The Proverbs 31 Project: Commenting July2nd on Proverbs 2:9-11

Got 31 days in the month?  

God's got 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs! 

What a coincidence!

For each date then, again this month, you will find commentary on a few verses from the corresponding chapter. There are 7 months in the year with 31 days, so I divided each chapter into 7 parts and spread them out so that each verse will be reviewed on the date related to its chapter by the same number name.  No, I am not deliberately trying to make this explanation complicated! (But, if you can explain my system any better than I have tried to do in the past three 31-day months, there is probably a proverb proclaiming your wisdom, and you will be recognized here for your high achievement!).

Below this introduction you will find the whole chapter representing today's date, with this month's verses highlighted in red, and my amateur comments for today low lighted in blue. Enjoy!

PROVERBS 2

Moral Benefits of Wisdom

1 My son, if you accept my words
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.


9 Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.

9) What a promise!  But what a Promiser!  God's promises are not like man's: He does not blow smoke or bait and switch or dabble in semantics.  Romans 3:4 makes the distinction:   Let God be true, and every human being a liar.  Perhaps you have trouble even imagining that what God says, He means.  But He does, and you can cling to His word. 

10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

10) Go back and re read verses 1-4 above.  They are the "ifs" that lead to these precious "thens" we are reading now.  Anybody can do the "ifs", and they can be done from anywhere at anytime under any circumstances.  Let me gather the verbs together here, and you tell me if they can be done in heavy traffic, in the sickest of sickbeds, or in the direst of dire straights: Accept, store-up, turn, apply, call out, cry aloud, look and search for.  The only one that might be difficult to do if you were locked in the trunk of a car is to store-up His commands within you.  Unless you have a Bible and a flashlight, it may be too late for the storing up so do that now!

11 Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.

11) Thank you Lord, for this great promise.  Please help me to accept your offer and practice the ifs you have given me.  I can always use discretion and understanding!

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.


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.


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.




[Anyone willing to author an explanation of my system, let me know, and if it makes more sense than my attempts (how could it not?) I will use it in October.]

By the way...MILLERWRITES copy is COPYRIGHTED. Why cut and paste when you can simply copy the link?