THE REWARDS OF WISDOM Chapter one ended with the teaching that wisdom grants her rewards to those who follow her. The next three chapters are an explanation of this truth. In this chapter, King Solomon shows that they who diligently seek wisdom shall find it. He promises his disciples the highest advantages, if they will follow the wisdom,[1-9]. He also shows the advantage of it: * They shall be happy in its enjoyment [10, 11]; * The believer shall be preserved from men of corrupt principles whose business it is to abuse lives [12-15]; * and from the snares of women of corrupt practices [16-19]; * be a companion of the upright; shall be kept them in the way of good men [20]. * and be in safety in the land, when the wicked shall be rooted out of it [21-22]. In this chapter, Solomon asserts that the way to find out the divine wisdom is through God’s Word, and praying, to know His will, to be pleased with it, and to practice it by the divine grace1. Thus, he urges us to walk in the ways of wisdom. The 22 verses of this chapter correspond to The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet2. 1. Exhortation to seek wisdom. 1-9. 2. The advantages of wisdom. 10-22. 1. EXHORTATION TO SEEK WISDOM In this paragraph [1-9], Solomon instruct the believer as with his spiritual son. He exhorts him to listen to the word of God which he utters, so that he may store it in his heart. He asks him to decline his ears towards it, and open his heart so that it may rest there. Thus, he attains the fear of the Lord and the divine knowledge, be protected with the spiritual armor of God, and walk in the royal way. “My son, if you will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you…” [1]. Solomon speaks with his disciple, considering him his son, as he presents him his heart full of love together the word instruct. St. Clement of Alexandria says, “And every one who is instructed, is in respect of subjection the son of his instructor3.” Let us present our hearts full of love and inflamed with the true eagerness to their salvation and glorification, before instructing others. The parents ask their children to receive their instruction and hide their commandments. Perhaps this is the first lesson in the school of this life. By receiving them and responding to their instruction, the children reveal their practical love as a 1 Robert L. Alden: Proverbs, Michigan 1995, p. 33. 2 William MacDonald: Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, p. 796. 3 St. Clement of Alexandria: Stromata 1:1. https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 2 respond of the parents’ love. They not only have to receive them, but also to lay them up in their hearts with care, as men do their choicest treasures. From time to time the believer has to look his inner treasure, and to look upon what he has stored, and admire them as divine gifts. He advises us to hide with us our parents’ commandments, which are undoubtedly in full accord with the precepts of the Bible. Treasure them up in our hearts, and then act from them through the medium of our affections. He who has the word of God in his heart, works from his heart; his heart goes with him in all things, and he delights to do the will of his heavenly Father, because his law is in his heart. Wisdom asks us to open not only our ears, but also our hearts, so that wisdom intended to be treasured within us. “So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; Yea, if you cries after knowledge, and lifts up your voice for understanding” [2-3]. All members of the body together with the soul we do whatever is necessary to learn wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Thus we seek, receive and store the divine wisdom. We have to incline our ears, that is to keep these gates open, so that God’s wisdom may enter to our heads, and find its final destination, which is the open heart. To our God we cries by our tongues and inner voice, for He is the only Giver of it. And with our ears we listen, and with our hearts we store it as a precious treasure. St. Peter says, “As newborn babies, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 3:2). When a little baby sees his mother is fixing the bottle of milk, he wiggles every thing he has: his hands, his mouth, and his feet, in anticipation. So we as children of God reveal our eager towards the milk of the word of God, by crying. St. Augustine distinguishes between voice and noise, saying that when we pray without love, our prayers becomes a noise which God displease with it. On the contrary He is pleased with that which is a voice, and has a meaning, for it is issued from love. Therefore, the Psalmist repeatedly uses the term “voice” in his speech of prayer (Ps. 3:4; 5:3; 18:6; 27:7; 64:1; 66:91). “If you seeks her as silver, and searches for her as for hid treasures” [4]. The search for wisdom is comparable to the search for silver and other precious metals in deep mines. Wisdom, like these treasurers are not usually discovered by a casual observer or chance passerby. Much efforts are necessary to excavate it. We seek the salvation of our souls as earnestly as the covetous man seeks wealth; and be ashamed of ourselves, if we be less in earnest after the true riches than he is after perishing wealth. With unwearied diligence and earnest desire and patient expectation we must seek her as silver. The original word of “treasures” here signifies property of any kind concealed in the earth, in caves or such like; and may also mean treasures, such as the precious metals or precious stones, which are presumptively known to exist in such and such mines. And https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 3 how are these sought? By mining for wisdom, or searching for her as hidden treasure. Learn from the following circumstance. God will not have us listen to the words and sentences contained in the Scriptures carelessly, but