《Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures – Proverbs (Vol. 1)》

At first God's Word can be very challenging to understand as a new believer, but as we apply ourselves to understand, the Holy Spirit begins to open the eyes of our understanding and to give us divine revelation and spiritual truths to live by.

More specifically, we are to ask God how this word applies to our life, or how it reveals God's divine plan for our lives. The Word of God guided Jesus Christ through His life and the Holy Spirit used the Word to reveal His destiny of Calvary and Resurrection. We, too, are to look to God's Word for direction in life.

As new believers we have an instinctive love for the Word of God. But often the cares of this world chokes out that love so that we become interested again in the pursuits of this life. But we can take these four steps again and renew our love for the Word of God. For example, I worked for about nine years in the busy Dallas lifestyle and my quiet-time was choked out. Under conviction, I found myself too committed to things and too desirous of particular pursuits to slow down. The Lord even gave me a dream where I saw myself sticking my hand into a water fountain full of coins and gathering them up with passion. In this dream, I then looked up and saw a pastor peacefully studying the Scriptures. I awoke and clearly understood what the Lord was saying to me, that I was too busy chasing the things of this world that were of little value and ignoring the pursuit of the valuable Word of God. When I moved to the mission field in 1997 I made a personal commitment to limit my lifestyle to work, family time and church attendance. All other time I had became devoted to the discipline of studying God's Word again. I found my old love for His Word coming back into my heart. How did I restore this love for God's Word; by applying these principles into my life again?

When we get a "rhema" word from God, breathed into our spirit, it becomes very precious to us. It becomes a valuable source of strength to take us through seasons in life. Only a person who has received such divine words understands their value.

Proverbs 2:4 — Illustration- As soon as I graduated from college, I took off to Key West in search of Mel Fisher, a well-known treasure hunter. I had called him about a Job , and he had told me to come and help him. While I was with him during the summer of 1975, Mel Fisher had already spent a number of years in search of the sunken treasure ship called the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a Spanish galleon treasure ship that sank off the coast of Florida in 1622. I helped him build a homemade metal detector that was pulled behind a boat. He told me the tragic story of how he lost his son and daughter-in-law one night in a stormy sea when their boat turned over. In 1985 he did find this treasure ship valued at US$ 450 million, but not without a great cost. 57]

57] Mel Fisher, Mel Fisher's Treasures [on-line]; accessed 14January 2010; available from http://www.melfisher.com; Internet.

Verses 1-9

This desire to know the voice of the Lord was Solomon's prayer as a young king.

Therefore, we find in this passage, as well as chapter 4, the process by which a person can develop his spirit in order to better hear the voice of God. For this was Solomon's passion as a young king.

In chapter 2, we learn that wisdom is found by humbling our hearts to receive God"s Word ( Proverbs 2:1), by meditating on His Word ( Proverbs 2:2), by praying for understand ( Proverbs 2:3) and by making this search more important than the cares of this world ( Proverbs 2:4). As we spend time in God's Word with an open heart ( Proverbs 2:1), it strengthens our spiritual desire for the things of God. As we continue in his Word ( Proverbs 2:2), the desire for wisdom grows ( Proverbs 2:3) until it becomes the passion of our lives ( Proverbs 2:4). It is only when we follow this guideline that we will find wisdom for our lives ( Proverbs 2:5), which only proceeds from God ( Proverbs 2:6). Wisdom will then protect us along life's journey ( Proverbs 2:7-9).

The 3-Fold Make-up of Prayer of Manasseh - Let us discuss the make-up of the human being in order to better understand this passage of Scripture. We are created with five "sense gates"; seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching. Primarily, we will grow as a Christian using two of these sense gates, which are hearing and seeing. Information for our Christian life enters our minds primarily through our seeing or hearing. Our minds analyze and study this information using a god-given process called reason. (Reason is the voice of the mind, as our conscience is the voice of our spirit, and feelings are the voice of our physical body.) We then must make the choice to embrace this information and receive it into our hearts, or to reject it. Our conscience will tell us whether this information is good or bad. But our God-given will to choose, which dwells within our mind, will make the final decision. This is because within the soulish realm, which is our mental realm, dwells the will, the intellect and the emotions. Our mind may ignore our conscience and make a decision based upon emotions or reason, and not out of inner conviction. Once we accept these thoughts, they are embraced within our heart. Then our bodies are moved by our heart, our passion, to pursue these thoughts and visions. We begin to make decisions based upon the information that we have embraced into our hearts, whether it is correct information or not. Proverbs 2:1-5 will take us through a procedure of feeding our mind upon God's Word until our heart embraces it and the things of God become our passion.

For example, a child can be taken into the demonic religions of Islam or Hinduism or other cults. If this child is subjected to these teachings, by the time he is a young Prayer of Manasseh , he will literally give his life for his beliefs. We can take that very same child and place him in a church and Christian school. By the time he is a young man he will be willing to give his life for the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord spoke to me in 1997 and said, " Song of Solomon , there are two phases of the Christian life. There is conversion and there is discipleship. If a person will go through both phases, he will give his life for the cause of Christ. If he goes through both phases in a cult or foreign religion, he will also give his life for such a cause, as ridiculous as it may appear."

