The great Bible scholar and theologian J.I. Packer said once, “True Christians are people who acknowledge and live under the word of God… Their eyes are upon the God of the Bible as their Father and the Christ of the Bible as their Savior.” Let’s embrace that mentality now as we turn in our Bibles to Proverbs 2:1-22. 

Since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated by sports teams and their mascots. I’ve always found that very interesting. Like the Tennessee Volunteers for instance or the Oklahoma Sooners. Those names are historically relevant and have a fascinating back-story. Some of the mascots are totally uninteresting. Any team with Lions, Tigers, or Bears as a mascot isn’t being super creative with their team’s name. 

So when I was about six years old I heard about a team called the San Francisco 49ers who made it to the Superbowl, and I was baffled by that mascot. Who would name their team after a number? Come to find out that name was of significant importance to the city of San Francisco and the state of California for that matter. Around 1849 the city of San Francisco went from a small settlement of 200 people to a boomtown of about 36,000. An estimated 300,000 49ers (as they were called) flocked to California in and around 1849. What for? What’d they come for? Gold.  

Now this was not the first or the last massive “treasure hunt” in our world. A similar Gold Rush erupted in Colorado just a few years after the California Gold Rush, which was then followed by the Colorado Silver Rush. Even in the ancient world there were treasure hunts that often proved incredibly profitable. Jesus mentions one who finds “hidden treasure” in one of his parables (Matt 13:44). 

And Solomon alludes to “treasure hunters” in Proverbs 2, in our passage. But the treasure that Solomon wants his son to seek isn’t gold or precious stones or some other precious metal. The treasure that Solomon speaks of is wisdom, along with all of wisdom’s accoutrements: knowledge, understanding, insight, uprightness, integrity, righteousness, justice, discretion, etc.  

In our passage today we will see three benefits awarded to the wisdom seeker. These benefits are meant to whet our appetites for wisdom, so that we pursue it like one would go after hidden treasure. You can see those three benefits in your notes and follow along as we go. 

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Solomon starts this section by saying in chapter 2, verse 1, 

1 My son

Now remember, we just got done in chapter 1 with Lady Wisdom’s impassioned plea. She begged us to heed her counsel. In fact she threatened us if we ignored her. But in chapter 2, we move away from that Lady, and we move back to the concerned Father. And he says once again, “My son!” “Young man, listen up!” 

And here’s what he says. Let me read all of 2:1-5.

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. 

Notice the intensity in the use of verbs here: 1) if you “receive my words,” 2) if you make “your ear attentive” to wisdom, 3) if you “call out for insight,” 4) if you “raise your voice for understanding,” 5) if you “seek it like silver” and “search for it like hidden treasure.” There is a labor to this. This is hard work. We are “wisdom 49ers.” And to the extent that you feel the need for wisdom, you’re going to labor to find it.  

Now let me point out two things from this passage. First of all, notice how this passage contrasts last week’s passage. Last week, I said that wisdom was there for the taking. Lady Wisdom was roaming the streets looking for someone to heed her counsel. But we shouldn’t get the impression from that text that if we just turn our attention to wisdom, then it will be automatically downloaded into our hearts and minds. Acquiring wisdom is a journey; it’s a process. There is a labor involved. 

Now I know that Solomon was supernaturally awarded an inordinate amount of wisdom. God asked Solomon, as King of Israel, to request anything from him and it would be given him. God answered his request for wisdom and imparted it to him instantaneously (see 1 Kgs 3:1-15). But God doesn’t promise that to all of us. And interestingly, as Solomon is writing his son, he doesn’t tell him to await that instantaneous transmission of wisdom from God to us. He says, “Search for it.” He says, “Labor for it. Seek after it like silver and hidden treasures.” 

It’s interesting in verse 3 that the wisdom seeker is the one raising his voice and calling out for understanding. Look at verse 3 with me. 

3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding

In Chapter 1, Lady Wisdom was calling out. Now the wisdom seeker, the wisdom recipient is calling out. Solomon has shifted the metaphor.  

