Proverbs 2 (GWT)
My son, if you take my words to heart and treasure my commands within you,
If you pay close attention to wisdom, and let your mind reach for understanding,
If indeed you call out for insight, if you ask aloud for understanding,
If you search for wisdom as if it were money and hunt for it as if it were hidden treasure,
Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God.
Solomon is teaching his children how to have a good life, and avoid the kinds of problems people face when they don't understand the right way to live.
He says to want this understanding so much that you call out loud for it, and search for it with the energy you would put into building financial wealth, then you will profit much more than with just money.
You will learn to understand how the Creator designed this World to operate, and be able to align your lifestyle with the ways that work.
The Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He has reserved priceless wisdom for decent people. He is a shield for those who walk in integrity
In order to guard those on paths of justice and to watch over the way of His godly ones.
Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good course in life.
This is our goal in this life, to understand what is best not only for ourself, but for our business dealings and our personal relationships. In every part of our life.
Wisdom will come into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Foresight will protect you. Understanding will guard you.
Wisdom will save you from the way of evil, from the person who speaks devious things,
When we understand the workings of how things fit together to form a greater thing, to benefit us and those in our lives, then we will recognize whatever is contrary to that good.
Just like Federal agents study the Dollar Bill, becoming familiar with all the details of the genuine article; then whatever doesn't conform to that model is counterfeit.
That's how our godly wisdom protects us from the mistakes of others.
[Wisdom will save you] from those who abandon the paths of righteousness to walk the ways of darkness,
From those who enjoy doing evil, from those who find joy in the deviousness of evil.
Their paths are crooked. Their ways are devious.
God's light of understanding in us will light up the darkness to reveal all the potholes and stumbling stones.
Those without this understanding think that they're very clever in turning the way into interesting and different directions. I used to be there in my thinking, when I was walking in darkness. The World's wisdom perverts the good God wants us to have, and those who enjoy this "frowardness" have no idea that they are on the path to destruction.
Wisdom will also save you from an adulterous woman, from a loose woman with smoth talk,
Who leaves her husband, the closest friend of her youth, and forgets her marriage vows to God.
Her house sinks down to death. Her ways lead to the the souls of the dead.
None who have [relations] with her come back. Nor do they ever reach the paths of life.
This "strange woman" is one who is outside of our proper relationships, she leads men away from their loving wives to have a "fling" with her, and destroys what is most precious to them.
Anyone, man or woman, who thinks along these lines will never find fulfillment or satisfaction in life, if they don't turn around their thinking (repent) and turn to the Lord and His ways.
Decent people will live in the land. People of integrity will remain in it.
But wicked people will be cut off from the land and treacherous people will be torn from it.
People who pay attention to God and His ways will discover the right way to live their lives, to cooperate with how He made this Earth, and they will be able to enjoy all the benefits, the prosperity that this World has to give.
But the people who disregard what God has said, who think they know better and want to make their own decisions, will be deceived by the World, the Devil and their own flesh, to follow foolish ways. That is what God calls evil, because it works against what is good.
We all think we're making "our own" decisions, but they're all based on what someone else has said. And what we give ourselves to, to obey, becomes our Master--whether to the Lord God, our Good Shepherd Who cares for us; or the perversity of evil that seems fun in the short run, but becomes an addiction (John 8:34).
So the "decent people" with integrity will have life. A full, satisfying, fulfilling life in this World enjoying the prosperity and loving relationships we were made for.
The others who refuse to accept what God says, will not have "life," but only a "living death" while they dwell on this Earth, and lose their whole Eternity.
God does not force Himself on those who don't want Him. He lets them choose the Eternity without Him: without Light, without Love, without Goodness, without Justice, without pleasure, without anything God provides as the Source.
O my Father, thank You so much for choosing me. Thank You for putting that desire, that compulsion in me to seek Truth, which brought me to You.
I was the idolater, the adulterous strange woman, the one who took pleasure in the perversity of twisting the wholesome into grotesque forms, leading others into destruction.
I know that Paul took for himself the title, "chief of sinners," but I consider myself right up there (down there?) alongside him.
Father, I know that I deserve death, I deserve all the suffering and agony. And You put my whole debt on Jesus on the Cross, in my place. He is my personal Sacrifice, whose Blood does not just cover, but washes away all the stains of sins and rebellions and perversity that polluted my soul. Now I am clean before You, pristine and glowing with Your Light in me.
I sought Truth to lead me out of the darkness I was in, and it didn't matter to me what that Truth would be, just so I could know and believe, and not be deceived.
Father, You honored that, just as You have said here, to "take to heart" and "treasure," to "let [my] mind reach for understanding" and "call out for insight" and "understanding;" to "search for wisdom (more than) money" and "hunt for it as if it were hidden treasure" (because it is treasure beyond any other); and You did give me Your wisdom, Your Word taught me knowledge and understanding, and Your priceless wisdom has been a shield for me to guard me against all the deviousness that had previously ensnared me.
You set me free from the traps I was caught in, and gave me the good sense to recognize what is not genuine, what is deceptive.
You are protecting me from the way of evil, and all those who are speaking devious things, wrapping their deception in the "truth" of the World.
O my Father, draw Your lost sheep into the fold, bring all those You have chosen to seek Your Face and Your ways. Bring them to learn of You and how much You love them, to provide Your Lamb of God to be their personal Sacrifice.
O Father, You still are the God of Miracles, changing people, turning them around, and causing them to come alive spiritually, from the death of being without You, bringing them into family relationship with You, forgiving their sins and granting Your Spirit into our spirit, giving us Life, making us alive.
It's a miracle every time You save a person, birthing them into sonship (and daughtership) in Your own family, with Your Son as our Big Brother, our Bridegroom and our King forever.
Even so, come. Lord Jesus!
