Prayer

Reading: Job 1:13-22.

Meditation

In the third scene, it all unfolds: raiders kill his workers and steal his livestock, his barns and sheep are struck by lightning and burned to the ground, all his camels are stolen by another raiding party, his wealth crashes down to nothing in the space of a moment, and then a tornado rips into his house and kills all his children at once – seven sons and three daughters, all dead. Can you imagine if this happened to you? Let’s try and paint the picture.

You’re out for a walk one day. You get a notification on your phone: your bank has just gone into receivership, and you open up your banking app to find that all of your money has evaporated. Your balance is at zero. In panic, you console yourself with the knowledge that you have a lot of stock in the stock market, and you can replenish your funds if you sell some shares. As you log on to your stock exchange app, you find that all your companies have all gone bust, and your shares have plummeted to zero. You’re really panicking now, so you call your wife. She picks up the phone, and she’s hysterical. The house has burned down, and all of your children were caught in the fire. They are all dead. You now have no money, all your possessions have burned, and the only thing you own is the clothes on your back. What would you do in that scenario?

It’s hard to even process what that would be like, isn’t it? But remember: we need to be aware of the physical causes of our suffering, and – in this case – we see Satan is the instigator. That will the focus in this meditation. We see a couple of things about Satan’s devices here.

Firstly, we see that Satan takes no holidays. Notice how relentless Satan’s attack is. It’s one thing after another. His malice is so great, that he would destroy everything in a moment if he could. If he had the power, he would take your money, burn your stuff, kill your family, and then kill you in an instant. Without hesitation. Such is the malice of our enemy. Be aware of this in your sufferings. If you have a bad day, he won’t give you a few days to recover. He’ll be on your back the same night if God allows it. He will always seek to press the advantage. This is why it’s so important to watch and pray, because your adversary the devil will not relax his relentless attempts to destroy and kill.

Secondly, we see that Satan uses second causes. I don’t watch horror movies from Hollywood, but from clips I’ve seen, they like to give pictures to the supernatural. Again, I haven’t watched it, but in a Stephen King movie, for example, the demonic entity might be portrayed as some shape-shifting monster or some such. But Satan is a spiritual being, and we learn here in Job that he uses much more mundane and secondary causes to accomplish his ends. Somehow he influenced those raiders to attack and steal from Job’s flocks. He has the power to influence people’s thoughts, that’s why Jesus said to Peter at one point: “Get behind me, Satan.” Peter was under Satan’s influence at that point. And Satan uses disasters: storms and lightning. Later on he will use sickness to afflict Job. So consider this: when people inflict suffering on you, or some disaster is unfolding, be aware that these things may well be, in that moment, satanic instruments. Real world events are not disconnected from the spiritual realm.

People talk about conspiracy theories sometimes, and I can’t say much about them. But I can say this: there is a powerful, global, spiritual conspiracy unfolding right now. There are dark forces, an organised system of evil beings, manipulating pieces on a global scale. This conspiracy is directed by a supernatural and malevolent intelligence, and most people are ignorant of it and in bondage to this evil cabal of demons. It is a conspiracy of epic proportions beyond any conspiracy known to man, and it is fueled by hatred and malice, and it is constantly working to destructive ends. It is the kingdom of darkness. We need to start seeing this unseen reality. As these disasters unfold in Job’s life, they are demonically orchestrated attacks.

Be ye doers of the word...

If you are a believer, you need to come to terms with this. Satan, or at least his underlings, have designs of harm for you. Be watchful. Be vigilant. Your enemy the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Watch and pray. This is why we’re instructed to pray for deliverance from the Evil One every single day in the Lord’s Prayer. Don’t presume things will tick along fine. At any time, seemingly random from our perspective, he might strike. Watch and pray every day. Look to the hills, from where your help comes, our help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Are you praying for deliverance from evil, temptation, and Satan every day? SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Prayer

Reading: Job 1:6-12.

Meditation

What have you suffered in your life? Sickness? Injury? Family grief? Physical or spiritual harm at the hands of another person? We tend to think about these injuries in two basic ways. On the one hand we may think of them in terms of bodily harm (e.g. you carry a back injury). On the other hand, we may think about them in terms of human agency (e.g. someone said something very hurtful to you, or abused you in some way). What we don’t tend to give much thought to at all is that there is a powerful connection between the sufferings of your life and the unseen spiritual realm around you (and within you).

