A Father’s Instruction
Proverbs 4:7
I die daily devotional.
6 “Do not forsake her, and she will guard you;
Love her, and she will watch over you.
7 “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom;
And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
8 “Prize her, and she will exalt you;
She will honor you if you embrace her.
From my experience, the acquiring of wisdom is of a meditative practice. When I pray to God and meditate on His Word meaning His Son, the conviction of the Holy Spirit inspires me to listen and hope for the next moment, minute, hour, and day, that will opportune my acquiring.
I’m learning that wisdom is not understood as wisdom until the opportunity to discover it as such, which is what each moment is permitting me to explore as I navigate through a world of knowledge. I have to trust that God as my Father will help me in my fall to understand what I’ve tripped on before proceeding or else I might fall again and again until I won’t get up or can’t get up.
So the beginning of wisdom is: acknowledge the sin of your character as the cause of stumbling over the stumbling stone. The stumbling stone is not the problem, the sin is the problem; the stumbling stone is Christ.
Romans 9:31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
When we’ve acknowledged the sin of our character by reason of Adam, we’ve acquired wisdom, but what about getting the understanding? And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
To get understanding does not imply I sin in order to get that understanding, but rather, to learn the meaning of possessing the knowledge of good and evil by reason of Adam and Eve. To have the knowledge of good and evil does not come without the consequence of guilt innate by the sin of my condition (we’re obviously separated from eternal life by suffering in death) by which the Holy Spirit convicts my conscience for getting the understanding. So the Holy Spirit gives the getting of understanding, of which is of faith to comprehend.
So by acquiring wisdom and getting understanding, the reward is a place of intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ by faith here, but in reality, there, where God is present with us as our sustenance for eternal life promised in Jesus Christ at His Kingdom. As I grasp for the meaning of eternal life by faith here as reality there—where Christ is now—am then going to behave in a manner of faith by repenting from my sin that my flesh so desperately craves.
RESOURCE
Proverbs 4 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org | biblegateway.com
COMMENTARY
Chapter 4
Matthew Henry (P4-V7) Commentary
(2.) By way of motive and inducement thus to labour for wisdom, and submit to the guidance of it, consider,
- [1.] It is the main matter, and that which ought to be the chief and continual care of every man in this life (v. 7): Wisdom is the principal thing; other things which we are solicitous to get and keep are nothing to it. It is the whole of man, Eccl. 12:13. It is that which recommends us to God, which beautifies the soul, which enables us to answer the end of our creation, to live to some good purpose in the world, and to get to heaven at last; and therefore it is the principal thing.
- [2.] It has reason and equity on its side (v. 11): “I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, and so it will be found to be at last. I have led thee, not in the crooked ways of carnal policy, which does wrong under colour of wisdom, but in right paths, agreeable to the eternal rules and reasons of good and evil.” The rectitude of the divine nature appears in the rectitude of all the divine laws. Observe, David not only taught his son by good instructions, but led him both by a good example and by applying general instructions to particular cases; so that nothing was wanting on his part to make him wise.
"NOT WITH INK" 