with much attention. This is why the blessed David has prefixed in many places to his Psalms the title “for understanding,” and has said, “Open You mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law.” (Psalm 32:42, etc.; 119:18) And after him his son again shows that we ought to “seek out wisdom as silver, and to make merchandise of her rather than of gold.” (Proverbs 2:4 and 3:14 [partially quoted]; John 5:39) And the Lord when He exhorts the Jews to “search the Scriptures,” the more urges us to the inquiry, for He would not thus have spoken if it were possible to comprehend them immediately at the first reading. No one would ever search for what is obvious and at hand, but for that which is wrapt in shadow, and which must be found after much inquiry; and so to arouse us to the search He calls them “hidden treasure.” (Proverbs 2:4; Matthew 13:44) These words are said to us that we may not apply ourselves to the words of the Scriptures carelessly or in a chance way, but with great exactness. For if any one listen to what is said in them without inquiring into the meaning, and receive all so as it is spoken, according to the letter, he will suppose many unseemly things of God, will admit of Him that He is a man, that He is made of brass, is wrathful, is furious, and many opinions yet worse than these 4. “Then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly” [5-7]. Understanding can be found, and the finding of it is like fear of the Lord (1:7). This is another way of stating the motto of the whole Book which is that the first step in becoming wise is to know God as the Father and to hold Him in awe. God is the fountain of all wisdom, and understanding. Wise and true intelligent people are at best, channels through which God’s wisdom flows5. Wisdom comes, as it were, from God’s mouth [7] to our ears, rests in our hearts, sanctifies our will, and works in our conduct. Divine wisdom is a buckler to God’s own who walk uprightly, or a helper that grants them victory. It keeps them safe as they tread the paths of judgment, preserving their way. As we hold up and preserve wisdom, wisdom holds up and preserves us. 2:3-5 For to those who have been justified by philosophy, the knowledge which leads to piety is laid up as a help6. 4 St. John Chrysostom: Homilies on St. John, 15. 5 Robert L. Alden: Proverbs, Michigan 1995, p. 32. https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 4 St. Clement of Alexandria 2:5 And if you wish further to learn from the sacred writings that there is a diviner sense than the senses of the body, you have only to hear what Solomon says, “Thou shalt find a divine sense7.” Origen But lest our statement that things intellectual are not cognizable by the senses should appear unbecoming, we shall employ the instance of Solomon, who says, “You will find also a divine sense; “ by which he shows that those things which are intellectual are to be sought out not by means of a bodily sense, but by a certain other which he calls “divine.” And with this sense must we look on each of those rational beings which we have enumerated above; and with this sense are to be understood those words which we speak, and those statements to be weighed which we commit to writing. For the divine nature knows even those thoughts which we revolve within us in silence8. Origen For he knew that there were within us two kinds of senses: the one mortal, corruptible, human; the other immortal and intellectual, which he now termed divine. By this divine sense, therefore, not of the eyes, but of a pure heart, which is the mind, God may be seen by those who are worthy. For you will certainly find in all the Scriptures, both old and new, the term “heart” repeatedly used instead of “mind,” i.e., intellectual power 9. Origen 2:6 The true faith, however, and sound doctrine declare that both graces are from God; the Scripture says, “From His face comes knowledge and understanding;” and another Scripture says, “Love is of God.” (1 John 4:710. St. Augustine “The Lord gives wisdom: out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding;” and it is from Him they have received their very desire for knowledge, if it is wedded to piety11. St. Augustine “He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves the way of his saints” [8]. “Path of judgment” means “Righteous paths,” judgment being here put for righteousness. And keeping of paths may be put for keeping them in their paths. 6 St. Clement of Alexandria: Stromata 1:4. 7 Origen: Against Celsus, 7:34. 8 Origen: De Principiis 4:1:37. 9 Origen: De Principiis 1:1:9. 10 St. Augustine: On Grace and Free Will, 40 (19). 11 St. Augustine: On Christian Doctrine, 3:37 (55). https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 5 “Saints” means covenant keepers, those who fulfill their duty to God and thence also to fellow human beings. “Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path” [9]. He says, “Then” to explain that when God in answer to your desires has given you wisdom. Equity , all the parts of your duty to man, as well as the fear of God. “Then shall you understand;” he who is taught of God understands the whole law of justice, mercy, righteousness, and truth; God has written this on his heart. He who understands these things by books only is never likely to practice or profit by them. 2. THE ADVANTAGES OF WISDOM The Book of Proverbs learns us that men of God have to be very cautious of two persons: evil man and the strange woman. If true wisdom enters into our hearts, and became pleasant to us, we shall not be deceived so easily, but we shall be careful to avoid all evil company and evil practices. We would be saved from the partnership of evil men or from the world of ungodly men who misrepresent facts and distort the truth, whose speech is utterly untrustworthy [12-15]. And would be saved from the embrace of the loose woman, or from the clutches of the immoral woman [16-19]. When wisdom has dominion over us, then it not only fills the head, but enters into the heart, and will preserve, both against corruption within and temptations without. The ways of sin are ways of darkness, uncomfortable and unsafe! They who walks in it take pleasure in sin; both in committing it, and in seeing others commit it. Every wise man will shun such company. True wisdom will also preserve from those who lead to carnally lusts, which defile the body, that living temple, and war against the soul. These are evils which excite the sorrow of every serious mind, and cause every reflecting parent to look upon his children with anxiety, lest they should be entangled in such fatal snares. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings. Our Lord Jesus deters from sinful pleasures, by the everlasting torments which follow them. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil, recover themselves; so much is the heart hardened, and the mind blinded, by the deceitfulness of this sin. The righteous must leave the earth as well as the wicked; but the earth is a very different thing to them. To the wicked it is all the heaven they ever shall have; to the righteous it is the place of preparation for heaven. “When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul, discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you, To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks froward things” [10-12]. To the true believer, God’s commands are not irksome, Christ’s yoke is easy and sweet. The Divine wisdom gives us pleasure, for receiving true wisdom in its essence is a unity with God Himself. This unity is a rewarding, fulfilling and happy experience. The chief end of man is glorify God and to enjoy Him. https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 6 When you truly love wisdom, discretion shall preserve you. Discretion, or the ability to make wise decisions, saves a person from many a “bad trip.” Sound judgment delivers us from involvement with wicked men. None of us realizes the extent to which we are daily preserved from spiritual, moral, and physical perils. The Christian enjoys a well-guarded life, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust12. The term “preserve” is a translation of a word which occurs only ten times in the Old Testament, nine times in Proverbs, and once in Deuteronomy 32:20. It is a word often connected with speaking (8:13; 10:31, 32, 23:33), and is probably related to the verb “overthrow” such speech has its goal the overthrow of what of orderly and right13.. “Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked” [13-14]. Throughout the Bible darkness is associated with chaos (gen. 1:2), cursing (Exodus 10:21-22; Job 3:4-6), and folly (Ecclus. 2:13-14). The man invents purposes of good; and all his schemes, plans, and devices, have for their object God’s glory and the good of man: he devises liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand. While the godly find pleasure in wisdom, the cursed ones find pleasure in committing senseless crimes (10:23), but there is a difference between a pleasure and other. “Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flatters with her words” [15-16]. Crooked — Who swerve from the straight way of God’s law, and have windings and turnings, to escape conviction. The adulteress or whore is called here a “strange woman,” because God had made a law that no Israelite woman was to play the prostitute; and if any woman did that, she would automatically put outside the bounds of Israel Therefore, the stranger woman here means a foreigner one who came into Israel to practice prostitution. This is the first of several passages on the theme of avoiding the immoral woman (5; 6:20-7:27), giving us the distinct impression that things were not any different in ancient times than they are today. The stranger which flatters with her words hechelikah, she that smoothes with her words. The original intimates glib, oily speeches of a prostitute. The criminals of 1:11-19 appealed to the vice of greed; this woman uses lusts. “Which forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God” [17]. She is unfaithful to the companion of her youth, that is her husband, and she forgets the covenant of her God, that is the marriage vows that she made before God. She 12 William MacDonald: Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, p. 796. 13 Robert L. Alden: Proverbs, Michigan 1995, p. 33. https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 7 forgets that she left her father’s house and instructions, and abandons herself to the public, and took her husband to be her guide, in her youth. The covenant — The marriage covenant: so called because God is the author of that mutual obligation: and because God is called to be the witness and judge of that solemn promise and covenant. St. Gregory Nyzianzen, in his apology for his absence of the celebration of the marriage celebration of Olympias and Nebredius, writes, “In spite of my disease I share you your celebration, as I bind the hands of the couple together with God’s hands14.” “For her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead” [18]. Although both wisdom and folly are characterized as women in Proverbs, we do not get the impression in this verse that we are dealing with only with an allegory. The images are too concrete, the warnings too explicit. Fornication with this woman is to be avoided at all coasts15. We may understand this woman as a literal prostitute or we may see her as a figure of false religion or of the ungodly world. For her house inclines unto death — It is generally in by and secret places that such women establish themselves. They go out of the high road to get a residence; and every step that is taken towards their house is a step towards death. The path of sin is the path of ruin: the path of duty is the way