Proverbs 2

In Proverbs 2 the father is speaking again. In the previous chapter, he warned his son against the sin of violence. In this second chapter he warns his son against the second great sin, that is the sin of corruption. In doing so, he emphatically presents the result of two ways or paths, that is, the way of life and the way of death. It is not only about a life style, but also what that lifestyle leads to.

The picture is of you walking on a road and coming to a fork in the road. There are two roads in front of you. One road seems attractive, sunny, easy, flat. The other road seems difficult, there are threatening clouds hanging over it, the first part goes up steeply, it is a narrow and slippery road. You can’t tell from either road where it ends, because somewhere in the distance there is a turn in the road. Now which road do you choose? Of course, it is tempting to choose the easy, sunny road. But what’s after the turn?

The father in his wisdom now tells what comes after the turn, because he knows. In the case of the easy road, that is tearing up lions and bears, and in the case of the hard road, that is a beautiful valley. The father tells his son not to choose the road that leads to the tearing beasts, but the road that leads to peace.

We live in a time when no thought is given to the future. It is about getting money easily, as in the previous chapter, and about an easy and pleasant life here and now, in this chapter. Young people do not worry about the future. Here and now and immediate enjoyment, that’s what it’s about. Let’s worry about that when we get there. It is the mentality of ‘seize the day’ and ‘let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ ‘Of course after death it’s over and done with. Should there possibly be something, we’ll then see.’

The structure of this chapter is clear and remarkable:
1. In verses 1-4 the father holds out some conditions to his son. The conditions begin with the word “if”.
2. If he meets those conditions, the result will be blessings. Those blessings begin with the word “then” in verses 5 and 9.
3. In verses 12 and 16 the father tells of the two dangers from which his son will be saved if he listens to his advice.
4. The ultimate purpose is mentioned in verse 20, as evidenced by the word “so” with which the verse begins.

In Hebrew, this chapter is one long sentence that can be divided into six parts:
1. If you listen to the Wisdom and seek Her (verses 1-4),
2. then the LORD will give you wisdom (verses 5-8),
3. and you will enjoy and live out the knowledge (verses 9-11),
4. you will be preserved from the evil path, from those who enjoy the evil (verses 12-15),
5. and you will be kept from the temptation of easy sex (verses 16-19),
6. with the result that you will walk on the way of life, while the wicked walk on the path down, to death (verses 20-22).

The content of this chapter can be summarized in the word ‘preservation’ or ‘protection’.

We can warn our children for certain matters in several ways or recommend them in several ways to pursue certain matters. It depends on our personal conviction with regard to those matters. If we ourselves are convinced, it will resonate in our voice. If we speak without conviction, it will also be noticed. We see here with the father, when he again speaks to his son, that he speaks with full conviction. He is even more motivated after Wisdom’s earnest words in the previous chapter to impress upon his son the value of wisdom.

His words contain an urgent call upon the mind and effort of his son to acquire wisdom. It is hereby important that the son has a mind which “receives his words” without any resistance and “treasures” his “commandments” within him (verse 1). The words of the father have the authority of commandments. They are not merely recommendations or noncommittal advice, but commands.

‘Receive’ and ‘treasure’ mean that the words and commandments are accepted and treasured for later use (cf. Lk 2:19,51; Psa 119:11). Treasure is stronger than receive and means to learn by heart. It cannot stop at receiving. The father may offer and command, but the son must receive and treasure. If he doesn’t receive and treasure the words and commandments he hears from his father, he will hopelessly perish in the labyrinth of the world that is full of violence and corruption.

The father does not say that he has all the answers to life’s questions, but he does point out to his son where he can find those answers, and that is with “wisdom” (verse 2). In that way he refers to the Lord Jesus. That also applies to us, with regard to God’s Word. The Word of God is the Word of Christ. It is important that we receive God’s words and commandments and treasure them in our hearts. Then our faith will not suffer shipwreck (1Tim 1:19).

To receive and treasure the words and commandments, an open ear and a receptive heart are needed. The son must heed wisdom with his ear, which means that he listens to it attentively. The heart is the inner being, from which his whole person is governed. The heart must be desirous of “understanding”, that is, possessing the ability to discern between good and evil and then make the choice for the good. This understanding can be acquired by reading and treasuring this book in the heart.

