April 5
Reading: Proverbs 2
1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 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 stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; 10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, 12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, 13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, 14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, 15 men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.
16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, 17 who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; 18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; 19 none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Proverbs has a number of authors:
1:1-7 Proverbs of Solomon, introduction and theme
1:8-9:18 Proverbs of Solomon, advice to his son
10:1-22:16 Proverbs of Solomon, the upright and the wicked
22:17-24:22 Proverbs of wise men
25:1-29:27 Proverbs of Solomon written down by Hezekiah
30:1-33 The words of Agur
31:1-9 The words of King Lemuel
31:10-31 An alphabet of wifely excellence
Proverbs 2 continues the advice begun in chapter 1 from a father to his son (Proverbs 1:8-33).
Proverbs 2 has a definite structure. If you will seek wisdom (vss. 1-5) from the Lord who gives it (vss. 6-8), then you will find wisdom and be delivered from sinners (vss. 9-15). Then you will be delivered from the harlot (vss. 16-19) and walk in righteousness (vs. 20) which will be a blessing to you and not a curse (vss. 21-22). It is all really one big proverb.
The harlot, the adulteress, the wicked woman, the woman of folly, is all one metaphor used in the early chapters of Proverbs to personify evil and foolishness. This is in intentional contrast to lady wisdom, the personification of godly wisdom, who calls to those who will listen. Both women are calling to you for you to follow her.
How can you tell the difference in their voices? Who will you listen to?