So how do we bring these two passages together? Think of it this way. Wisdom is not like winning the lottery. It’s not like going from rags to riches in an instantaneous moment of time. It’s more like building a business in a free-market economy. It takes time and energy and effort to acquire wisdom. It’s there for the taking, but that doesn’t mean that it’s an easy acquisition. And the more you labor for it, the more of it you are able to acquire.

I can remember at different times in my life when I’ve really had to labor over a wisdom matter. Should I marry Sanja? Should I go to seminary? Should I buy a house? Should I stay in school? Should I take a position as a pastor in central Illinois? Should I move back to Texas? 

And I can remember trying to shortcut the wisdom process in those times. I remember saying, “Lord, just make the decision for me.” “Lord, just speak to me through a dream or a vision or some supernatural sign.” Or “Lord, just impart to me instantaneously the wisdom I need for this decision.” Sometimes God has given me direction and clarity with a decision, I had to make. Other times I’ve had to labor and agonize and pray and fast and deliberate. 

And I think that the process is just as important as the final decision. In other words, God wants us to struggle through a difficult decision-making process. It’s a process of humbling ourselves, admitting our weaknesses, and crying out to the Lord. It builds character. Wisdom is there for the taking, yes, but acquiring wisdom takes some doing. 

Let me point out something else from these verses. Notice that the end result of the searching is not just raw knowledge. It’s not ambiguous man-centered intellectual enlightenment. The result of all this searching is radically God-centered. Proverbs 2:1-5 is a massive If-then statement. 1) If you receive my words, 2) If you make your ear attentive, 3) If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4) If you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure. Then, verse 5, you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Go ahead and write this down as #1 in your notes. Here’s the first point from our text today.  

1. The wisdom seeker is rewarded with knowledge of God (2:1-5)

Notice you don’t just get “the knowledge of God” in verse 5. You also “understand the fear of the Lord.” I said already that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But this is more than just fear God and get wisdom. It’s cyclical, not linear. You fear God and you get wisdom. And as you get wisdom you understand the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord leads to wisdom, and the search for wisdom leads back to the fear of the Lord.      

You might say, “That sounds completely circular.” It is! The fear of the Lord leads to wisdom, and wisdom leads to the fear of the Lord. Worship inspires wisdom and wisdom inspires worship.

You can think of it like a circle going round and round, but I like to think of it more in 3D, as a spiral going upwards. We fear God and we seek wisdom and as one grows the other grows and we advance upwards in maturity, knowledge, character, and integrity. We start to imitate God as we inculcate his wisdom and as we grow in our fear and appreciation of him.  

Just so you know this is a radical departure from what is normally the endgame for Americans today. The endgame that we are inundated with in our culture is not “the fear of the Lord” or “the knowledge of God.” It’s that ancient Greek philosophy, “Know thyself!” It’s Rene Descartes’ philosophical starting point, “I think, therefore I am.” Let me just tell you that those are radically different starting points and objectives from what we see in Proverbs. Solomon doesn’t say “Know thyself.” He says, “Fear God.” Solomon says, “Begin and end with a view of God. That’s where wisdom is found. That’s where satisfaction likewise is found.” 

I read an article several years ago entitled, “Me, me, me! America’s ‘Narcissism Epidemic.’” The article was an interview with a psychologist who wrote a book called, Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable than Ever Before. 

Narcissism, in case you don’t know is acute infatuation with self. It is extreme self-love and self-focus. And as this article points out, self-love and the pursuit of self-gratification inevitably leads to foolishness and to misery. God created it that way. And paradoxically what we find is that the pursuit of God, an infatuation with the Creator of the Universe, not only leads to wisdom but also… it leads to peace. It leads to joy. It leads to satisfaction. When John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He must increase, and I must decrease” (John 3:30)… that wasn’t just a statement of fact; that was a prayer! That was a path to a better life! May God increase and may we decrease. That’s where wisdom is found. That’s where wisdom leads.    

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The wisdom seeker is rewarded with knowledge of God (2:1-5). Here’s the second point from our text today. 

