PROVERBS 2

We saw in chapter 1 that the fear of The Lord is the very foundation upon which all the other proverbs are built. We also saw in 1.29 that the fear of The Lord is a choice that we can either make or refuse.

• Ps 25:12 What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. 25:13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth. 14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

However, we know all too well that there is a battle that goes on in our minds constantly. The enemy appeals to our reasoning and our lusts to get us thinking carnally…that is one reason why Paul writes to us

• 2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

God wants us to think wisely. The word amusement is an interesting word. The prefix “a” means “not” and the phrase ‘muse” carries the idea of thinking; thus, the very essence of amusement is not to think.

Beloved, we cannot afford not to think like The Lord would have us. As we have been learning in James, godly thinking is to lead us to godly living. So, we continue with this “father-son” dialogue.

1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide (treasure, store up) my commandments with thee;

• My son if- The God-given gift of choice.

• God treats His children similar to the way a father treats his son: both want the son to obey from the heart. Both want the son to learn lessons. God does not force us to obey; we have a will and God wants us to love and obey Him from the heart. If God forced us to love and worship Him, it would not be love, nor would the worship mean anything.
• Note that we are not exhorted to hide just any words within us, but My words and My commandments.
• Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
• Job 22:22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
• Psalm 119 repeatedly reminds us of the importance and value of hiding God’s Word in our hearts.
• God’s Word is to be stored up within us. Hidden in our hearts. There is no hocus-pocus way of learning the word of God saints. As we will see in these verses, it is like a miner digging out nuggets of gold that lie beneath the earth.

2 So that thou incline thine ear (attentive) unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

·      Incline- Paying attention to her is more than just hearing her. It refers to a need to listen intently so that you might learn from her.

·      Our hearing God’s truth is to find it’s home in our hearts. We are to love The Lord with our heart and mind. Josh 24.23 incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.

• The wise man will pray for God’s help in this matter. Ps 119:36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

• Prayer is a vital part of seeking the wisdom of God. The wise man or woman is a person who has developed a healthy prayer life.
• Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
• Understanding (discretion)- this is the ability to judge something as right or wrong or good or evil.

4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

• Have you ever lost something that was important or meant a lot to you? How did you go about seeking to find it? Does that describe our hunger and thirst for the wisdom and knowledge of The Lord.
• Note all the verbs listed in these 5 verses, receive, hide, incline, apply, cry out, lift up, seek and searching precede understanding the fear of The Lord and finding the knowledge of God.
• Seeking God is not a passive kind of a life, it is a deliberate choice.
• Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently (earnestly) seek him.
• A Hindu priest was baptizing a devotee in the Ganges River….the story is told that he held the devotee under the water a little longer than the devotee felt comfortable with. When he came out of the water, the priest asked him this question; “When you were submerged under the water, what one thing did you want the most?” The devotee said, “Air.” The priest replied, “When you want wisdom as much as you wanted that air, you will find it.”
• I am obviously not plugging Hinduism, but his advice to this individual describes to a “tee’ the depth of diligence and desire necessary for “discovering” the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God described in these 5 verses.
• Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Holding nothing back)
• The fear of The Lord-a blend of wonder and terror.

6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

• The scriptures differentiate between earthly wisdom (James 3:14-16) and godly wisdom (James 3:17-18).

• Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
• Job 12:13 With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.
• We cannot be asking for God’s wisdom if at the same time we have no intention to obey what He reveals to us in His Word. I need the wisdom of God because it is only the wisdom of God that keeps me safe in this life and allows me to make wise, godly choices.

7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous:

• The NIV says, He holds victory in store for the upright. Listening to godly wisdom and living in victory go hand in hand guys.

he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

• The word buckler is a military word that refers to a shield or form of protection when engaged in combat. The Lord is a protector to those who walk uprightly.
• We see that the righteous are contrasted with the wicked or the fool. Then there are the upright who are contrasted with workers of iniquity or transgressors.
• Ps 97:11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

• As we sow to The Spirit, we are assured that God will keep us on that narrow path that leads unto life. God defends the right way, and those in it.
• Jude 1, we are preserved (guarded, protected, watched over) in Jesus Christ.
• Ps 31:23 O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.

9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

• We are told here that the way of the Lord is righteous, the way of the Lord is just, and the way of the Lord is equitable or fair. Now if the ways of God are righteous, and just, and fair, then what is the person hating if he or she hates the ways of The Lord? He or she hates righteousness, judgment, and he hates fairness, equity. Why would he hate righteousness, and judgment and equity? Because he or she loves darkness rather than light because their deeds (and thus their hearts) are evil.

10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

• Please note that wisdom does not simply enter apart from it being sought (verses 1-5). Godly wisdom is not magic. It requires a deliberate, diligent search…prayer.

·      Pleasant- God’s wisdom and knowledge are top be considered more precious than gold and sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb (Ps. 19:10;119:103).

11 Discretion (what is correct and proper; discernment) shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

• Two enemies are seen besetting the feet of the young man. In verses 12-15 it is the evil man; in verses 16-19, the strange woman.
• The only effectual safeguard from the ways of sin and ruin is the knowledge and fear of God.

12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

• The wisdom of God will save you and me from the ways of evil men and from the people who speak perverse things. Forward things can also include the idea of twisted or manipulation.

13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; 15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:

• A backslider or professing Christian would certainly fit this description of an individual who leaves the paths of righteousness to walk in the ways of darkness. This is Satan’s agenda for each and every follower of The Lord Jesus Christ here tonight. Demas forsook The Lord and the ministry because he loved this present world.
• 2Pe 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

It is interesting to me that when Paul cautions the church in Corinth about whom to avoid contact with, listen to what he writes.

• 1Co 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Maybe tonight you are on the verge of turning away from the things of The Lord. You have been hurt by a fellow Christian. Or the cup that God has given you to drink is causing you to become bitter towards Him. Talk to Christ about it, but listen my friend, there is no good reason to forsake Christ. Read Ecclesiastes.

Perhaps you are here tonight and you have been living in the world. Remember the teaching of the prodigal son in Luke 15 and come home to The Father tonight.

16 To deliver thee from the strange woman (loose woman, adulteress), even from the stranger which flattereth (smooth talk) with her words;

• Pr 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil

• The strange woman and her flattering lips will be revisited again in chapter 7.
• Flattery is false praises given in order to gain some favor or influence someone in order to accomplish some purpose. A flatterer tells you what you want to hear in order to get from you what they want.

17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God (the marriage covenant). 18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

• The commercial that says “What’s done in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is a blatant satanic lie. The consequences of immorality follow you around.
• Many people have destroyed not only themselves but also their families as a result of not heeding the wisdom of God regarding the consequences of sexual immorality. Impurity in all its forms has a deadly influence upon both body and soul.
• 1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.
• There is a correlation between an unrepentant lifestyle of sexual sin and the numbness of one's soul. The hardened heart does not want to repent nor does it seek the path of righteousness. They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

• The godly path leads to a life of fulfillment. How precious it is to have godly, Spirit filled friendships for fellowship and accountability.
• The Psalmist declared, Ps 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life.

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

• The evil path leads to a life of futility. Cut off-rooted out; destroyed, perish or consumed.

·      As we close our study tonight, we will see many contrasts of people in the Proverbs; the wicked and the righteous. The wise and the foolish. The lazy and the diligent. Every single person has the potential to be one or the other…..the choice is yours.

• Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
• Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

The ultimate purpose of the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom is that we might enter into a deeper fellowship with The Lord Himself.

• Ho 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
• John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.