Good evening, Zane.
Well—let’s go ahead with another chapter of Proverbs—the one that fits with the day of the month—chapter 2. It presents some fundamental advice for doing life successfully. Vital stuff!
One task I face tomorrow, as you know, is repairing that broken water line that ruptured this morning due to freezing. Hope I can pull it off—even though the forecast is for rain all day. We’ll see. I’m also supposed to do another round of sawmill work. I’m not very eager to do that in the rain either.
Good night. Love and prayers—Tua/Ray.
Do you see where I’m going by stopping so abruptly with the “Focus” verse above? It is obvious to me that there is a big IF CLAUSE in this chapter. And the more I think about it, the more it seems consistent with the whole of the Bible. God’s Word presents to us an IF-THEN arrangement—IF YOU WILL—THEN I WILL—or IF YOU DO THIS—THEN YOU WILL GET THIS—or IF YOU DO WHAT YOU CAN in response to His Word, THEN HE WILL DO FOR YOU WHAT YOU CANNOT DO.
In this case it takes the first 4 verses of chapter 2 to establish the IF side of the equation, and the next 7 verses to expound on the THEN. It is particularly noteworthy how the THEN section begins. It actually makes a perfect circle right back to the main premise that we addressed yesterday—“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).
In order to best catch the point that inspires me, I want to quote the first 5 verses, highlighting the IF and THEN terms. “My son, IF you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and IF you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and IF you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, THEN you will understand the FEAR OF THE LORD and find the knowledge of God.”
I have to draw this conclusion: I cannot achieve real wisdom without the fear of the LORD—and I cannot achieve the fear of the Lord without wisdom. They are as closely related as “heads” and “tails” are to a coin.