The benefits of wisdom
[Proverbs 2:10-22]
There are countless questions to ask in our lives. For example, ‘What is the purpose of my life?’, ‘'What is God's will for me?’, ‘How should I live in order to glorify God?’ and so on. We live day by day asking countless questions. Among these countless questions, Ecclesiastes 1:3teaches us a question that we must not leave out: “What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun?” By asking the question, 'Is this beneficial for me?' or 'Is it not?' we must live a life of spiritual discernment, taking what is beneficial to us and throwing away what isn’t beneficial to us. In order to do that, we need heavenly wisdom. Only with the wisdom that God gives us can we have spiritual discernment, take what is beneficial to us, and throw away what isn’t beneficial to us.
These days, as I meditate on the words of Proverbs at every Wednesday prayer meeting, I feel the need for wisdom more and more. God is making me to pursue His heavenly wisdom by revealing the foolishness of my heart. Meanwhile, at last week's Wednesday prayer meeting, we were taught why and how we should seek wisdom under the heading “Let's seek wisdom” centered on Proverbs 2:1-9. Why should we seek wisdom? The reason is to know and realize. In other words, the reason we must seek wisdom is not only to know and realize God, but also to realize all the good paths that God wants us to walk. How, then, should we seek His wisdom? We must not only cry out to God for His wisdom, but we must seek His wisdom just as we seek the hidden treasure. And we must open our hearts and listen to the word of God, receive it and treasure it within us. Why do we have to do this? I find the answer in Proverbs 2:10-22. It is, in a word, because of the benefits of wisdom. I would like to receive some lessons from God by meditating on the three things about the benefits of wisdom.
First, the benefit of wisdom is that it is pleasant to our souls.
Look at Proverbs 2:10 – “For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” What do you enjoy these days? Do you have anything that is pleasant to your hearts these days? Looking back at the word of Ecclesiastes 7:11 that we meditated on last year, the lesson we learned at that time was that the benefit of wisdom gives us eternal values. In other words, the Bible says that wisdom is good, beneficial, and beautiful because it guides us to live forever for the eternity. In particular, as King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God set eternity in our hearts, wisdom is good, beneficial, and beautiful because wisdom satisfies our longing for eternity. There is happiness in the life of those who realize the truth (Park). That happiness means that those who realize the truth of God have deep joy in their hearts. Look at 1 Corinthians 13:6 – “does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.” Our souls rejoice with the truth. In other words, our souls have been recreated to long for eternity in Jesus Christ, and those recreated souls have joy when they come to realize the eternal truth of God. Indeed, our souls are full of joy when we hear the voice of the Lord. And when we hear and understand the voice of the Lord's truth and obey His word, our souls will be happy and our hearts will have peace (Prov.2:10) (Park). How is this possible? This is possible because the living God works in us through His powerful word (Park). Wisdom is good for us because it gives us this peace and joy.
Second, the benefit of wisdom is that it protects and delivers us.
Look at Proverbs 2:11-12: “Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things.” In Proverbs 2:8, which we have already meditated on, the Bible tells us, “Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones.” In other words, God gives wisdom to us who seek His wisdom (vv. 3-4), and protects us through that wisdom. Further, it is said that wisdom not only protects us, but also delivers us when we are in danger. Then to whom does the Bible say that wisdom protects and rescues us? The Bible says two things:
(1) Wisdom protects and delivers us from the way of evil and the man who speaks perverse things.
Look at Proverbs 2:12 – “To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things.” Here, the evil man and the man who speaks perverse things leave the paths of uprightness in order to walk in the way of darkness and delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil (vv. 13-14). These are fools who hate knowledge (wisdom) and are fond of foolishness, who don’t want to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity (1:3). Therefore, they leave the upright path and walk the crooked path (2:15). These are people with crooked minds which cannot walk the upright path. As a result, these evil and rebellious people hate us for walking the right or upright path. Therefore, those who walk the dark path not only seduce us, the children of the light, but also put us in danger when we don’t fall into their temptation. For example, Joseph in the book of Genesis is a good example. Potiphar's wife constantly seduced Joseph who was serving his master Potiphar at his house. But because he didn't fall into her seduction, she framed Joseph and eventually put him in prison (Gen. 39). Likewise, those who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil (Prov. 2:14), whose hearts and minds are twisted, put us, who fear God and walk the upright path, frame us and put us in danger. However, just as God gave Joseph the wisdom to interpret the dreams [the cupbearer for the king of Egypt (Gen. 40) and the Egyptian King’s dream (ch. 41)] and delivered him from prison to make him the prime minister of Egypt, God gave us wisdom to deliver us from danger and go further and exalt us.