We find a New Testament parallel to this passage in Romans 12:1-2 where Paul the apostle tells us to renew our minds by the Word of God in order that we may know God's will for our lives.

Romans 12:1-2, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

By the renewing of our minds, we begin to understand God's good, acceptable and perfect will in our lives. In other words, we will begin to understand that we have choices, and some choices are more pleasing to God than other choices, although either of them are within Scriptural boundaries of keeping us out of sin. We can learn to make the best decisions for our lives.

God also chooses this method of giving man wisdom so that the wicked will not easily receive wisdom and fully reject it, thus increasing his own judgment from God. For God"s ways are merciful, even to the wicked. Thus, wisdom can only be found by diligently searching for it.

God is easily able to impart a great amount of wisdom into any of us in a moment, both to saints and to sinners. God sometimes gives us a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge in order to minister to someone. God supernaturally dropped a tremendous amount of wisdom into the heart of Solomon. However, God does not choose to work this way on a day-to-day basis. God wants us to learn to pursue fellowship with Him daily in order to receive our needed Wisdom of Solomon , or "daily bread." However, if this wisdom were easily available to us without seeking God for it, then we would not hold it as valuable. He will make us accountable for living by it and judge us by it on the Day of Judgment. Thus, He also allows even the sinner to walk in his darkness out of mercy for him. For in doing Song of Solomon , the sinner will face a less harsh judgment in eternity than someone who knows the truth and rejects it. This is the reason that Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes. They were healed and blessed by His ministry, but they left these gatherings without a deeper insight into the ways of God because of the hardness of their hearts. They only wanted a blessing, but did not want to follow Him, as did His disciples.

God chooses to speak in dark sayings so that the saints of God will have to search for wisdom before finding it. In so doing, the wisdom that is someone pays a price to obtain becomes precious to the one who finds. When we dig it out and pay a price to pursue God in His infinite Wisdom of Solomon , and when He drops His wisdom into our hearts in this manner, we are able to value it as a great treasure. Note:

In the natural, the most precious metals and gems are found in the depths of the earth. In the same way is divine wisdom found.

Since God will also judge the saints for what truths they know, God, in His infinite Wisdom of Solomon , only entrusts His precious truths to those to whom He has counted faithful. God does not cast His pearls before swine ( Matthew 7:6).

Matthew 7:6, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."

For example, Paul the apostle spent fourteen years serving the Lord before God entrusted him with the ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. Note:

Therefore, we must follow the order found in this passage of diligently seeking wisdom in order to find it, which God so much wants to give us. This method of finding the hidden treasures of wisdom will teach us to know the voice of wisdom so that we will be delivered from the call of the wicked man ( Proverbs 2:10-15) and from the immoral woman ( Proverbs 2:16-20). There are many voices in this world, and unless we learn how to hear the voice of Wisdom of Solomon , we will be found listening to the enticing voices of this world.

The words "path and way" are used ten times in this chapter alone. This chapter tells us that there are two paths to follow. We are told that God's Words will be our guide on the good path that provides Wisdom of Solomon , divine protection and long life. But the words of the evil man and the strange woman will lead on down a different dark path of a short life and certain destruction. We are told that both of these evil characters call their victims down a crooked path that leads to death.

We find a New Testament parallel to this passage in Matthew 7:13-14 where we are told that there are two paths to take in this life. One path leads to eternal life and the other leads to eternal destruction.

This process in not always easy to begin in a person's lifestyle. This is because when people begin their pursuit of God, they are often bound by the cares of this world. In the natural it appears that they cannot get free in order to come to God's Word and begin to apply it to their lives, but this is a deception of Satan. Benny Hinn was once given a vision. In this vision he was bound by cords and sitting in a corner of a room. In the other corner of the room he saw Jesus with His hand outstretched saying, "Come." Benny Hinn realized that he wanted to come to Jesus, but the cords had him bound. Jesus said again, "Come." Benny Hinn said, "But I can't." Jesus said a third time, "Come to Me." Then Benny Hinn begin to reach out his hand towards Jesus. The further he stretched out his body to touch Jesus, the weaker the cords became. As he continued to strain his body to reach out towards Jesus, the cords became loose and fell from him and he was set free. 56] This is often the way we feel as a new Christian. We want to live in the ways of God, but our minds tell us we are bound. However, if we will study God's Word, meditate upon it, cry out for wisdom and put His Word first in our lives, we find ourselves being set free from the bondages of this corrupt world, and free from the ways of the evil man and strange woman.

56] Benny Hinn, This is Your Day (Irving, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California, 6 January 2003), television program.

Verses 1-22

1. How to Find Wisdom — Proverbs 2:1-9

a. Develop a Hearing Heart — Proverbs 2:1-5

b. Wisdom Protects Our Path — Proverbs 2:6-9

2. Wisdom's Path of Escape — Proverbs 2:10-22

a. The path of escape — Proverbs 2:10-11

b. Escape from the wicked man — Proverbs 2:12-15

c. Escape from the adulteress — Proverbs 2:16-20

d. End results of wise man & fool — Proverbs 2:21-22

Verses 6-9

Verses 10-22