
What is the explanation of Proverbs chapter 2?
Proverbs 2 highlights the value of wisdom and why the young son should seek it. His father teaches him that wisdom is worth more than anything else he could search after. If he values wisdom more than anything else, these other things will come to him.
Of course, Proverbs is also applicable to every Christian, not just young men. It shows all of us the value of God’s wisdom. If we prioritize wisdom over all other things, God will give it to us, just like he gave it to Solomon.
The father figure begins by telling the sun that he should value wisdom above all other things, inclining his ear and heart to listen for and recognize wisdom (Proverbs 2:1-2). He should search wisdom out in every situation. It will benefit him.
The sun should seek to hear the wisdom and counsel of others. Above the noise of all of the voices he should call out for the wise to speak (Proverbs 2:3). He must value it more than money, silver and gold (Proverbs 2:4).
And the benefit he receives? He will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:5). To understand the fear of the Lord is to know it and to know how to do it. It is to know how to revere and worship God.
Finding the knowledge of God is an experiential knowledge. In other words, you will experience God and go because you have a relationship with him. The searching from earlier for wisdom yields the finding of a relationship with God.
The reason he finds God and understands the fear of the Lord is because wisdom originates with God himself (Proverbs 2:6). To search for wisdom is to search for God in the book of Proverbs. But they are not the same thing. Wisdom comes from God. But when you seek out wisdom, you are seeking God because he brings and gives wisdom.
God uses wisdom for the benefit of the righteous, those who follow him (Proverbs 2:7-8). Those who are upright and righteous benefit from the storehouses of God’s wisdom. He shields everyone who walks in integrity, whose character matches their words and their deeds. God guards justice, which is righteousness in action. And he protects his saints.
A further result for the son who searches for wisdom is that he will find all kinds of great benefits (Proverbs 2:9-12). It brings understanding of righteousness, justice, equity, and goodness.
Wisdom comes into him and fills him. He internalizes wisdom. He will gain skillful knowledge and discernment between evil and good. The end of Proverbs 9:12-15 talks about evil men.
It describes them as having perverted speech, forsaking righteousness, walking in darkness, rejoicing in evil, delighting in perverseness and evil, and crooked and devious in their ways. It is in direct contrast of the one who searches for wisdom and the ones who enjoy evil.
Next, the wise father figure gives his son pointers on how wisdom helps him stay away from the forbidden woman (Proverbs 2:16-19). Later in the book, wisdom and folly take on the personification of Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly.
This forbidden woman is an adulterous, the women the young man can’t have. She uses smooth words to seduce him, forgets her husband of her youth, and her covenant with God. If he follows her, he will experience death and what it’s like to be departed. By this he means that she destroys the young man’s life and everything that he loves.
In Proverbs 2:20-22, he once again compares the way of wisdom with the way of folly and evil. He saves the greatest benefit of wisdom for last, that the young man will live a godly lifestyle and experience goodness.
The upright and righteous inherit the land and remain in it. But those were wicked and deal with treachery will actually be taken from the land and uprooted from it. Only through wisdom will righteousness come to him and the young man will enjoy his inheritance.