After the right attitude or mindset has been presented to the son, the father says to him to cry out “for discernment” and lift his voice “for understanding” (verse 3). He prefaces that order with an empowering “yes”. It is essential that the son does this. It means that he must pray for it and do so vigorously. ‘To lift one’s voice’ is a reinforcing form of calling. It is calling with a loud voice. The son will certainly do so if he sees the value of wisdom.

Then the son is not supposed to hang around waiting for an answer to his prayer with his arms crossed. He must get to work himself. The father exhorts him to ‘seek’ and ‘search for’ (verse 4). This is the essential condition for gaining wisdom. It does not come to him by chance. He must be like a treasure hunter who shuns no effort in his search for “silver” and “hidden treasures”. In relation to wisdom, we must be treasure hunters.

The effort to find wisdom is what we can call ‘discipline for the purpose of godliness’ (1Tim 4:7b). That is worth a lot more than bodily discipline (1Tim 4:8). The latter is something into which many people put a lot of time because they want so badly to stay healthy. But the health of the spiritual life is much more important. And it is precisely in this that so little is invested. If the search for wisdom is our greatest joy, it is not an arduous task, but a task that we gladly undertake.

The word “then” with which verse 5 begins, is the answer to the conditional “if” of the previous verses. If the son does what is said in the previous verses, then he will receive what is said in this verse. He will then “discern the fear of the LORD”, that is, gain the understanding into it, understand what it means, that it is about living to God’s honor.

He will also “discover the knowledge of God”, meaning that he will possess it, learning to know God’s will and acting accordingly. He will know how to express his reverence for the LORD in everyday life. The promise of discovering in this verse is linked to seeking in verse 4, according to the word of the Lord Jesus: “Seek, and you will find” (Mt 7:7).

In the previous verses, the father has urged his son to seek wisdom. Now he says that the LORD gives it (verse 6). God is the source of wisdom. The search for wisdom leads to the LORD Himself. “For” all wisdom comes from Him. Outside of Him there is no wisdom. When we listen to the words He speaks, we hear “knowledge and understanding”, for they come from His mouth. To listen to wisdom is to listen to Him.

We are responsible to seek God’s wisdom in Christ. When we do so with a longing heart, God will give it. Here we find both the side of our responsibility and the side of God. If we seek, God will give (Mt 7:7). It comes down to seeking wisdom in the Word of God, which is in the words He has spoken and recorded. Outside the Word of God, apart from it, there is no wisdom to be found.

He has wisdom in store waiting which He keeps for everyone who is upright and asks Him for it (verse 7). He is “a shield” (Gen 15:1; Deu 33:29) for those who walk in integrity. He is their Protector. We first see the mind here (being upright) and then the practice that goes with that mind (walking in integrity).

He guards them with the purpose that the paths which they walk “are of justice” (verse 8). God wants His own to act in accordance with justice, with what is just to Him. If they do so, it will also have the result that He will preserve their way. This He does with “His godly ones”, which are the faithful of His people, who are faithful to Him and honor Him in their life.

The results are beneficial. The son will develop intellectual ability and spiritual understanding to discern “righteousness and justice” and “equity” (verse 9; Pro 1:3). ‘To discern righteousness’ means that the son understands that he must give God what He is entitled to as well as those around him what they are entitled to. ‘To discern justice’ means that he understands that he must do the right thing. If he does the right or good thing, he is just. ‘Equity’ refers more to the inner self. It is the uprightness of heart and from there acting according to honor and conscience. If these characteristics are present in him, he will choose the right path and stay on it. “Every good course” is both the good lifestyle and doing what leads to the good.

Verses 10-11 explain why the son can go the right path of the previous verses. It is because wisdom will take up residence in his “heart”, in the inner life (verse 10). When wisdom dwells in the ‘boardroom’ of life, the right choices will be made and the right track is always chosen on which to live by the standards of righteousness, justice and equity (verse 9).

