“For the Lord gives wisdom… “
Like a pearl, wisdom is both hard to find and easy to lose. There is great encouragement in knowing two distinct truths: pearls of wisdom come from God, and it is He who protects them. When we diligently seek wisdom, God graciously gives wisdom and helps us to keep it. Wisdom must be guarded for the same reason we must seek wisdom in the first place: foolishness and lies abound and are in constant opposition to true wisdom.
For every good and valuable thing in life, there are many false and cheap counterfeits.
“For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
What an assuring thought! God gives willingly. He doesn’t have to, but He does. He states this fact clearly in Scripture, the first chapter of James: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” God created it; He is the supreme author of it. No one can give it as He can, and He willingly gives to those who ask.
“He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity.”
Do you see the vital connection here? There are two distinct personalities in relation: the author of wisdom and the one seeking His wisdom. This verse clearly balances the character of the one seeking with the action of the One who is sought. Solomon reminds us that God takes definite action in “storing up” and being a “shield”. These words conjure up some vivid pictures of protecting and keeping. God protects and keeps His matchless wisdom only for certain types of folk – the upright and the ones with integrity.
So what can be learned here?
Our actions display our heart. There is simply no way around it. When we live in sin and hypocrisy, our hearts are revealed, and the revelation is less than good. Bluntly, this means a bad heart is infertile ground, unable to grow the fruit of wisdom, because sin and darkness do not – will not – coincide with wisdom. They are counter-opposed.
But… when the heart is right, when the conscience is clean, the Spirit of God can, and will, work to imbue His wisdom to the one who seeks.
“Guarding the paths of justice… “
A recent post discusses the pillars of wisdom. There are three wisdom pillars defined within Proverbs – righteousness, equity, and justice. This verse portrays justice as paths, and paths are a perfect way of showing how justice works within the framework of wisdom. When you think of path, what comes to mind? Normally, it is a means to go through something in a particular direction. In the physical world, we might see footpath winding through a field or a meadow. Or perhaps a trail in a park. Or a roped-off section forcing its way through a crowd at a convention. Whatever the picture, the point of a path is travel: to get from one place to another while passing through something else. A path is something we follow to arrive at another place.
Justice is likewise a path; it is a path through a world of evil. Justice (we hope) will take one from being a victim to being healed. It might take another from a place of criminality to a place of punishment. It might take a lost person to a place of being found.
God must guard justice, because the world in which we live is assaulting the concept of justice every hour of every day. Individuals and groups rise up to destroy God’s system of justice. God’s people stand up to fight for what they believe is Scriptural justice. But the real justice, the ultimate justice, the justice of God, is what God guards. He guards it in the minds of His people, He fights for their cause and their liberty in every life in every place because His justice, the perfect justice, will not and cannot ever be obliterated.
“… and He preserves the way of His godly ones.”
This is a promise that we can take home with us and keep. God will preserve the way – the life, the actions, the influence, the effect – of His people who follow His design. He does this because He loves and cares for those who remain faithful to His laws.
No matter how loud and forcefully the world screams defiance, God is preserving His precious truths and His pearls of wisdom. And when His followers seek His wisdom and champion it, He works to protect them, for they have thus become His pearls of wisdom.
(Proverbs 2:6-8)
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