As the narrative of Job continues, having met Job in verses one through five, a second scene begins to unfold in verses six through twelve, and the scene at this point completely changes. We’re no longer in the land of Uz meeting with Job, we’re in a whole different world. We’re in the heavenly throne room of God himself. There is clearly a powerful connection between our suffering and the unseen realm. This passage lays out a series of insights into the nature of that connection. Let’s explore those connections.

First, there is the fact of the connection itself. The spiritual realm certainly does effect our suffering. The events that unfold in these verses completely determine the direction of the whole Book of Job. If God had told Satan that Job was untouchable, none of the suffering would have happened. If Satan didn’t have such hatred, none of the suffering would have happened. Job’s suffering had a direct cause and effect relationship to the actions of both God and Satan. So may yours.

Secondly, Satan targets Christians for suffering. Both the churches of Smyrna and Pergamum in Revelation 2 supply New Covenant case studies of the fact of Satanic persecution, and the suffering it entails. Job is a clear example of this as well. Job looses his house, property, family members, all at the hands of one key, demonic mover behind the calamity: Satan. You had better believe that Satan and the fallen angels are constantly militating against the saints – including you. Absolutely that is true. The forces of darkness are militating against your family, your local church, your pastor, and your elders. C.S.Lewis’ book “The Screwtape Letters” is an imaginative but insightful meditation on this theme – well worth reading.

Countering this, consider thirdly that: Satan’s reach us under control. Satan is clearly powerful, he can cause natural disasters for example, and he can influence and control the actions of men, but he too is subject to God. He is an ancient, supernatural, malevolent being many times the superior of us in power, intelligence, and craftiness. But lest you be discouraged by your own weakness in comparison to Satan, remember this also: Satan is not the only spiritual power that exists, and he is certainly not the most powerful. It is very clear in this scene of the heavenly courtroom: God is calling the shots. Satan is subject to God. This is not an exchange between equals. So, yes, Satan has the capacity to effect suffering in the life of believers, but he is a pit bull terrier dog on a leash, so to speak. He can go no further than God gives him leave.

In addition to this, and the New Testament makes this very clear, since calvary, since Christ’s death and resurrection, Satan’s power has been diminished even further. He has been cast down! He has received a deadly, skull-shattering blow at the cross. In that sense, Satan has less power over us today than what he did in Job’s day. Give thanks for that. And yet remember – he is powerful, and he is full of deadly malice.

Here is a fourth observation: God proves the faith of his servants. Job’s suffering in chapter one is not discipline for his sin. On the contrary, Job is presented as entirely innocent. Satan has a pernicious part to play in your suffering, but know this: God’s sovereign decree will always be the ultimate factor determining what suffering God does and does not permit in your life. That is a hard reality to come to terms with, and it is one which the Book of Job explores at great length, but we begin with the basic fact of its reality. God is sovereign over your suffering.

Naturally we may ask: Why? Why does God permit us to suffer? This is the very question that the entire Book of Job wrestles with. Satan’s objection when God praises Job is very clear. God says: “Have you considered my servant Job?” Satan responds, effectively, by saying: “Job doesn’t really have faith, he doesn’t really love you God. The only reason Job is so good, is because you have protected and blessed him. If you take that away, Job will fall apart.” That’s the accusation of Satan. God then permits Satan to remove those blessings. Why? One of the reasons is to prove Satan wrong, and to prove Job’s faith is real. You may suffer in your life. It may just be that God allows that suffering to display the reality of your faith. Have you ever considered that before? James spoke about this: “Consider it all joy brothers, when you face trials, knowing that the testing of your faith works endurance.” One of the reasons God allows you to suffer is to strengthen your faith. Remember that next time you’re suffering. Don’t wallow in the misery. Lament, by all means, but recall to mind: God is using this trial to strengthen my faith and thus display his glory – and that is the fifth thing.

