Notes from Studying the Book of Proverbs Ch 2

From verse 1 of Chapter 2 we learn that God gives commandments not suggestions. As such, if we treat His commandments like suggestions we are communicating to Him that we despise His Wisdom.

From verse 2 we understand that we have to “apply our heart” meaning that we must invest intellectual effort to ponder on God’s Word rather than read it casually like a novel or newspaper.

Verses 3-5 say we will only find wisdom when we dig for it like “hidden treasure”. Thus, we have to go deeper in our study of The Word meaning that we can not rely on just one translation. We need several translations so that we can sharpen each nugget of gold by rubbing it with another translation.

In verse 7 Solomon teaches that God is a shield to His people. This is very instructive because we see that God protects us from harm like a shield protects from a sword. Notice that God’s Wisdom is not a sword that we use to attack people. Wisdom is a defence mechanism. Just as Ecceksiastes 7:12 says “For wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense: but the excellence of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to them that have it”.

Verse 10 says “wisdom will enter your heart”. From this we realize that wisdom is not something we can grasp with our heads like an academic subject. It has more to do with discernment as such it bypasses the head and goes straight to the heart leading to situations where you just “know” even though you can’t explain how you know.

Verse 11 says “discretion” is part of wisdom. We ought to be discrete, careful with our confidences and thoughtful about our decisions.

Verse 12 to 19 teaches that wisdom will protect us from wicked people who aren’t straight no from an adulterous woman who has departed from the husband of her youth. The hidden message here is that wisdom will help us make business decisions and marital and relationship choices.

The last three verse assures us that if we continue in wisdom we will dwell in the land but if not we will be torn from it. These verses are telling us that with wisdom, our old age will be better than our youth. But with wickedness, our old age will be years of sorrow over the mistakes of our youth.