(2) Wisdom protects and delivers us from the adulteress.
Look at Proverbs 2:16 – “To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words.” Here, the Bible provides a supplementary explanation about the adulteress (Park).
(a) The adulteress flatters with her words.
Look at Proverbs 5:3-4: “For the lips of an adulteress drip honey And smoother than oil is her speech; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.” What a terrifying temptation is this? It is the terrifying temptation that can take away our lives and faith. When I meditate on this word, I think of the words from Proverbs 7:6-20. A foolish young man without wisdom goes into the harlot's alley at night and is heading towards the harlot's house. A cunning woman dressed in a prostitute grabs the young man, kisses him, and tells the young man with a shameless face: “I was due to offer peace offerings; Today I have paid my vows. Therefore I have come out to meet you, To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings, With colored linens of Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with caresses. For my husband is not at home, He has gone on a long journey” (vv. 14-19). This cunning and adulteress woman enticed the young man with many persuasions, the young man suddenly followed her (vv. 21-22). He suddenly followed her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool (v. 22). How can we resist and overcome these temptations of the harlot like Joseph? How can we be protected and delivered from the harlot who entices us with her flattering lips and many persuasions? Look at Provers 7:1-5: “My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live, And my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ And call understanding your intimate friend; That they may keep you from an adulteress, From the foreigner who flatters with her words.” Only with the wisdom that God gives us can we avoid falling into the temptation of the adulteress who flatters. Only wisdom can protect us and deliver us from her.
(b) The adulteress doesn’t have fidelity.
Look at Proverbs 2:17 – “That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God.” The adulteress is the one who has forsaken her marriage partner, her husband, and destroyed the marriage covenant made before God (Gen. 2:24). In a word, the adulteress has no fidelity. The adulteress is the one who has abandoned her purity by sleeping with this man and that man. Proverbs 2:18 tells us that the house of this adulteress sinks down to death and her tracks lead to the dead. What does it mean? Look at verse 19: “None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.”
How, then, does wisdom protect and deliver us from the wicked and the adulteresses? God's wisdom protects and delivers us by preventing us from participating in the path of the wicked and the adulteresses (v. 12) (Park). The wicked or the adulteresses around us constantly seduce us because they want us to leave the upright path and walk the crooked evil path. And their temptations can seem good, delightful, and desirable in the eyes of our flesh (Gen. 3:6). But wisdom allows us to see the way of the wicked and the adulteresses with the spiritual eyes. As a result, wisdom not only makes us aware that the way of the wicked and the adulteresses is the way of destruction, but also it makes us not to participate in their way, and not to walk with them at all. This is the second benefit of wisdom.
Third and last, the benefit of wisdom is that it makes us to walk in the way of good men.
Look at Proverbs 2:20 – “So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous.” Wisdom enables us to walk the way of the wise, the righteous way, the just way, the way of equity, and every good ways (v. 9). In other words, wisdom allows us to walk on the straight path, not the crooked path. That straight path is “the way of good men” or “the paths of the righteous” (v. 20). Those who seek wisdom don’t associate with the wicked or the adulteresses. Rather, the ones who seek wisdom don’t associate with such wicked and adulteress people. But they leave them to pursue proper fellowship. That right fellowship refers to the wise people associating with the good and the righteous (Walvoord). Hence, the wise people seek uprightness and blamelessness in association with the good and the righteous. Why do the wise people seek uprightness and blamelessness? The reason is because they want to remain in the Promised Land forever. Look at verse 21: “For the upright will live in the land And the blameless will remain in it.” However, because the wicked left the upright path and walked the dark and perverse path (vv. 13-14), they will eventually be cut off from the land and will be uprooted from it (v. 22). What should we do?
We must ask God for wisdom. We must seek God's wisdom. We must cry out to God for wisdom that is beneficial to us while remembering the words “The benefit of wisdom” given in Proverbs 2:10-22. Wisdom is pleasant to our souls. Wisdom protects us and delivers us from danger. Wisdom also helps us to walk in the way of good people, the path of the righteous, the path that Jesus walked. I hope and pray that by walking on the path of the Lord Jesus, all of us may be living together with the Lord forever in Heaven, the true Promised Land, forever.