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Proverbs 2:1–15 — The Value of Seeking Wisdom · A Tithe of Time Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to a tithe of time, rooted in wisdom, growing wiser, one passage at a time.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today we'll be looking at Proverbs 2, 1-15, reading from the ESV.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's look closer.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Notice how much effort is described at the beginning.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Receive wisdom, treasure it, listen for it, call out for it, seek it, search for it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then Proverbs gives us this picture seek wisdom like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: You do not search for buried treasure casually, you search because you believe what you are looking for is valuable.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: But then verse 6 says, For the Lord gives wisdom.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if God gives wisdom, why are we told to search for it?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because the passage holds both together.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: God is the source of wisdom, but we are still responsible to pursue it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: We do not create wisdom by our effort.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: We receive, seek, and treasure what God gives.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Then verse 10 says, Wisdom will come into your heart.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: That does not mean wisdom becomes something mysterious or magical.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: It means wisdom is no longer just information you hear.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes part of how you think, judge, and choose.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: That is why the passage says, discretion will watch over you and understanding will guard you.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom becomes protective because it helps you recognize where a path is leading before you follow it too far.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The passage then gives a specific example.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Wisdom can deliver you from the way of evil and from people whose speech and paths are crooked.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that Proverbs talks about a way, paths, and people who walk in the ways of darkness.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wrong choices are pictured as roads.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: One decision can become a direction, and a direction followed long enough becomes a way of life.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: These men have gone so far down that road that they rejoice in doing evil.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: What should have troubled them has become something they enjoy.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: That is one reason wisdom is so valuable.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: It does not merely help us after we have made a bad decision, it can help us recognize a crooked path before we make it our own.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the picture Proverbs 2, 1-15 leaves us with.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, tithe your time.