God is exalted in our suffering. Suffering is not pointless or meaningless. We don’t live in a universe that is blind, indifferent, and pitiless. No, as you suffer, and as you hold fast to Christ in your suffering, God is being and will be exalted. Through Job’s suffering, God has gotten to himself glory incomprehensible. Through Job, and through every saint in history who was edified and helped by Job’s story, God will be exalted. Your suffering as a Christian is no exception. Think of your suffering like this: your pain is the price-tag of God’s glory. When we complain, when we murmur, or say: “That’s not fair!” What we’re actually saying is: “God’s glory is not worth it.” We’re saying: “God doesn’t deserve to be glorified at the expense of my suffering.” We must remember, however, that God did not spare himself this suffering. Indeed, he suffered in infinite measure, and he calls us to enter into a small portion of the same. This is why complaining is such a great evil.

So start to learn seeing the spiritual dimension to your suffering. There is a powerful connection between our suffering and the spiritual realm, and just as heaven is above earth and superior to earth, so the spiritual realm is far more influential in our suffering than we care to realise – more influential than the physical realm. We live in a culture of 21st century materialists, so this is hard to get our head around, but it is something that we need to see more clearly.

Be ye doers of the word…

Job had no idea about that exchange between God and Satan. He was completely unaware that it was taking place. For all Job knows, things are going well, and then a series of catastrophes randomly begins to unfold in his life, and he’s left with a thousand questions and unimaginable pain. Now there are a lot of things we don’t know about what goes on in the spiritual realm, but we do know this: there is a powerful connection between our suffering and the spiritual realm. Always. At the very least, recall this to mind in your times of suffering. There is always more going on than meets the eye. And let this awareness drive you to seek the Lord in prayer. We are instructed daily to pray for deliverance from the evil one. Pray regularly for a more acute awareness of the relationship between the spiritual realm and suffering. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Heavenly Father, I confess, I have neglected to pray daily for deliverance from Satan. Please forgive me for my spiritual ignorance and arrogance, to suppose that I could live well without relying on your help and protection. Please help me to turn from this prayerless attitude, and to pray daily for your help and deliverance. Please help me to engage in the spiritual warfare that is all around me, and militates against me. Please lead me not into temptation this day, but deliver me from the evil one. I pray also for my fellow believers in my local church, please protect them, and teach them to fight the good fight of faith, watching and praying daily against the spiritual dangers that surround them. I thank you that I have the victory, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.

Pray

Reading: Job 1:1-5.

Meditation

As little children learn to talk, there are a few common phrases and words that they typically say. Among the most well known are: “Mummy”; “Daddy”; “No”; “I want…”; and on it goes. If you have boys, “Truck” or “car” seem pretty typical, and they usually make a valiant attempt at saying “dinosaur” pretty early on (I’m not quite sure what little girls say – I grew up with three brothers and I have four sons!). There is one other popular phrase that comes along pretty early on as well: “It’s not fair.” It’s amazing how quickly children develop a sense of justice, and if one of their siblings takes something belonging to them or perhaps gets something they want, those words tend to come out pretty regularly: “It’s not fair!”

We can see this in children easily enough, but I wonder if we as adults are not also guilty of this kind of thing too. It might not look the same, we don’t generally whine and complain by saying: “It’s not fair.” It will probably look more sophisticated than that, but essentially that is what’s going on. We respond to difficult things we don’t like in a way that communicates: that’s not fair. Maybe we complain, or criticise, or get moody, or argue. Sometimes it’s just that something comes up in our day, and the inner thought crosses our mind: “Great! This is the last thing I need.”

The Book of Job has a message for us in such times as this. “Yes”, God says, “This is exactly what you need.” There are reasons why God is letting your difficulty happen, and the Book of Job is custom designed to help us come to terms with this reality. As we scan through this book, we quickly see that most of it consists of dialogue between Job and his friends. We’ll get to that later, because the first thing we need to do is focus on Chapter 1. This chapter is a kind of a key to the whole book, and it sets out the context for everything else.

The first lesson that the Book of Job brings to us is that we must come to terms with the reality of Christian suffering. Suffering, in one sense, is a common human experience. We live in a fallen world, and we all share in the painful consequences of sin. However, there are some unique dimensions to suffering when it comes to the experience of a Christian. In particular, faith fundamentally changes the dynamic when it comes to suffering.

