Proverbs 4 – Get Wisdom, Get Understanding!

“Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away

from the words of my mouth.”

~Proverbs 4:5 (NRSV).

Even though the language seems repetitive it’s getting more and more strained by the time we reach chapter 4 of Proverbs. We are literally to go after and get wisdom and understanding. And realistically, it’s only the really earnest who’ll ever achieve this lasting sense of the love for Wisdom.

The Parents’ Ongoing Imperative

As with all our loving parents this parent is not losing a single opportunity to ram home the message of wisdom in the mind and heart of the young one being counselled.

We’ve all needed this repetitive style of teaching for the point to truly get across.

There are warnings not to forsake this cherished-down-the-generations teaching. In Jewish tradition, then, it was passed per the oral tradition way with each succeeding generation. If even only one generation did not obey this tried and tested method for guaranteeing the safety of the spiritual genome disaster could hit the nation of Israel—all that moral virtue of the ancients finished in one or two foolish generations.

The language is therefore understandably desperate through verses 4c-9: “keep my commandments, and live... get wisdom, get insight... do not forget, nor turn away... Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you... The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight... Prize her highly” and so on.

Life’s Most Important and Only Real Prize

When we boil life down strictly to the race for only one thing, Proverbs’ parent is saying Wisdom is all there is—the be all and end all of life itself.

GET IT!

DON’T MESS AROUND WASTING YOUR TIME.

JUST GET IT!

Many might think, then, from the practical viewpoint, “Just how do we set about ‘getting’ this thing called Wisdom?”

Simply, the more we focus on one thing to the exclusion of all others, the more we travel closer to it and our understanding of it. When we arrive there we’ll suddenly find that wisdom is the chase for every good thing; yet it’s bundled neatly under one easier to understand and harmonious frame.

From This One Thing – Wisdom – Leads All Good Things

If we get wisdom we get everything else of worth in life. It really is that simple. We have the tools on-board to self-select the things of life, discerning God’s will ever more easily as new seasons of growth in wisdom continue to emerge as a blossoming flower.

Priority One: Wisdom.

It really is a full priority situation that is calling to our lives here.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.