2. The wisdom seeker is safeguarded by the Lord (2:6-8)

Solomon writes in verse 6, 

6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 

7 he stores up [or “treasures up”] sound wisdom for the upright; 

The word for “sound wisdom” in verse 7 is not חָכְמָה. It’s the rare word תּוּשִׁיָּה which is probably better translated “success” or “victory.”

7 he stores up [victory] for the upright; 

he [that is “the Lord”] is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 

8 guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. 

Solomon’s father, King David, said something similar in Psalm 23. He wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (23:4, KJV). The wisdom seeker is safeguarded by the Lord. The person who fears the Lord is safeguarded by him. 

I was talking with a sister-in-Christ once who was feeling really attacked by Satan. I felt for her. And I had a hard time encouraging her. And in fact she started to discourage me as I talked to her more and more. How do you assure someone who is struggling with fear and doubt? 

Well I don’t know how good a job I did, but the passage that I kept reiterating in that moment was this: “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). I told her, “Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us.”

Does God allow us to be attacked from time to time? Yes. Does God put us through a Job-like experience? Yeah, sometimes he does. But here’s the thing. Even in the worst struggles of this life, he brings comfort. Even in times of great trial and stress, God has safeguarded us. Jesus assures us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace” (John 16:33a). There is a protection that is found even in times of great difficulty and pain. There is a comfort that God provides.

Now how does our search for wisdom actualize God’s protection? Well there’s a supernatural reality to that. If we are “saints” as verse 8 says, if we belong to God as children of God, then he is going to safeguard us. End of story. 

The word for “saints” here in Hebrew is חָסִיד. It’s derived from the Hebrew חֶסֶד, which means “covenant loyalty” or “lovingkindness.” God shows חֶסֶד to his חָסִיד. God shows covenant loyalty to his saints, to those who belong to him.   

And that doesn’t mean that he’s going to remove every obstacle or every challenge in our lives. Just like a good parent does, God wants us to work and labor and strive through challenges so that we can grow in wisdom and strength and confidence.

But there’s a practical side to this protection as well. If you are a man or woman of integrity, you are going to be free from some of the trappings of deceit and false accusation and unjust gain. If you discipline your children in accordance with God’s Word, you will be safeguarded (this is a truism, remember, not a promise) from the heartbreak that so many parents go through who have undisciplined children. If you cultivate the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) and mortify the flesh (sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, etc.), you will experience real freedom in Christ liberated from the consequences of unchecked sin. 

There are built-in safeguards that God has hardwired into this world. If you obey God, there will be blessing. If you disobey, there’s a curse. If you choose to sin, you choose to suffer. If you choose to obey, you choose God’s blessings.

Parents, listen up for a moment. Let me talk directly to you. Don’t just teach your children to fear you and to heed your counsel. Certainly your children should fear you, and that’s right. When you make your children obey you, you are doing right (Eph 6:1-3). But even more important than that, they need to fear and obey God. Because there will come a day when they will be outside of your realm of protection. You can’t safeguard them forever. Teach your children instead to fear God and heed his counsel.

When my parents dropped me off at LeTourneau University, I’ll never forget that day. My dad was serious, but also a little bit playful with me. Maybe a part of him was glad to have me out of the house. Anyways my dad said, “Son, you’re on your own now. Good luck.” My mom was not that way. She was so overcome with emotion at that moment, she couldn’t even say anything. She knew from that point forward, I was on my own. She could no longer safeguard me. She could no longer protect me from the world. She had to entrust me into God’s hands and God’s care. And it was hard, but she prepared me well for that day.

 Moms and dads, prepare your children with that goal in mind. Teach them to fear God. Teach them to seek after and apply wisdom for themselves. Teach them to say no to stupidity. Teach them to reject the solicitations of their idiot friends. Teach them to be radically dissimilar from this hell-bent, fallen world. And then trust God to safeguard them.  

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Write this down as #3 in your notes. The wisdom seeker is rewarded with knowledge of God. The wisdom seeker is safeguarded by the Lord. And also…

3. The wisdom seeker is supplied with:

You might say, “Supplied with what”? Well there are three descriptions of the wisdom that God supplies. You can see those as 3a, b, and c in your notes. The first description of this wisdom is found in verses 9-10.