Scripture says that without faith it’s impossible to please God. When a person believes in and trusts in God, it changes everything about their lives, including how they view and experience suffering. For the unbeliever, every suffering is a foretaste of the coming judgment of their sins. For the believer, they are no longer under judgment, and suffering may be seen by faith to be – not judgment – but loving discipline, correction, or instruction. There may be other divine purposes behind our suffering as well.

The narrative of verses 1-5 in chapter one begin by showing us that Job was a model Christian. Of course Job lived in the days of the Old Covenant, and so – strictly speaking – he wasn’t a “Christian”. He was, however, very clearly a man of God and a man of faith. Our text takes great pains to make that point. Job wasn’t just an ordinary Christian, he was exemplary. In his day, he was the greatest, most mature, most godly man on the face of the planet. Imagine if this was God’s testimony about you? “There is no one like him on the earth.” God actually said that about Job! This is an incredibly godly man.

Be ye doers of the word...

Consider the superiority of Job. God invites Satan and the heavenly host to do just this. Consider Job in comparison to yourself. It’s so easy to form an opinion and judgment about the actions of God’s people recorded in scripture. Our summary of Job might be: “Job? Job got arrogant against God, and God put him in his place!” But consider this: if you lost all your wealth and family members in a day, would you kneel down and worship at the end of that day? Job did. One of the reasons why God used Job as a key character in this story was to show us that not even the very best of saints is beyond suffering. If God is not willing to spare righteous, blameless Job from suffering, the best Christian on the face of the earth, do you really think God would spare us from suffering? Did he spare even Christ, the sinless Son of God, from suffering?

Job’s superiority and innocence is, in a sense, intended to show us that every believer will be subject to divinely ordained times of suffering. We must accept the reality of suffering. We are not better than Job, even though we have many new covenantal advantages over him. We ought not to think of ourselves as being above suffering, and we must arm our minds with this knowledge. Accept the reality of suffering, it will be a feature of your life. That’s part of our application in this first lesson, we need to make a mind-shift so that we are in a place where we accept the reality of suffering in our lives. Job confronts us with this reality on every page.

But where to from here? As we approach the text of Job itself, we also ought to arm ourselves with another tactical approach to our suffering, that being: we must imitate Job. When we read biblical narratives, one of the things we ought to do, according to 1 Corinthians 10, is to use the characters of scripture as reflections for ourselves. The Apostle James does this specifically with Job himself: “Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11). As we read Job, therefore, we consider Job as a pattern of patience for ourselves.

We ought to look at Job, as in a mirror, and consider ourselves in light of his responses to suffering. Would God actually say of us: “Consider my servant (insert your name here), there is no one like him/her on the face of the earth?” Would God say such a thing of me? Would it be desirable that he should commend us in that way? Imitate and learn from Job. In our passage we see that he feared God, and that he turned from evil. Do we know what it means to fear God? (start by reading Bunyan’s short volume “The Fear of God”, it will help with this). Job turned from evil. Consider when you have are tempted to do evil, do you turn from temptation? Job continually prayed for his children… do you? Do you pray for the children of the church? Do you pray continually?

Finally, of course, Job’s sacrificial offerings are a gospel foreshadow. Job understood that his sins, and the sins of his children, would need to be covered and atoned for by sacrifice, much as Abel understood the same thing. The full gospel has now come to us, and we understand that this sacrifice is Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Job is a gospel man, he deals with his sins by confession, repentance, and seeking God’s mercy. That is exactly what we ought to do also – in times of suffering and in times when things are well. These are fruitful lines of thought, and as we continue on in this book, lesson by lesson, we will learn how to suffer wisely. We will be seeking to wisely discern which things in Job’s life are worthy of imitation – there are a good many of them. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Dear Lord God, thank you that – in your wisdom – you have ordained suffering for each one of your people. Thank you that you have good purposes in allowing us to suffer. Thank you that you are altogether wise and wonderful in all your works. Please help me to truly and meekly accept the reality of my suffering, trusting in you that all will be well. Please forgive me for the occasions on which I have responded sinfully to my suffering, and teach me to respond wisely to suffering. May you teach these lessons also to your people in my local church, that we may be a church that is humble, meek, and submissive to you in our suffering. In Jesus’ name I pray these things, Amen.

