35 For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the LORD,
36 but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”
Find Wisdom
If you have ever been urgently looking for something and finally found it, you get a glimpse into the insight Solomon is trying to provide us in these two proverbs. Yet, finding your keys when you are late for work doesn’t even come close to this message. Finding your wallet after it was lost for a week does not. Finding you child who wandered off into a dangerous place, might get close. Yet, Solomon in the above passages is talking about finding something even more precious than a child: Wisdom. In chapter eight of Proverbs we are reading Wisdom’s word to us. She is speaking to us. She is telling us all the benefits of having her in your worldview of life. Failing to find wisdom is the same as finding death. When we fail to search for and find wisdom we do self-inflicted harm to ourselves. Thankfully, wisdom is available by simply fearing the Lord. That is the message of chapter nine:
Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Wisdom makes herself available so she is an easy find. Note where she is:
Proverbs 8:1-3 (ESV)
1 Does not wisdom call?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
She is loud and standing on every corner. We have but to Fear the Lord (stand in awe of Him and revere Him) and we will find wisdom.
But when reading Proverbs we need to decide if a proverb is a promise or a percept or a principle. Personally I believe they are all three. When God is telling us something we need to remember that God's Word is telling us that He is going to do something. We might not realize He is doing something but He is. This proverb tells us that those who find wisdom through faith in Christ will be blessed by God. It should be noted, however, that we don't always see that God is blessing us, even though He is. The second line of this proverb tells us that those who follow God in faith and not in feelings will receive "favor" from The Lord. That doesn't mean that all aspects of our life will feel good. In fact, it often doesn't. But, God knows that we love Him and follow Him. We live by faith, not by feelings. We might not feel like God is there, but if we are obeying Him we can know, based upon this proverb, that God's favor is upon us. We might have to wait until we reach eternity to see it, but we do have God's favor ... grace. And, that is enough to help us make it past the feelings into a world of faith and experience favor by faith.
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