As the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, it was David's duty to deliver food supplies to his three oldest brothers on the Israelite battlefront. Stationed opposite the invading Philistines, Israel's camp peered into the valley below. For forty days, a massive and experienced Philistine warrior challenged Israel's men to representative warfare. Rather than waste the blood of hundreds or thousands of men, Goliath wanted one Israelite man to accept his challenge to one-on-one combat—winner takes all. "Send me a man," the giant taunted. When David arrived with some cheeses and bread for his brothers and their commanding officers, he heard the taunt, and his heart was pricked. He pleaded with anyone in earshot to give him a chance to go up against the Philistine. His insistence eroded the will of everyone who stood in his way, especially King Saul, so David was sent with his five smooth stones into the valley of Elah, all with the hopes that the God who strengthened him while he defended his father's flocks from predators would strengthen him while he defended God's flock from this Philistine predator. And as David rushed into the field, the Philistine laughed, but God's power came upon David, and the finger of God guided his hands as he released the stone from his sling.
As the rock plunged into Goliath's skull and his lifeless body timbered to the ground, David became the newest character in a long biblical story of God partnering with people. His story is ever so often the biblical story. David ran into battle, and God met him as he did so that everyone knew it was God winning through his man. All throughout Scripture, we find accounts of those who took definite steps of faith, moved forward in obedience to Yahweh, and were then met by the marvelous power of God. Abraham left his homeland in obedience to God, and God gave him promises and then blessed his offspring to this day. Moses left the wilderness to confront Pharaoh, and the cataclysmic power of God was released upon Egypt. Joshua led the people of Israel to march upon and around Jericho for seven days, and the hand of God knocked down the city walls. The New Testament is no different. Mary submitted to God's plans, and the incarnation occurred. The disciples left everything to follow Jesus and were empowered for their work. Peter walking on water. Zacchaeus climbing a tree. The early believers waiting in prayer after the ascension. Paul's appeal to Caesar. Over and over again, the people of God make a move in God's direction and he responds in power.
All this is wonderfully emblematic of Proverbs 2, one long sentence that declares another angle on how God's wisdom works. It is presented here as an ascending spiral. Solomon tells his son that if he seeks God's wisdom in specific ways, then God will respond in specific ways (2:1, 3, 5, 9). The son's energy in acquiring and treasuring wisdom would turn into God using his energy to shape the son in profound ways. Just as David expended himself running out to Goliath, only to experience God transform him into a giant killer, when we throw ourselves into acquiring God's wisdom, God will transform us into people of understanding and knowledge (2:5). Paul told us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, because God works in us to will and work for his good pleasure, and that is the principle here (Phil. 2:12-13). As we step toward wisdom, God's power steps toward us, and we are changed. And since this repeats itself throughout the entirety of our lives, an ascending spiral is a good image of how God's wisdom works. We seek it. God meets us and changes us. We seek more. He changes us more, ever increasingly.
The goal of this text is to get us to understand this wisdom spiral and to want to live within it. To that end, let's consider four movements in the text.
1. Our Part of the Wisdom Spiral (2:1-4)
1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures...
Listen to the cluster of words the wise father uses to tell his son to pursue his wisdom: receive, treasure, attentive, inclining, call out, raise your voice for, seek it, and search for it. His wisdom would come in the form of words, commandments, understanding, and insight—and the son should see himself as desperate for it. But what does this brief paragraph mean for us today?
First, it means we have a choice to make. Solomon knew that if his son sought out his wisdom, which was God's wisdom, with intensity, God's hand would be upon his life. But Solomon knew there was no guarantee that his son would seek out his wisdom in this way. So he puts it out to him—you have a choice, young man. Seek wisdom. We, too, have a choice to make. And that choice is represented in thousands of choices. There are Bible passages to read, solid biblical books to consider, scriptural discussions to have, groups to show up at, classes to take, spiritual direction to receive, mentors to guide us, and challenging sermons and lectures to hear, but none of them will force themselves on us. We have a choice (choices) to make.
Second, it means we must lean in. The son wasn't asked to casually consider some wise sayings. No, he was charged with an intense and energetic pursuit of wisdom. In the same way, we aren't called to the passive observation of God's wisdom but a desperate search for its treasures (2:4). We are meant to value wisdom so much that it motivates us to search for it. The words Solomon used conjure up images of a dig for archaeological treasure. Carefully, wisdom is meant to be dug out and examined to comprehend its beauty.
Third, it means we must have hope. No one is going to pursue wisdom with such energy and intensity if they don't have an expectation of what it can do in their lives. As we approach the words and commandments and insights found in God's wisdom, we must believe in its power to transform us.
