Proverbs 2:2

The book of Proverbs gives us a lot of instruction on a lot of different subjects. One subject that can keep us in God’s wisdom is Godly Follower-ship. Who we follow; where we follow; how we follow are all spoken about in Proverbs. Here is one of them about making our ears attentive to wisdom: 

Proverbs 2:2 (ESV)

making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

Everyone knows what a gate is for.  In the back yard it locks your toddler in and the neighbor’s dog out.   In a "gated-community" project it keeps the unwanted out and the desired secure.   Gates are a part of life.   We see them every day and encounter their "power" at every turn.   It is doubtful that most people would think of their "ear" or "heart" as a gate.   But, in this proverb that is the imagery that Solomon uses.   In Solomon's words of wisdom for us he is equating the ear and the heart as the gate to the soul.   He is telling us that when we open the "ear-gate" to wisdom and the "heart-gate" to understanding, good things will happen in our lives.  In the rest of the chapter he outlines those good things.   As we open these "gates" we allow wisdom and understanding, from God, to enter into our soul.  That is where strength, insight and power come from.  When we close our "gates" to wisdom and understanding we lace the strength, insight and power to overcome evil and sin.   It becomes worse when we not only close these gates to God's wisdom and understanding (His Word!) and open them to the evil and sin in the world.  When we do that, we open our soul to that destruction. God gives us power, through the Spirit, to open and close those gates.  In the Lord's prayer we are actually told to ask God to "keep us from evil."  That is another way of saying, or asking God, to close our gates to evil and open them to His Word.   We are to make our eyes "attentive" to God's Wisdom (Christ is Wisdom).  We are to incline to the Power of Christ and wisdom will flow through us and to us.