March 2nd? Read Proverbs 2
[Please note: The first two paragraphs below are repeated each day for new readers. My amateur comments are offered below each of today's verses from Proverbs.]
[Please note: The first two paragraphs below are repeated each day for new readers. My amateur comments are offered below each of today's verses from Proverbs.]
Have you ever noticed that, like most months have 31 days, the Book of Proverbs has 31 chapters? Fascinating right? Well, it is at least interesting, and coincidentally beneficial to those who would like to read a portion of thought provoking scripture every day of the month. You might like to read the calendar coordinated chapter from Proverbs every day this month (I've included the whole chapter below!) and then see if my comments on a few of those verses line up with your observations. My plan is to go through the year, writing my response to about one seventh of each chapter's verses every day, during each of the 7 months that have 31 days. Clear as mud? That's what I thought.
I hope you check in, and leave a comment. Especially if I say something really off base and need to be corrected, because, as we will learn this month on the 27th, Proverbs 27:5 says
"Better is open rebuke than hidden love."
"Better is open rebuke than hidden love."
Proverbs 2:4-6
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
4) If you don't look over the previous verses (see below) you may miss the antecedent of the impersonal pronoun "it" in verse 4. The object of our intense looking and undistracted searching should be this vital collection of transcendent goods: Wisdom, Understanding and Insight! In a word; TRUTH.
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
5) Mathew 7 speaks to this, but a bit differently.
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Yes, God will make sure we find the whole truth if we but look for it. But the "it" can not be found just ANY where. The knowledge of God is not hidden in your navel, a refracting crystal or in the works of Jihad. As silver will be found in a silver mine, and a hidden treasure only where X marks the spot, so we must look diligently and reasonably through the portals of wisdom, understanding and insight which are all revealed through the gift of His Word.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
6) God isn't counting on any of us to have what it takes to do anything for ourselves! He repeatedly tells us in the Bible that He does it all for us. Ephesians 2:8, 9 holds the classic back-handed compliment, as it were:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
All we can do (and it is challenge enough to our pride) is receive.
[All Bible passages are from the NIV, and today's chapter is copied here from www.Biblegateway.com for your convenience.]
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
4) If you don't look over the previous verses (see below) you may miss the antecedent of the impersonal pronoun "it" in verse 4. The object of our intense looking and undistracted searching should be this vital collection of transcendent goods: Wisdom, Understanding and Insight! In a word; TRUTH.
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
5) Mathew 7 speaks to this, but a bit differently.
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Yes, God will make sure we find the whole truth if we but look for it. But the "it" can not be found just ANY where. The knowledge of God is not hidden in your navel, a refracting crystal or in the works of Jihad. As silver will be found in a silver mine, and a hidden treasure only where X marks the spot, so we must look diligently and reasonably through the portals of wisdom, understanding and insight which are all revealed through the gift of His Word.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
6) God isn't counting on any of us to have what it takes to do anything for ourselves! He repeatedly tells us in the Bible that He does it all for us. Ephesians 2:8, 9 holds the classic back-handed compliment, as it were:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
All we can do (and it is challenge enough to our pride) is receive.
[All Bible passages are from the NIV, and today's chapter is copied here from www.Biblegateway.com for your convenience.]
Proverbs 2
Moral Benefits of Wisdom
1 My son, if you accept my wordsand store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.
and fair—every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
13 who have left the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
14 who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
15 whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
from men whose words are perverse,
13 who have left the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
14 who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
15 whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,
from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
17 who has left the partner of her youth
and ignored the covenant she made before God.[a]
18 Surely her house leads down to death
and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
19 None who go to her return
or attain the paths of life.
from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
17 who has left the partner of her youth
and ignored the covenant she made before God.[a]
18 Surely her house leads down to death
and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
19 None who go to her return
or attain the paths of life.
20 Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will live in the land,
and the blameless will remain in it;
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will live in the land,
and the blameless will remain in it;
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
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