Prayer.

Reading: Prov 2:1-4

Meditation.

We will not get wisdom if we give it a half-hearted effort; it requires diligence. People don’t just walk around and find silver lying on the ground. They have to dig, and work, and sweat, and go, and go, and go. They have to extract it from the ground, then refine it. Silver and treasure do not easily come by, and neither does wisdom. Again, you will not get it by accident. If we are slothful or neglectful in the scriptures, we will not find wisdom. We must search the scriptures diligently.

Be ye doers of the word…

This meditation really is wholly an application. But let me pause here and make a secondary application in keeping with what we’ve just considered: Read good books. God did not make us to live in isolation; he made us dependent on one another, and he ministers to us through other people. One important way he does this is by giving teachers to the church. As Ephesians 4:11 says, “He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry and for building up the body of Christ.” We will not get everything we need just by reading the Bible in isolation. The church is built up in the truth as a community, and preaching is an important means of grace. We need it. Fellowship, conversations, family worship—they are all important. And another very important thing for growing in knowledge and understanding of the scriptures is reading good books.

Read books about the Bible, theological books, and books that will help us spiritually. Let me exhort you to become readers of books. We will all have different capacities, but books are a means by which we can access the wisdom that has come to the Church through the ages. Through reading, we benefit from the ministry of great teachers God has provided, and we grow in our understanding of scripture.

Let me make a few recommendations. I’ll group them into three areas: studying scripture, studying theology, and books for spiritual maturity. For spiritual maturity, pick up anything by the Puritans—they are a gold mine of spiritual literature, unparalleled in church history. For studying theology, consider Beeke’s four volume “Reformed Systematic Theology, and also A.W.Pink on the attributes of God. For studying Scripture, it is a good idea to use commentaries for individual books. You could start with Matthew Henry for the whole Bible, and then aim to read a commentary per book over time. Why not set a goal to read at least one commentary for every book of the Bible before you die? That would be a great goal. And you can always ask your elders for help and advice.

If you want to start in Proverbs to supplement these studies, pick up Charles Bridges’ commentary—it is a wonderful volume. And for understanding scripture, sermons are also very helpful: take notes, review them, and re-listen to Sunday sermons. All of this will help you grow in knowledge of scripture. Let all your reading be aimed at understanding the Book of books.

Now let me say one final thing in closing. Some of you may be wondering: Where is Christ in all this? As we have studied Proverbs, how does this point us to Christ? The answer is that Christ is in all of it. The New Testament tells us that Christ is the wisdom of God, and so as we seek wisdom, we are seeking Christ. We have seen that wisdom comes through the Word of God, and in John 1 we see that Christ is the Word of God. As you study Proverbs, this is Christ speaking to us, and Christ being formed in us.

As we study the Word diligently, give attention to it, receive it, and cry out for insight in prayer—raising our voice for understanding—it is only because of Christ that this prayer is answered. Through Christ God forgives our sins and accepts our prayers. Without Christ, the prayer of Proverbs 2:3 would go unanswered. So as you put these things into practice, make no mistake: this is all in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. All God’s wisdom is found in Christ, given through Christ, and given so that Christ might be formed in us and God glorified through us.

Do not think these are merely religious practices that we are talking about here. This is the pursuit of Christ, who is the wisdom of God for us. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration.

Prayer.

Reading: Prov 2:3.

Meditation.

We need to pray for insight desperately. And when I say need, I mean need. As in – we need air to breathe kind of need. Verse three of Proverbs 2 shows us something very important. You can study the Scriptures with the rigour of an academic. You can pour hours into their pages. You can become a biblical scholar whose entire life is spent researching the contents of the Bible. But without God’s help, you simply will not receive wisdom (verse six makes that clear).

If we would have wisdom, regular, consistent, diligent, desperate prayer will be needed. Notice that verse three is not calling us merely to pray a little bit. It is not saying that we should ask for wisdom only when we happen to remember. There is a sense of desperation in this verse. We need to know that, without God’s gracious enabling, we are doomed. Therefore, we must cry out desperately and raise our voices for understanding.

