The Path of Wisdom and Life

Scripture Text: Proverbs 2:1-9

By Rev. Daniel Khoo

The Bible always exhorts us to choose the right path, but the contemporary world thinks there are “many ways to God” and any path you sincerely follow will eventually take you there.

Jesus made it clear that in this life, we can take only one of two ways, and each of them leads to a different destination. Everybody has to make a choice and there is no middle way. You have to choose either the crowded road or the narrow road. The crowded road leads to destruction and the narrow road leads to life (Matt 7:13-14).
In the book of Proverbs, the words “path” and “way” (including their plurals) are found almost one hundred times. We must not only love Wisdom, but we must walk in the path of Wisdom. When we walk on Wisdom’s path, we will enjoy God’s blessings. The path of Wisdom leads to life, but the way of Folly leads to death. When we walk on the path of Wisdom, we have these 3 wonderful assurances: Wisdom protects our path (ch. 2); it also directs our path (ch. 3) and it makes your path perfect (ch. 4).
Proverbs give us an admonition to listen to God’s Word and take the Word to heart (3:1-12; 4:1-9), because that is the only way we can walk with God and live skilfully. 

There are 8 imperatives in this passage (2:1-9) that reveal our responsibilities towards God’s truth:
1. Receive (accept) God’s words (v. 1)
2. Hide them (store them up) in our minds and hearts (i.e. memorise God’s Word) (v. 1)
3. Incline the ear (v. 2)
4. Apply the heart (v. 2)
5. Cry after knowledge (v. 3)
6. Life up the voice for understanding (v. 3)
7. Seek for wisdom (v. 4)
8. Search after it (v. 4)

If we want wisdom, we must listen to God attentively (Matt. 13:9), obey Him humbly (Jn. 14:15), and ask Him sincerely (James 1:5). We are to seek Him diligently (Isa. 55:6-7), like a miner searches for gold and silver.

Obtaining spiritual wisdom is not a once-a-week hobby. Rather it is a daily discipline of our whole lifetime. But in our modern age, many people do not have the habit of daily investing time and energy in digging deep into the Scripture and learning wisdom from the Lord.
It seems that our attention span is brief and our spiritual appetite is feeble and small. Fewer people “take time to be holy,” and many have fallen prey to the enemies that lurk along the way.

If we do our part, to seek Him and His words, God will keep His promise and protect us from the enemy (vs 7-8).
People are willing to work diligently in their jobs because they know they will earn a paycheck, but what about applying ourselves diligently to God’s Word in order to gain spiritual riches that are more valuable than gold and silver and jewels, riches that will last forever? (2:4; 3:13-15: 8:10-21; 16:16)
There is a price to pay if we would gain spiritual wisdom, but there is an even greater price to pay if we don’t gain it. Hence, we must walk with God through the study of His Word.