Proverbs 2:1-22--The Value of Wisdom

Proverbs 2
English Standard Version

The Value of Wisdom
2 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.

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Solomon tells his son that wisdom is both something that should be sought after, but also something that the LORD must give.  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom as we saw in the last chapter.  Wisdom is more valuable than silver or gold or precious stones or anything else that we can put a price on.  God gives us the ability to perceive things rightly, think about them rightly and come to the conclusion that is aligned with His Law and will.  Follow what is right and avoid what is evil--that is what wisdom will help us to do.

Wisdom will keep us form sexual sin, and the consequences that come from it.  These kinds of sins only lead to death and destruction for those involved in them.  God wants us to walk in the way of the good and the righteous so that He can bless us when we walk with integrity.  The wicked will be cut off from the land and the wicked uprooted, but the LORD will give the Land to the righteous who do justly and humbly obey and serve Him.