Solomon, of course, knew about this. When he became Israel's king, he sought God in a massive display of sacrificial worship. God appeared to him and asked him, "What shall I give you?" (1 Ki. 3:5). He could have pursued or treasured anything, but he deliberately chose wisdom. He said: "Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Ki. 3:9, NLT). Solomon made a choice to prioritize wisdom over everything else. Solomon leaned in with an intense desire for God's wisdom. And Solomon had hope that God's wisdom would transform him into a good leader. For his part, God heard his cry, the wisdom flowed, and Solomon spiraled up into greatness.
2. God's Part in the Wisdom Spiral (2:5-11)
5 ...then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; 10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you...
Solomon was not content to let his son think that accumulating God's wisdom is like an L-shaped straight linear graph where effort expended equates to wisdom gained. He wanted his son to become conscious of God's involvement with his wisdom; it is more like that upward spiral. If we energetically pursue God's wisdom (our side of the spiral), then we will gain understanding (2:5, 9). This happens because the Lord is active (his side of the spiral): he gives wisdom; knowledge comes from his mouth; he stores up wisdom; he becomes a shield to the wise; he guards the paths of the godly (2:5-8). As God does his work, we are remade. Soon, we will understand righteousness, justice, and equity, three notoriously difficult concepts to understand well, all of them close to God's heart (2:9). Wisdom and knowledge will find themselves in us, part of us, in our hearts and souls (2:10). A close look at this passage reveals that God produces theological and ethical depth to those who earnestly seek him and his wisdom.
God's action here sounds so much like the promises of the New Covenant. Ezekiel prophesied of a day that would come when God would give his people new hearts. He said, "A new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules" (Ezek. 36:26-27). God is the one who can give us new hearts with new desires and new instincts—and this is possible through new birth Christ provides. In a sense, we no longer need a tutor telling us how to live. Obedience, right living, and generosity all come easier when we are changed from within. People like this stop asking, "Do I have to obey God?" Instead, they rejoice that they get to live for God.
How encouraging that, as we pursue God's wisdom, we can expect God to make that wisdom part of us! As we approach Proverbs (and all of his words), it is good for us to know that we are involved but that he is also involved. If it were all up to us, we'd be crushed, and experience burnout. How in the world can I keep this going? If, on the other hand, God only worked without our involvement, we'd lose all incentive or initiative. Why in the world should I even try? But God's paradoxical way, his wisdom spiral, "gives us enough incentive and enough assurance to pursue the knowledge of God all our life long."[^1]
3. Benefits of Staying in the Spiral (2:12-19)
12 ...delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, 13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, 14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, 15 men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. 16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, 17 who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; 18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; 19 none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life...
In this movement of his exhortation, Solomon introduces two types of people to his son—evil, crooked men and the forbidden woman (2:12, 16). Both characters will appear throughout Proverbs, giving us ample time to consider both, but what I want to point out here is that even after we enter into God's wisdom spiral, we are bound to experience temptation. A pursuit of God's wisdom and the transformation it produces does not eliminate the attraction various sins present. Temptation is a reality, even for the wise.
The types of temptations Solomon warned his son about here are the temptations of selfish living and selfish sex. The men who press against Solomon's son are influential (the way, paths, 12, 13, 15) and comfortable operating in the shadows (ways of darkness, 13). Their entire pattern of life is presented as dangerous. The woman Solomon recounts pretends to be one of God's people, but she forgets the covenant she made with him (2:17). With her smooth words and her willingness to forsake her husband, going into her house is like sinking down to death (2:16-18). Like the wicked men, she is dangerous, but she is also deadly—none who go to her come back (2:19).
Both of these temptations place the individual over and against the community. To go along with the wicked men means doing things that harm others—cutting corners, cheating, stealing—to temporarily benefit the self. To go along with the forbidden woman means hurting others—her husband, the son's wife, her children, the son's children, potential children who are born from the escapade, and the family and society left picking up the broken pieces—all for personal gratification.
But Solomon's point is that when you enter into God's wisdom spiral, you are protected when these types of temptations come into your life. This easy money and easy sex are difficult to resist, but when you are in devoted and life-changing contact with Yahweh, you become strong enough to resist. But to utilize God's energy, you must stay in God's wisdom spiral. The second you leave it, no matter how wise you grow to become, God's strength begins to dissipate from your life.
Solomon would know—he became the wisest man in the world, but God had told him that his wisdom would only last as long as he sought the Lord. Solomon's dad, David, had even said to him, "If you seek (the LORD), he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever” (1 Ch. 28:9–10). That's what happened. While Solomon was devoted to God, wisdom flowed, and he was strong. When he neglected God by caving to wicked advisors and forbidden women, his wisdom evaporated, and he became weak.
This shows us the radical importance of staying in the wisdom spiral—if Solomon couldn't leave it, neither can we. Some try to discredit Proverbs and other biblical passages because of the failures of people like Solomon or David. But Solomon tells us right here that God's wisdom only works if we remain actively engaged in our pursuit of it. The second we stop—let him, his dad, and every fallen minister throughout human history tell us—is the second God's strength begins to dry up within us. We must stay in God's wisdom spiral.