Be ye doers of the word…

How often do you cry out for wisdom? If the answer is “not much” or “not at all,” then the application is very simple: you need to make a change. We cannot afford to rely on our own wisdom. We need God’s wisdom—desperately. So cry out for it.

Now, here is an encouragement to match that weighty call: God will give us wisdom. This whole section is structured as an “if... then” statement. If you do this, then this will happen. We see the “if” in verses 1 and 3. But what comes after the “if”? Verse five: “Then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.” This is a promise from God. If you ask him for wisdom, that is not something he is going to refuse you. As James 1:5 says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

So as you ask for wisdom, stake your life on this promise: it is a prayer that God will answer. He will not leave you hanging. As you look to Christ and cry out for wisdom, he will give it to you.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration.

Prayer.

Reading: Prov 2:2.

Meditation.

One of the things about mining is that it takes hard work. Sometimes you’ve got to bend your back into it and work. And it’s the same with wisdom. We must work hard in God’s Word to get wisdom.

Pay attention to that statement: “incline your heart to understanding.” This word incline means to stretch out, to strain. It’s like a runner at the end of the race stretching out to reach the finish line. We are to stretch out our hearts to understand. In other words, we must work hard. We must strain and strive. We must do everything in our power to understand God’s Word.

Again, wisdom won’t just come to you. By nature, you’ll have to work hard to get it. You’ll have to work hard in God’s Word. So let me ask you: How’s your Bible work ethic going? Are you a Bible study sluggard, or a biblical study workhorse? Are you at it, working and straining yourself to understand? Or are you happy to sit back and turn up once a week on Sunday?

Be ye doers of the word…

To gain wisdom, we must be constant, continuous, and diligent in our effort to understand God’s Word. We must always be straining to grasp it more deeply. As an Olympic athlete dedicates themselves and strains for physical excellence, so too we must strain for spiritual excellence as we seek to understand the Word of God.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration.

Prayer.

Reading: Prov 2:2.

Meditation.

How do you spend your week? Where are the places that you go? What are the things you do? Pause and think about that for a moment, perhaps write down your answers. Now ask yourself this question: Where are you focusing your attention? What are the things that occupy your mind? Where is it that your eyes are looking most of the time? As we consider and answer these questions for ourselves in our own lives, we start to get an idea of whether or not we are focusing our attention on God’s Word. How much time do you spend reading the Word? And, having read it, how much of the time does it occupy your mind? How often during the regular business of life does the Word of God come to mind and effect your life? If you can answer those questions with clarity, then you can say with certainty how well you are doing when it comes to focusing your attention on the Word of God.

If we would have wisdom, if we would avoid the life of foolishness, then we simply must make our ear attentive to wisdom. We must make the word of God the centre of our attention. We must be focused and alert constantly to the Word of God. We must train our ears to be attentive.

Be ye doers of the word...

One of the key skills needed on the cricket field is attention, because you need to be ready to catch the ball if it comes to you. Let me tell you a little bit about slip fielding in cricket. The fielding captain in a Test Match often puts about 4-5 men just behind the batsman in various positions. He does that so that if the ball deflects of the edge of the bat, one of those men might have a chance to catch it and get the batsman out. Now here’s the thing about a good slip fielder: they are constantly vigilant. They are constantly watching in case the ball comes to them, so that when the chance comes, their hands are ready. Now here’s the point: we need to listen to the word of God with the attention of a first-class slip fielder. We need to be ready to catch what is said.

Listening in church, or in family worship, or in personal devotion is not a passive activity, we need to listen attentively. This is especially important if you’re young, because it can be easier for our minds to wander at that stage in life. Here is the application: listen carefully to God’s Word. God doesn’t want us to be distracted, but to be self-consciously attentive to his Word. Especially, he would have us listen carefully to the reading and preaching of his Word. So then, hold your attention on God’s Word. Hide it in your heart and memorise it so that it is ready at hand in busy parts of the day. If it is in your heart, then you can bring it to your attention at any time. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration.

Prayer.

Reading: Prov 2:1.

Meditation.

