Wisdom Guards – Proverbs 2:6-15

Wouldn’t it be great to always know just the right thing to do?  It would just come into your head and you would make right decisions.  That’s what Solomon is telling his son can happen if his son seeks for wisdom as for hidden treasure and learns the fear of Yahweh.  Can this really happen?  Solomon says so.

For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. (Proverbs 2:6-15, ESV)

Why do so many of us get taken in by shysters?  Especially of the political kind?  It is apparently a lack of wisdom.  Don’t we want safety from that, for us and our kids?

The great benefits of wisdom are two-fold:

• Wisdom comes from Yahweh, which means it is the arena in which I find relationship with Yahweh.  It is the “upright” and “those who walk in integrity” to whom Yahweh adds more wisdom.  It is His “saints” whom He watches over.  He is eager to store up sound wisdom for me if I am walking before Him in this manner.  I am getting wisdom from his own mouth.  He is personally invested in the process with me and I with Him.  There is nothing in the universe better than this.  This is great pleasantness of soul.

• His wisdom protects me.  Failure to follow the way of wisdom leads to self-destruction and destruction at the hands of others who delight in the perverseness of evil.  Wisdom teaches me that unethical and illegal financial gain will in the end lead to my punishment and shame, as will adultery.  Wisdom teaches me that those whose ways are crooked are also devious and can’t be trusted.  Wisdom teaches me the consequences of dealing with angry people, demanding people, self-promoting people, foolish people, and people in power.  Most of the problems I will have in life will come from my failure to obey God’s wisdom.  Wisdom cannot guarantee me a life free from pain, but there is much pain wisdom can teach me to avoid.

Lord, please birth in me a craving for wisdom from you, a standard of what is righteous and what is not, and save me from those who would take advantage of me or others.  Keep me from the path of evil.