4. Envision the Top of the Spiral (2:20-22)
20 So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Solomon ended this speech to his son by depicting the end of the two paths in front of him. In one direction is blessing and life, while the other direction is curse and death. For ancient Israelites, the land was everything, partly because God promised a specific land to them and partly because they were agrarian people who knew how much their well-being was tied to the land. Fertile soil led to food production. Green pastures led to livestock and the meat and dairy they provided. Flowing rivers, lakes, and underground wells led to human settlements and irrigation for farms. Strong forests led to construction and fuel. Fishing, crops, trade, shelter, stability—it was all tied to their life in the land. And what Solomon told his son was that embracing God's wisdom would lead to abundance (inhabit, 21) and permanence (remain, 21) in the land, while neglecting God's wisdom would lead to conditions that banished them from the land.
This is all very Deuteronomic. In Deuteronomy, God told Israel that if they walked with him, they would flourish in the land. God's blessing would pour down on them in the form of health, abundance, and peace. Deuteronomy said, “The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.” (Deut. 28:12–14).
But if they neglected him, then drought, pestilence, and invaders would arrive, resulting in exile (Deut. 28:15-68). They would be cut off and rooted out of the land (2:22). For this reason, Solomon wanted his son to envision the top of God's wisdom spiral. You could also say he wanted his son to envision what it looks like to leave God's wisdom spiral—decay, disease, defeat, and death. Both visions, the positive and negative ones, should motivate God's people to remain in constant pursuit of him and his wisdom.
What about you? Are you able to envision life at the top of God's wisdom spiral? Under Jesus' New Covenant, his new humanity thrives under different promises—not land promises but of joy in Christ and the expansion of God's kingdom. We flourish as God's church—his holy nation and special people—when we remain in constant pursuit of his truth and wisdom, and we need to develop a vision of what living in constant pursuit of Yahweh looks like.
Imagine an expert woodworker refining a piece of lumber into something beautiful and purposeful. As he carves and shapes, he has a finished product in mind. God does this work with those who stay in his wisdom spiral year after year, decade after decade. He builds their lives and their churches into something good and glorious. He does not leave us raw and unfinished, but he instead refines and transforms us. This is why we must stay in the spiral. We must keep seeking, keep digging, keep climbing.
Conclusion
Solomon’s charge to his son is the same charge to us today: Do not drift. Do not settle. Do not leave the spiral. If you passionately pursue wisdom, God will meet you, form you, and guide you into the life he intends for you. If you neglect wisdom, the slow decay of compromise will begin to set in. The great news is that Jesus, the embodiment of God’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30), has already gone before us. He has walked the path, resisted temptation, and secured the way for us to ascend in wisdom through him. Let's envision the life he envisions for us and walk with him as he takes us to his destination.
Life is difficult, so we thank God he gave us his wisdom. But his wisdom, properly pursued, is infused with his power. Just as David was transformed by God as he ran into battle, so we are transformed by God as we run toward his wisdom. Think of each day like that—there is a battle or struggle today, so pursue God's wisdom to aid you for that day, and God will not only give you wisdom, but he will tranform you and make you wise. Keep it up, and one day you'll be looking down from the top of the wisdom spiral, thanking God for what he has done in your life.
[^1]: God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, Timothy Keller and Kathy Keller
Study Questions
Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding)
1. According to Proverbs 2, what are the key actions Solomon instructs his son to take in order to gain wisdom? How do these actions demonstrate human responsibility in the wisdom spiral?
2. What role does God play in the wisdom spiral according to Proverbs 2:5-11? How does this passage illustrate the interaction between human effort and divine provision?
3. How does Solomon describe the dangers of forsaking wisdom in Proverbs 2:12-19? What specific temptations does he warn against, and how do they contrast with the blessings of staying in the wisdom spiral?
Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires)
4. When you think about the wisdom spiral as an ongoing process, how does that change the way you feel about your personal growth and pursuit of wisdom?
5. Have you ever experienced a moment when you sought God’s wisdom and felt him respond in a transformative way? How did that impact your faith and confidence in his guidance?
6. How does envisioning the top of the wisdom spiral—flourishing in God’s ways—shape your desires and motivations in your daily walk with Christ?
Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions)
7. What practical steps can you take this week to actively seek and treasure God’s wisdom in your life, similar to how Solomon instructs his son?
8. How can you guard yourself against the temptations and distractions that seek to pull you away from the wisdom spiral, as described in Proverbs 2:12-19?
9. In what ways can you encourage others—family, friends, or church members—to pursue wisdom alongside you? How can your church community function as a place where the wisdom spiral is nurtured and sustained?