What do you do with treasure? As I write these words, I’m visiting a regional Australian city called Ballarat, staying in a mansion-come-resort previously owned by a gold-prospector who struck it rich. Around the back of the property is a solid blue-stone store house where he used to keep his gold (at least I think it’s bluestone). Anyway, it’s sold, thick stone! The point is, no one was going to be easily breaking in to that store-house, because that’s what you do with treasure. You lay it up as securely as you can. As Solomon instructs his son to receive his words, he uses this imagery of a treasury to describe how he should be treating the commandments that he receives. He ought to treasure them up, not in a blue-stone store-house, but in the bank-vault of his heart.

Imagine if you had a famous painting on the wall in your home, perhaps a Monet, a da Vinci – choose your favourite artist! If art isn’t your thing, try a very large diamond worth millions of dollars, or the treasure of your choice! Question: What would you do with it? That’s right, you’d make sure it was secure. You would take great pains to make sure it wasn’t lost to you. You would treasure it, marvel over it, and you would stare at it and study its every detail. You would check it often to make sure it’s still there. This is how we must treat God’s word if we would gain wisdom. We must treasure it up in the storehouse of our hearts. Don’t just leave the word lying around to be read every few weeks when the fancy takes you. Don’t just pull it out on a Sunday and forget about it the rest of the week. We must not be careless with the word of God, for it is a treasure beyond treasures. Treasuring God’s Word is an essential step toward gaining wisdom and making the leap into spiritual maturity.

Be ye doers of the word...

What do you treasure in your life? What are the things you spend your time enjoying? Do you treasure God’ word? To have wisdom, you must treasure the word up, store it up. Buy it and sell it not. In Ps 119:11 the psalmist says: “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” If we do not treasure God’s word, sin will increase in our hearts. As far as application here is concerned, a line has been drawn in the sand. Do you treat God’s word like a million-dollar diamond? Or like yesterday’s newspaper? Which side of the line are you standing on? Again – the good news is that if you’re on the wrong side, you can turn to God, ask for mercy, and step on over. But we do need more instruction on this, because how do we actually do this well? How do we treasure up God’s word in our heart? How does this work? We will learn more next time as we open up verse two. For now, ask the Lord to truly change the attitude of your heart towards his word, that you might treasure it, and begin to invest the best of your time and energy into the word. SDG.

Prayer.

Reading: Prov 2:1a.

Meditation.

When someone has been sick, one of the things they need to focus on as they recover is building up their strength again. You can’t build up your strength without food. Our bodies need food to survive. Without nutritious food, our bodies waste away and eventually we die. There’s a spiritual parallel of survival as well when it comes to wisdom, and we see it here in Proverbs 2:1a: “My son, if you receive my words”. It’s as simple as this: God gives wisdom through his word. Like food for the body, we need God’s word for our souls. “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut 8:3). Without the word of God, there is no wisdom. You can’t get it, you can’t find it, and you won’t have it. What this practically means is that – if you would gain wisdom – you must receive God’s Word. There will be no wisdom without the Word of God.

Be ye doers of the word...

Here’s the main application flowing out of this insight: don’t neglect the word of God. As we considered in the previous meditation, there’s nothing particularly mysterious about how God gives wisdom. It’s very simple. You need to receive God’s Word. Here’s a very objective and obvious test to tell if you’re wise or not: your maturity in wisdom will bear a direct correlation to the way you treat God’s Word. If you neglect God’s Word, you are neglecting wisdom, and – at best – you will be, to use the language of Proverbs, “simple” and in desperate need of leveling up. At worst, you will be at some level of regression on the path of fools. Either way, as time goes by, unless you get wisdom, you will end up walking down that path of fools.

This is where Solomon’s exhortation comes in: “My son, if you receive my words”. You cannot have wisdom unless you receive God’s words. Receiving God’s words means that you welcome them, you bring them into your heart like a beloved guest into your home. We’re going to see a few different angles and insights on receiving God’s words as we continue in these studies, but the bottom line is this: Have you been leaving the Word of God cold on the doorstep of your heart? If the answer is yes, then you are categorically on the pathway of the fool. The good news is that it doesn’t have to stay this way. Take up and read every day. Get stuck in. The fact that you’re reading this book is a good indicator that there’s spiritual life in you.