Knowledge will be pleasing to the “soul”, which refers more to the emotional life. If a person has wisdom in his heart, it directly affects what is pleasant for the soul. In the soul there is a great desire to grow in the knowledge of God, to know and do His will. There is a desire for the pure milk of God’s Word (1Pet 2:2) because the taste of it is so pleasant.

If there is wisdom in the heart and knowledge is pleasant for the soul, “discretion” and “understanding” or the ability to discern can fulfill their protecting role (verse 11; Pro 1:4-5). The power of these virtues is guarding and protecting. He who is discrete and has understanding, will be kept from going the wrong way or being tempted to sin. Spontaneity is qualified as a virtue in our days, but often this trait is a source of misery. Discretion is different from reluctance or hesitation. It involves consulting with the Lord and others, then acting with conviction.

The father tells his son in the following verses what the wrong way is (verses 12-15) and how the temptation to sin comes to him (verses 16-19).

In verse 12 the father gives the first example of protection from evil. His son will not get on “the way of evil” if he is guided by ‘discretion’ and ‘understanding’ (verse 11). The way of evil is a wrong, sinful walk of life.

The second line of the verse indicates where the evil lies and that is listening to “the man who speaks perverse things”. That man is just as perverse as the things that he speaks. He comes to the youngster with false, distorted words, lies. He and what he speaks contrast with what is just and pure.

This man presents the son the easy, sunny path. But if wisdom has entered the heart of the son and knowledge is pleasant to his soul, he will not succumb to the temptation of that easy path. True wisdom expressed in discretion and understanding, is the protection against listening to the fake wisdom of the man with his fancy talking.

Verses 13-15 give a further description of this evil man and all evil men who speak perverse things. What kind of people they are is shown in the way they go. You see that they “leave the right way” (verse 13). He who speaks perverse things is not going the right paths, the paths of the good, the paths of God.

They consciously choose to “go on the paths of darkness”. Their ways lack light. They do not know God and do not want to know Him. Therefore, they do not walk in the light, but in the darkness of sin. At the same time, this also marks where they will end up, in eternal darkness.

They love to do evil, to sin (verse 14). They take “pleasure in wickedness” (2Thes 2:12). It is so strong that they applaud when they see perverse things happen. We see this more and more today. Evil is glorified. The vilest, dirtiest drawings and the most debauched texts should be allowed to be published. Freedom of speech is the highest good. The right to it must never be given up, even if God and all His commandments are mocked in the most horrible way. The masses run screaming after this. The father warns his son about this mass hysteria.

Verse 15 describes their corrupt ways in various terms. These arch villains are cunning and false in the paths that they walk. Here it also regards their whole behavior. They continually ignore the right paths. The way they live is not in any way coherent with the right paths. Nothing is in line with the path of God. If you follow their path, you will walk in darkness and you will end up in darkness. They follow the path of destruction, they leave behind them a trail of destruction, and they end up in the eternal destruction.

The son needs wisdom to protect himself from these men. They turn the ways of the Lord upside down and try to draw others in it They do this by creating chaos regarding what is good or evil. This is how man without God likes it. But the son who is guided by discretion and understanding keeps far from these men and their talk.

In verses 16-19 we encounter the second class of evil persons from whom wisdom delivers or saves, and that is the “strange woman”. The evil man of whom the father speaks in verses 12-15 brings perversion; the evil woman, by sneaky seduction, causes life to become a ruin. First is described what kind of woman the lawless woman is (verses 16-17). Then, as a warning, her ruin is shown as well as the ruin of those who submit to her (verses 18-19).

In the following chapters we will encounter the strange woman more often. The word “strange” here means what is forbidden, what should be strange to us. The strange woman is a woman who is forbidden to us. She lives outside the covenant of God, not according to the thoughts of God. It is about an adulterous woman, who is “strange” to the person with whom she commits adultery. That the father speaks about this with his son, may mean that this son is no longer a child, but someone of about seventeen or eighteen years of age.