of safety. For her paths incline unto the dead, repheim, the inhabitants of the invisible world. The woman who abandons herself to prostitution soon contracts, and generally communicates, that disease, which, above all others, signs the speediest and most effectual passport to the invisible world. Since everybody will die some day, death must be more than the common lot of all mortals, it must mean moral death leading to eternal death16. “None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life” [19]. Adultery or fornication will put man inn the grave much faster, heading down a road with no stopping place to turn around17. Once a man is ensnared by her, it is almost impossible to escape. The verse actually seems to rule out any hope of a comeback at all. But many statements in the Bible must be under stood as general rules, to which there may be a few exceptions. That is the point here18. Once a man is initiated into her secrets, it is extremely hard to regain the right road. There are very few instances of prostitutes ever returning to the paths of sobriety and truth; perhaps not one of such as become prostitutes through a natural propensity to debauchery. Among those who have been deceived, debauched, and abandoned, many have been reclaimed; and to such alone penitentiaries may be useful; to the others they may only be incentives to farther sinning. Rakes and debauchees are sometimes converted: but most of them never lay hold on the path of life; they have had their health destroyed, and never recover it. The original, 14 Epistle 193. PG 37:316; The Author: St. John Chrysostom, 1980, p.36-7 (in Arabic). 15 Robert L. Alden: Proverbs, Michigan 1995, p. 34. 16 William MacDonald: Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, p. 797. 17 Robert L. Alden: Proverbs, Michigan 1995, p. 35. 18 William MacDonald: Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, p. 797. https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 8 chaiyim, means lives; not only the health of the body is destroyed, but the soul is ruined. Thus the unhappy man may be said to be doubly slain. “That you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous” [20]. We link this verse with verse 11, and is mentioned as another happy fruit of wisdom. Wisdom preserves not only from evil man and strange woman, but, on the positive side, it encourages companionship with those who are worthwhile and upright19. “For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it” [21-22]. Under the Law of Moses, the upright believers were rewarded with a secure place in the land of Canaan. When we come over to the New Testament, these material blessings in earthly places give way to spiritual blessings in the heavenleies. But the fact remains that righteousness and decency are prewarded in this life as well as in the life to come. It is equally true that the wicked will be cut off from the land of blessing. There is no lasting inheritance there for the treacherous20. Transgressors bogedim are the garment men, the hypocrites; those who act borrowed characters, who go under a cloak; dissemblers. All such shall be rooted out of the land; they shall not be blessed with posterity. In general it is so: and were it not so, one evil offspring succeeding another, adding their own to their predecessors’ vices, the earth would become so exceedingly corrupt that a second flood, or a fire, would be necessary to purge it. The last verse of this chapter sounds like the summary verse of Psalm 121. 2:20 How is it that the exceeding lightness of the Divine burden becomes heavy, but because in our obstinate presumption we despise Him by whom it was borne, especially as Scripture itself plainly testifies to this very thing saying: “For if they would walk in right paths, they would certainly have found the paths of righteousness smooth”? It is plain, I say, that it is we, who make rough with the nasty and hard stones of our desires the right and smooth paths of the Lord; who most foolishly forsake the royal road made stony with the flints of apostles and prophets, and trodden down by the footsteps of all the saints and of the Lord Himself, and seek trackless and thorny places, and, blinded by the allurements of present delights, tear our way with torn legs and our wedding garment rent, through dark paths, overrun with the briars of sins, so as not only to be pierced by the sharp thorns of the brambles but actually laid low by the bites of deadly serpents and scorpions lurking there. For “there are thorns and thistles in wrong ways, but he that feareth the Lord shall keep himself from them.” (Prov. 22:5). Of 19 William MacDonald: Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, p. 797. 20 William MacDonald: Believer’s Bible Commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995, p. 797. 21 Robert L. Alden: Proverbs, Michigan 1995, p. 35. https://coptic-treasures.com/ Proverbs 2 9 such also the Lord says elsewhere by the prophet: “My people have forgotten, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk in them in a way not trodden.” (Jer. 18:15). For according to Solomon’s saying: “The ways of those who do not work are strewn with thorns, but the ways of the lusty are trodden down.” (Prov. 15:19). And thus wandering from the king’s highway, they can never arrive at that metropolis, whither our course should ever be directed without swerving22. St. John Cassian 2:21,22 For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. Let us be kind one to another after the pattern of the tender mercy and benignity of our Creator. For it is written, “The kind-hearted shall inhabit the land, and the guiltless shall be left upon it, but transgressors shall be destroyed from off the face of it23.” St. Clement of Rome 22 St. John Cassian: Conference 24:24. 23 St. Clement of Rome: the Epistle to the Corinthians, 14.
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