Proverbs 2:4
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If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
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Just a short reading about the mysterious Money Pit of Nova Scotia's Oak Island will prove the character of men and hidden treasures. Six lives and millions of dollars have been lost in the efforts to find the presumed treasure at the bottom of an ingenious shaft.
But David and Solomon tell us God's wisdom exists, and that we must find it, buy it, and get it, for it is of more value than all riches (4:7; 16:16; Psalm 19:10;
119:14,
72,
127).
Jesus said God's kingdom is life's great priority (Matt 6:33), and He illustrated it by men selling all they had to buy a field or a great pearl (Matt 13:44-46). What have you sold?
Wisdom will not fall in your lap, for then the wrong persons can get it. Wisdom is a reward to those who ask and work for it. Our just and jealous God cannot give its riches for sporadic, lazy, and slight effort; but He will reward zealous seekers (Jer 29:13).
Consider ministers. They must study like workmen (II Tim 2:15); they must give themselves wholly to reading, exhortation, and doctrine (I Tim 4:13-16); and they must do so while enduring hardness as soldiers without obligations in the world (II Tim 2:3-4).
Consider saints. They must use it or lose it, as Paul told the Hebrews (Heb 5:12-14). If they do not take heed to preaching, they will lose all (Luke 8:18). The Bereans were noble for a reason (Acts 17:11), whom we should follow in our own search (I Thes 5:21).
Dear friend, do you read the Word of God? Do you read it with passion and effort? Do you study it? Do you crave to hear it taught? Do you meditate upon it day and night? Do you speak of it others? Do you give up pleasure for it? Do you buy tools to help?
Most men do not make the effort, so they live and die fools. Only a few are ready scribes like Ezra (Ezra 7:6): only a few are the fruitful trees of Psalm 1:1-3. Only a few will retain it, meditate on it, and obey it to have Elihu and David's wisdom (Ps 119:98-100).
Our Lord would seek God all night in a mountain (Luke 6:12). And while others slept, He searched for the treasure of God's favor with tears and bloody sweat (Luke 22:39-46).
Men pursue silver and hid treasure with excited hearts and at great expense and effort, and our wise Preacher warns that only such desire and work will find the wisdom of God. Unless we have similar zeal and diligence, we will not obtain the knowledge of the Lord.
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