9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; 

Verse 9 is another part of the If-then statement above. “If” you seek after wisdom then you will be rewarded with knowledge of God. But you will also be rewarded with knowledge of righteousness, justice and equity, every good path.

The word for “path” (Hebrew: מַעְגָּל) in verse 9 literally means “track” like a wheel track or a path rut. In the ancient world carts would make grooves in the dirt path. That’s what this word signifies. Wisdom reveals to us the good groove the good tracks to follow.

My dad used to drive from his home in New Mexico to college in Northern Colorado. And he said that a few times he drove through white-out blizzard conditions in Northern New Mexico. And the only thing that kept him on the highway was the tire tracks of the person in front of him. If those tire tracks were trustworthy then they would stabilize him on the highway. If they weren’t, than they would lead him off the highway and into a seriously dangerous situation. 

Well similarly we’ve got to find the tracks in the snow that God has laid down for us. If we lock onto his tracks and his standards, then we can trust him to lead us into every good thing: righteousness, justice, equity (“equity” means “uprightness” or “fairness”). Even in the midst of the storm we can find our bearings.  

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; 

Wisdom is not just intellectual ascent. Wisdom isn’t ethereal, abstract knowledge. Biblical wisdom gets into your heart. Biblical knowledge gets into your soul. You might say it this way—it gets into your bones. And those who get it, delight in it. 

Go ahead and write this down under 3a. The wisdom seeker is supplied with three things. Here’s the first.

3. The wisdom seeker is supplied with:

a. wisdom that delights (2:9-10)

Let me just ask a question, “Is sin fun?” “Does it feel good to sin sometimes?” You better believe it does. Sin can be extremely enjoyable. But sin does not bring long-term delight to your soul. In fact, it’s toxic to your soul. 

But wisdom, the wisdom that comes from God, is different. It’s delightful. It’s pleasant. It may not provide the same type of euphoric gratification that sin can; wisdom is more subtle than that. But trust me when I say this wisdom is satisfying. It’s pleasing. It’s peaceful. It’s delightful.

10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 

God says that the person who seeks after wisdom will find it, and it will be “pleasant to your soul.”  

Secondly under 3b: 

3. The wisdom seeker is supplied with:

b. wisdom that discerns (2:11-15)

In this section here, Solomon’s going to warn us about evil men. In the next section, he’s going to warn us about evil women. Let’s start with the evil men and the discernment that God gives us to avoid them.  

11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, 12 delivering you from the way of evil,

In Hebrew here, this is the דֶּרֶךְ רַע. This is the “way of evil.” There’s evil דֶּרֶךְ, and there’s good דֶּרֶךְ. You don’t want evil דֶּרֶךְ; you want good דֶּרֶךְ.

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, 

There’s that word דֶּרֶךְ again. But now it’s the דֶּרֶךְ of darkness. Darkness in the Bible is a metaphorical description of evil and lostness and godlessness. You don’t want dark paths. You want paths full of light and goodness. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Jesus came to dispel darkness. Jesus came to save us from our evil and lostness and godlessness. 

Look at verse 14. Here’s some more description of evil men. 

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. 

The description here is very similar to the knuckleheads from chapter 1. This is the second verse of that song, but it has the same chorus. Solomon is telling his son again to stay away from those idiot friends of his who try to entice him to sin. 

But it’s interesting here the way that it’s framed. It’s not a command, this time as it was in chapter 1, “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent!” Instead here it’s a calm and rational appeal. If you seek wisdom, then wisdom will give you the discretion and the discernment you need to avoid those who delight in evil.

In other words this is not a parent who gives a direct order to his child. This is a parent who leads a child to the fear of the Lord, and let’s wisdom do its job. There will come a time in the life of every parent when they will have to allow their children to decide for themselves. We can control them and protect them for a while. But eventually they’ll have to decide for themselves. If we’ve trained them to fear God and seek wisdom for themselves, then they’ll be okay. If we’ve only trained them to fear us and do what we say, then they’ll be in trouble.  