Here’s a second follow up application: give, and prepare to give, God’s word to your sons and daughters, or to encourage other believers. The Book of Proverbs is especially directed to children and young people, and particularly to the boys and girls who will need to grow up, become men and women of God, and whose families will be the backbone of their communities. As fathers and mothers, or even as potential future fathers and mothers, your number one priority is to give God’s Word to your children so that they might receive wisdom.

The principle extends to Grandparents, but also to all of us in the church as we nurture our covenant children in community together. Do you invest in the children in your church? We must give God’s word to our children, and they need to receive it like their life depends on it. Pray and work to this end in your own soul, in the lives of your children and the children of the church, and the lives of all God’s children. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

Prayer.

Reading: Prov 2:1-5.

Meditation.

The climax of the first chapter of Proverbs is a clear and open call from Lady Wisdom, an open invitation to everyone to come and get wisdom for themselves: “Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks” (Pr 1:20-21). Everything we saw in our first series of studies in Proverbs 1 brought us up to that point. Here’s a brief overview of the flow of thought in chapter one: verses one through six told us that gaining wisdom was the aim of the book; verse seven showed us that the foundation of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; verses eight and nine told us that we would need to listen with an open heart; verses ten through nineteen warned us of the dangers of being tempted away from the path of wisdom and into the path of sinners; and verses twenty through thirty-three then gave us this call from Lady Wisdom herself.

With this in mind, the call of Lady Wisdom to come and get wisdom leaves us with a very immediate and obvious question: How do we get wisdom? In Chapter 2:1-5, that is exactly the question that Solomon answers. As we launch our expedition into this chapter, we’ll see that getting wisdom is not some mysterious, mystical transaction. What we’ll find here is clear instruction on how to actually do this. To get wisdom, and become the man or woman of God that your were made to be, there are certain things that God says that you must do. To use the metaphor of 2:4, I want you to think of gaining wisdom as being like mining. If you want wisdom, you’re going to have dig, work hard, and gather the wealth of wisdom.

Now if wisdom is like mining, then we can think of chapter one as getting equipped with the tools. If you’re going to mine, you need a pick-axe, a helmet with a light on it, and all sorts of other pieces of gear. We need a warning about what dangers to avoid, but we also need to learn how to use the tools. We need on-the-ground training, and that’s exactly what we find in chapter two.

Be ye doers of the word...

I love the simplicity of wood-chopping. You get a block-buster, you get a whole bunch of sawn-off chunks of tree, and you get to work. You split every single one of those things – especially the stubborn ones. Then there’s step two. You stack the wood. It takes work, but you know exactly what you need to do. I sometimes wish I had such a clear grasp of everything else in life! As we take a tour of Proverbs 2:1-5, we’re going to see that getting wisdom is, in a sense, as clear and simple as chopping wood. You don’t have to be a genius to get this.

There’s actually a skill to gathering wisdom, and 2hapter 2:1-5 is a lesson designed to equip you with the skill you need to become wise. Mining involves certain skills – as does every profession. Mining for wisdom also involves certain skills. Again – getting wisdom is not a mysterious process, it doesn’t come to you on the top of a mountain by divine revelation. There’s a real cause and effect relationship between seeking wisdom and having wisdom. In other words, if you don’t do these things that we’re going to be talking about in Part 1 of this book, the things laid out for us in Proverbs 2:1-5, then you won’t get wisdom any more than if you tried to get diamonds by having a picnic outside the entrance to a mine. In a sense, it’s as simple as that.

Now think about this – it’s actually huge! You will not get wisdom by accident. You weren’t born with it. You’re not going to be a great, wise person by default. But the good news is that you can actually get it, and nothing you can desire can compare to wisdom. This is so, so important. In the next few chapters, we’re going to lay out a series of very practical instructions on what God calls us to do so that we might get wisdom and become mature men and of God. So here’s the application: pay close attention to the next few chapters and be prepared to put them in to action. And for now? Here’s your challenge: Read Proverbs 2:1-5 ten times, and write down in your own words the actual things that you’re being told to do. And come armed to the next chapter ready to get equipped, and get stuck in. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration.