“Does not wisdom call?

    Does not understanding raise her voice?

² On the heights beside the way,

    at the crossroads she takes her stand;

³ beside the gates in front of the town,

    at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:

⁴ “To you, O men, I call,

    and my cry is to the children of man.”

Proverbs 8:1-4 ESV

In this passage we see that wisdom is not as elusive as we might sometimes think … or suggest. Notice that wisdom is not something you need to trek to the Himalayas to find. Wisdom hangs out in the open, at the crossroads and the city gate (8:2-3). We walk past wisdom not because she is tucked away out of sight, but because we want to walk past her. How can I say that? Notice that wisdom cries out to us (8:1, 4), as if to say, “Hey, look over here! Here I am!”

Lord, please give us ears to hear wisdom, eyes to see wisdom, and hearts that desire to gain wisdom.

And now, O sons, listen to me,

    and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Keep your way far from her,

    and do not go near the door of her house,

⁹ lest you give your honor to others

    and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰ lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

    and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

¹¹ and at the end of your life you groan,

    when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹² and you say, “How I hated discipline,

    and my heart despised reproof!

¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

    or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴ I am at the brink of utter ruin

    in the assembled congregation.”

Proverbs 5:7-14 ESV

In the preceding verses (3-6) the writer warned of the dangers presented by the forbidden woman. Here in verses 7-14, he continues that warning.

By going near her door you risk much. For example, you risk giving “your honor to others and your years to the merciless” (5:9). The second part of this couplet describes the risk as letting “strangers take their fill of your strength” and letting “your labors go to the house of a foreigner” (5:10). In other words the risk of going near her door is giving the rest of your life – time, energy, and resources – to someone else.

Is the risk worth the moment of forbidden pleasure? The writer answers that question like this: “… at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed” (5:11). I think the groaning is the result of three things. First, groaning comes from the fatigue and futility of laboring your life away, knowing that the reward of your labor is consumed and enjoyed by strangers, and not by you. In other words when you work overtime a stranger’s kid gets new sneakers, not your kids. This is a groaning of futility.

Second, groaning comes from the realization of how you got into this spot – being a fool – and how you could have avoided it had you walked the path of wisdom. Notice how the writer describes this realization: “… and you say, ‘How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teacher or incline my ear to my instructors'” (5:12-13). This is a groaning of frustration. Why didn’t I just listen?

The third groan comes from a desperate sense of finality. “I am at the brink of utter ruin …” (5:14). In other words, “It’s over.” And this is what the fool can not see waiting for him at the end of the path of folly.

Like the writer of this passage, I also implore you to choose wisdom. “My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding” (5:1).

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,

and whatever you get, get insight.”

Proverbs 4:7 ESV

This verse provokes an obvious, yet critical question. Where can I get wisdom? Can I order some online? Do you enjoy the mystery that awaits you in a fortune cookie? I do. But I don’t look to fortune cookies for wisdom. Neither do I look to aged alcoholics for wisdom. That’s not to say that I could never gain wisdom from an aged alcoholic or a fortune cookie. That is to say, whatever apparent wisdom I may gain from the Internet or fortune cookies or an alcoholic must be measured against an unwavering standard.

Beware, everything that sounds wise isn’t necessarily wise. For example, when I was in college a friend and I shared an apartment not too far from campus. Other than the sense of freedom it provided us, the best feature of the apartment was the community hot tub. We enjoyed going to the hot tub late at night to kinda relax away the day. On occasion, an aged alcoholic would be there. He was easy to talk with and he enjoyed regaling us with the wisdom he had gained from a lifetime spent on the end of a bottle. I was enraptured with the nuggets of wisdom that he so effortlessly spilled our way. So much so that I even wrote one of these treasures in my Bible. The problem was I was a fool and had no ability to discern between gold and fool’s gold. To this young fool everything he said appeared to be gold. Only much later in life did I realize that so much of what he said was nonsense, and that the nugget that I wrote in my Bible was only fool’s gold.

What is a young man, or any man to do when the promise of wisdom is so high and the risk of foolishness is so great? As wisdom says, “For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death” (8:35-36).

Here’s the answer from Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (9:10). God is the only infallible source of wisdom. Go straight to the source. Regularly spending time in Proverbs is a step in the right direction.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

  and do not lean on your own understanding.”

Proverbs 3:5 ESV

This proverb falls into the “I don’t know if I can do that” category. How do I trust in the Lord with all of my heart? How do I not lean on my own understanding if that’s all I have? These are fair and normal questions.

For some, the answer will seem evasive, which actually supports the answer. What is the answer? Faith. Paul deals with this same idea in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Without faith, walking with God, and all that means, makes no sense.

So, how do I trust God with all of my heart? One faith step at a time. With each step of faith comes the opportunity for our faith to grow, which corresponds to ever increasing measures of trust in God. As our faith grows, so does our trust.

Begin to grow in your trust today by asking God for help in believing in the small things, that your faith may increase.

“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.”

Proverbs 2:1-5 ESV

This is a beautifully constructed “if … then” proverb. In other words, if you do this, then this will happen. When I notice an if/then statement, I often jump to the “then” clause to see the payoff. Sometimes I disregard the conditions altogether, focusing only on the benefit I expect to receive. Of course that approach is silly. How can I expect the benefit(s) of an if/then statement if I give no attention to the conditions of that statement?

In this proverb the payoff is huge: “then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” This should be the active goal of every person. But what are the conditions? We will work through them one at a time.

The first condition: If you want to understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God, the first thing you need to do, the writer says, is “receive my word and treasure up my commandments with you.” These are heart matters. We need hearts that are receptive to wisdom, seeking wisdom. Then, we need to recognize the value of wisdom (i.e., treasure). Do you think of wisdom simply as something that would be good to have or is it an essential thing. This proverb suggests that we need to see wisdom as essential. The writer reiterates this thought in 7:1. “My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you.”

How is your heart condition as it relates to wisdom? Are you ready to receive it and treasure it?