelf. You have to go find them. So, we are to think and strive to learn. But it is finally the Lord who gives us understanding. Knowing truth is a gift of God. He reveals to us the truth.

I hope you have experienced how thrilling and wonderful it is to know the truth. What a joy to know what life is about. But truth isn’t an abstract quality, for we saw last week that wisdom is about knowing God personally. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. If you know wisdom, you know God, you know Jesus. As Jesus said in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Isn’t that remarkable? Eternal life consists in knowing Jesus, in knowing God. And knowing Jesus is a gift granted by God.

Three verses later we read in John 17:6, “I have manifested your name to the people you gave me out of the world. Yours they were and you gave them to me, and they kept your word.” In other words, those who know God and Jesus Christ have been given by the Father to the Son, and that is why they believe. So, wisdom is ultimately a gift of God. It is something God grants to his people. Both truths are taught here. We must seek God and wisdom with all our heart, and if we find him it is due to his grace alone.

Characterized by wisdom

That brings us to the third theme in these verses. If you seek wisdom it will become part of you. I think this is one of the most amazing truths taught in this chapter. Wisdom will become a sixth sense. We read in v. 9, “then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.”

Note that wisdom is connected to righteousness, to justice to equity, to every good path. Wisdom isn’t equated with intelligence but righteousness, with holiness, with living a life pleasing to God. But I especially want you to see the word, “Then” at the beginning of v. 9. If you seek for wisdom and if God gives it to you then God will grant you understanding of the true, the good and the beautiful. Verse 10 explains why this happens. “For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant in to your soul.” Wisdom won’t be something that is merely outside of you. Wisdom will indwell you. It will be part of you. In other words, you will be wise. Wisdom won’t be a thing you grasp for. It will be stitched into your person. How does this happen? Wisdom will delight you.

It will be like the difference between Velveeta Cheese and real cheese. When I was young, I liked Velveeta cheese more than real cheese. I thought it was delicious. But as I grew and began to experience the taste of real cheese, I realized that Velveeta cheese is a poor imitation of real cheese. How can you call Velveeta cheese after you have tasted real cheddar or Swiss cheese? Those who prefer evil are like those who prefer Velveeta cheese. They don’t realize that goodness is more flavorful and exciting than evil. They don’t understand that they are missing out on the real thing. They think they are enjoying life when they are actually choosing a substitute joy, a degraded joy. But those who are truly wise have a taste and an appetite for what is good. Goodness is inside them now.

We read in v. 11 that “discretion will watch over you and understanding will guard you.” We will have an inner radar that will detect evil and turn away from it. Paul expresses this same truth another way in Romans. We have died to sin and been raised with Christ, and so we are now a new creation. So, “the way of evil” talked about in v. 12 and “men of perverted speech” won’t be attractive to us. We will see and feel the folly of those “who forsake the paths of righteousness, to walk in the ways of darkness.” What is the difference between the wicked and the righteous? Verse 14 tells us. The wicked “rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil.”

Have you read about the Gosnell case where live babies have been murdered? The media in our country hid it almost entirely. They tried to cover it up. Those who excuse and cover up evil are complicit in the evil being perpetrated. Why do the wicked practice evil? They don’t have wisdom inside them. They don’t have the Holy Spirit. So, a life of evil seems like the pathway to happiness. Yes, we still sin as believers. Yes, we are still tempted to sin. Yes, we are still imperfect. But we hate sin and lament our transgressions. For we don’t love sin anymore. Now we actually love righteousness. It is beautiful to us.

Wisdom and sexual temptation

Fourth and lastly, the father gives one example of what it means to be delivered from evil in vv. 16-22. Those who know true wisdom will not fall into sexual sin. They will not be led astray by an adulteress. Her words are smooth, for the evil she promises seems to be the pathway to joy. But the joy advertised is deceptive. True wisdom sees what is really going on. It sees behind the smooth words. It recognizes that “she forsakes the companion of her youth.” It sees that adultery is treachery and betrayal. As Charles Bridges says, “If only misguided sinners could see sin in all its horrid deformity and certain end” (24). Wisdom doesn’t embrace and endorse sexual sin. It doesn’t see sexual sin as lovely, but realizes that it is destructive and turns away from it as evil.

Wisdom also recognizes that marriage is covenantal. We are told that the adulteress “forgets the covenant of her God.” Marriage is a covenant made before God. It is a solemn and binding agreement, which must not be violated. Those whom God has joined together in covenant must not be separated. Wisdom sees that adultery is profoundly and deeply selfish. It realizes that such actions are contrary to love. Those who are wise find joy in faithfulness.

We find wisdom in people like Peter Stuhlmacher. Peter is a famous New Testament scholar. As his wife got older she got Parkinson’s. Peter didn’t abandon her for another woman. He didn’t get a new wife and dispense with one that required sacrifice from him. He didn’t say, Now I can’t write good books and articles anymore. No, he devoted himself to caring for and loving his dear and beloved wife.

If you are wise, you are not thinking right now, “I hope my husband or wife is listening to this, so they will sacrifice for me more.” Instead you are thinking, How can I apply this to my life? How can I love my husband or wife more?

Proverbs tells us that the consequences of adultery are severe. It leads to death so that one no longer walks in the paths of life. The upright will inherit the land and the wicked will be cut off and uprooted. Most understand death here to be physical death. And removal from the land points to the land of promise, the land given to Israel. But whatever we make of Proverbs, in the NT the land promise, the inheritance, is understood as eternal life. It designates the heavenly city to come, the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. It points to the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells. Those who give themselves to evil and do not repent and turn to Christ for salvation will be cursed forever. Ultimately, the failure to be wise is fatal. If one despises wisdom and embraces evil, judgment will come.

Of course, no matter how much evil we have done, there is still the opportunity for forgiveness and repentance. This is still the day of salvation. There is still hope for those who turn away from evil and who put their trust in the atoning work of Jesus. Remember how Proverbs 2 begins. He calls upon us to seek the Lord. Hosea 5:15 says about those who have given themselves to sin, “In their distress they will earnestly seek me.”

Perhaps God has brought distress into your life, so you will seek him. No matter what you have done in the past, there is still time to seek wisdom; there is still time to seek Christ. The prophet Isaiah makes this very clear. He says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6-7). Seek the Lord because he is full of compassion and he pardons and forgives those who seek him. And if you seek the Lord you will certainly find him, for Deuteronomy 4:33 says, “From there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and all your soul.” And the call to seek the Lord is a call for everyone of us. We read in 1 Chronicles 16:11, “Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually.”

I pray this prayer regularly for myself and for our family. So, as we close, may we embrace the words of Psalm 63:1. May the psalmist’s longing be ours. “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my flesh thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

Thomas Schreiner is James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Among his many books are RomansPaul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ: A Pauline Theology, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ, Magnifying God in Christ: A Summary of New Testament Theology, and Galatians.

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