The temptation to and committing of adultery has always been and remains a great danger to every man. Any woman other than one’s own must be ‘strange’ in sexual terms. If we think of ‘our’ Christian youth, the danger is not primarily that of committing violent crimes such as murder and robbery. But the other danger, that of fornication and adultery, is enormous. It is becoming increasingly exceptional in Christian circles for a young couple to enter marriage clean, that is, they have not yet had sex with each other (or with anyone else). And what about looking at pornography on the Internet? That too is a form of harlotry.

The wisdom that has entered the heart and the knowledge in which the soul rejoices (verse 10) also saves from the temptation of the strange woman (verse 16). Like the wrong man, she begins with words. The evil man uses pernicious words, the evil woman uses flattering words which, of course, are also pernicious. Flattery is not communicating but manipulating. She offers pleasure and that is the pleasure of easy sex.

The woman is unfaithful to “the covenant of her God” with her husband. Her husband is “the companion of her youth” to whom she is married (verse 17; Mal 2:14). Marriage is a covenant before God, it is His covenant. He instituted the covenant of marriage. Whoever tramples that covenant despises “what God has joined together” (Mt 19:6). Whoever despises the covenant of marriage despises its Giver. The adulterous woman forsakes both God and her husband and sins against both God and her husband by blatantly breaking her marriage vow.

The father holds up to his son why he should not let himself be carried away by her flattering words. This is because then he will enter her house, “for” that house is a house that sinks down to death (verse 18). Her house is a house that facing death; it is an entrance gate to death. Therefore he plays with his life when he gets involved with her. He gets the opposite of the happy life she portrays to him. The traces of the life she leads lead to the place where “the dead” are.

Whoever enters her house and comes to her is completely in her power (verse 19). She plays her dark, demonic game with him and does not let him go. Anyone who enters her house, will never get out of it. Perhaps he may literally go out the door again, but there is a snare wrapped around his soul that links him to death. The paths of the living, that is, the paths that lead to life and on which life is enjoyed, are cut off for him and can no longer be reached by him. This gruesome end can only be avoided when the son lets himself be guided on his path of life by the two sentinels of verse 11 who are named ‘discretion’ and ‘understanding’.

The sin of adultery and fornication is presented here in its ultimate consequence. It is the law of reaping what you sow (Gal 6:7-8). Whoever goes this way must count on it. The grace of God is not spoken of here. It is good to point this out too. God can intervene in His grace when someone confesses and forsakes his sins. God is a God of grace and able to deliver from the deepest darkness. Any person who goes to God with sincere repentance for his or her sins may surely count on that. However, it must be kept in mind that God does not always remove all consequences. If there is ‘consequential damage’ from a wrong path, He does help to bear it.

Wisdom saves from the evil man and the evil woman, it saves from the road to death and the dead. But it should not stop there. After distancing oneself from evil, rapprochement must be made with good. That is what Wisdom does next. She leads to the way of good and righteous men (verse 20).

About these two sides, that of rejecting evil and joining good, we also read in the New Testament. First the call sounds to all who call on the Name of the Lord to withdraw from iniquity; then follows the exhortation to join all who have already done so (2Tim 2:19-22). Thus, the son must not only stay out of the hands of the wrong men, but also associate with good men.

When the son joins the company “of the good men” and “of the righteous”, he is also one of “the upright” who will “live in the land” (verse 21). Here the father points to a certain, future, blessing (“for”). We have here a prophetic statement regarding the kingdom of peace. In that time of blessing under the government of the Messiah, the upright, that is, the God-fearing people, will live in the land. Then the kingdom of peace has come and the earth is their home, where they will live in peace and righteousness (cf. Mt 5:5).

In verse 22, as a contrast – indicated by the word “but” – the part of the wicked is presented. Now they are still in charge on earth. They still enjoy sin now. But they will have no part in the blessing in the kingdom of peace. When Messiah returns to earth to establish the kingdom of peace, first “the wicked will be cut off from the land”. They have never reckoned with God and have no part in the kingdom of peace.

They have been outwardly connected to God, but have become unfaithful to Him, they have become apostate from Him. Their part is that they will be “uprooted, which indicates that it happens with great force”, from the land, which they have claimed for themselves.

This last verse is an extra warning for the son not to get involved with wicked and unfaithful people. Surely he will not want to share in their fate and forfeit the blessing of wisdom, will he?