Thirdly under 3c: 

3. The wisdom seeker is supplied …

c. with wisdom that delivers (2:16-22)

Solomon warns his son about dangerous men. Now he warns him about dangerous women.

16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, 

Literally verse 16 reads like this: “to deliver you from the alien woman, from the foreigner; she seduces (with) her words.” Solomon obviously isn’t talking about women from other countries. He’s talking about women who are foreign to you, meaning women with whom you haven’t taken a covenant vow before the Lord. 

By the way, the Bible never condemns interracial marriages. The Bible condemns interreligious marriages… those who are “unequally yoked” according to 2 Corinthians 6:14. The issue in verse 16 is not an interracial marriage, but an extramarital affair.

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; 

This is a woman who has forsaken the covenant she made before God to be faithful to her husband. She is also breaking the command of the seventh commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exod 20:14).

By the way the woman is not the only lawbreaker in this scenario. The man, if he consents to this sexual liaison, is an adulterer too! He’s guilty of breaking his covenant with God too.

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. 

Wow, that’s terrifying! All of a sudden we go from a sexual liaison to a rendezvous with death. This isn’t just a female adulterer; this is a femme fatale. This is “Hotel California.” “You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave.” 

Let me read verse 18 again.

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. 

Obviously this is poetic language. Death is a metaphor here for the destruction of a person’s character. But let me just say, sometimes it’s literal. Not a few men have lost their lives over the years sleeping with another man’s wife. Proverbs 6:34 says, “for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.”  

20 So [says Solomon] you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. 

In other words, “Son, don’t be stupid. Don’t get anywhere near this stuff. Stay away from dangerous men and stay away from dangerous women. Don’t be the Antony to someone else’s Cleopatra! Don’t be the Samson to someone else’s Delilah! If you play with fire you will get burned.” 

Instead walk in the way of goodness and keep to the righteous paths. Why? 

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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I’ll close with this. Several weeks ago, I made an oblique reference to a song by Kenny Rogers called, “The Gambler.” Several of you stirred at that reference, so I assume you are familiar with that song. But you may not know just how much wisdom is packed into that song. 

The song is a story about two men that board a train heading to nowhere. And one of the men says to the other one: 

“Son, I've made my life out of readin’ people's faces. 

And if you don't mind my sayin’, I can see you're out of aces.” 

In other words, you’re about to throw away something that’s precious to you. You’re about to do something you’ll regret forever. And the secret to being a good poker player is learning what to keep and what to throw away. You’ve got to hold onto the good cards. You can’t let them go. And it’s the same in life. 

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, 

Know when to walk away and know when to run. 

You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. 

There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

Solomon takes a similar tone with his son in Proverbs 2. He says essentially, “Son, you’ve got to know what’s valuable. You’ve got to know what the real treasures in this world are. It’s not gold. It’s not worldly treasure. It’s not self-satisfaction or self-gratification. It’s the fear of the Lord. It’s wisdom. You’ve got to know what really matters in this world. Integrity matters. Righteousness before God matters. Marital faithfulness matters. Sexual purity matters to God. Don’t ever let go of those things. Don’t ever lose those, no matter what!”

I know that there might be some here today who say, “You know what, Pastor Tony, I’ve blown it. I was an idiot. I’ve done every single thing that Proverbs 2 tells me not to do. I’ve rejected wisdom and I’ve been suffering the consequences of it.” Well, let me assure you, God’s grace is big enough to forgive you of all of your sins and restore you to the path of wisdom. It’s not too late. God can restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten. But you’ve got to seek it. You’ve got to want it. You got to hunt for it like hidden treasure more precious than gold.  

Ray Ortlund says this in his commentary on Proverbs, “A tsunami of sin is slamming us in our world today, and all of us are suffering under it. Sometimes that suffering is our own fault, because we have been complacent and unguarded. Other times that suffering is precisely because we have stayed true to the Lord. However we are suffering, our real business is with Christ. He is saying to us here in his Word, ‘Come to me. Deal with me. I am able to restore you out of your past failings and defend you for the future. Hurl yourself at me in all your need. I will give myself to you in all my grace. My wisdom will enter your heart in ways you’ve never known before.’