Proverb 2:7 describes how God provides wisdom to the righteous.

He layeth up sound wisdom.

Now the word layeth in this proverb describes a process of hiding or hoarding.

It indicates something hid from someone but for the purpose of keeping it for someone else.

It means to lay up in a secret place.

Isn't this what the father has told his son?

Hasn't the father told his son that wisdom is like a hid treasure that will only be found by diligent search?

What does this proverb tell us?

It tells us that wisdom is laid up for a certain group of individuals which means that another group of individuals is excluded from finding wisdom.

For when God hides something no man can find it unless God allows that man to find it.

Wisdom is laid up or hoarded for the righteous and excluded from the unrighteous.

Hasn't the father instructed the son in previous proverbs that God resisteth the proud and that only those who fear the Lord are to know God?

God will not have it any other way!

This absolute must be absolutely taught to the son by the father.

It is part of the teaching of the fear of the Lord.

Wisdom is not of this world and this world cannot arrive at a knowledge of God because wisdom is hoarded by God for the righteous.

The teaching of the exclusiveness of the knowledge of God for the righteous is missing in our churches today.

We must impart to our children that God only reveals himself to those who meet his conditions.

And his conditions are only met through Jesus Christ who is wisdom personified.

John recorded Jesus words in John 14:6,  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Acts 4:12,  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Regardless of how offensive this is to the world this doctrine must absolutely be imparted to our children.

Only through Christ is a man made righteous!

The word "sound" is also used carefully for it describes something that is fully supported.

Sound wisdom is wisdom that has a firm foundation.

It is wisdom that results in practical benefit to those who practice wisdom.

It is not wisdom that titillates the mind and tickles the intellect or tickles the ear.

It is not wisdom that appeals to that which puffs up.

It is not wisdom that is given to the mighty of the world to show off the mighty.

It is not wisdom that is discussed on the talk shows of television.

It is not wisdom that appeals to the great thinker in that it is practical in its result.

It is practical because it is for the righteous and provides light for the righteous to walk uprightly.

The righteous desire to walk uprightly and God provides wisdom to them to accomplish their desire.

Sound wisdom is wisdom that guides our feet unto every good path.

Sound wisdom is wisdom for living a righteous life for God.

This wisdom appeals to the righteous but has no appeal to the unrighteous.

In this the Lord is a buckler to the righteous, which is a shield or protector, a defense of the righteous.

Wisdom therefore is a practical defense to the righteous.

A godly father, in teaching the fear of the Lord, and the benefits of wisdom equips his son with this defense as he prepares him to serve and glorify God.

This is a duty of a father, to equip his children with the defense of God.

He instructs his son that God is a barrier about his path.

Though Satan hurls his fiery darts God is a shield to those who walk in the paths of judgment.

This father teaches his son that no weapon of this world or of the devil can penetrate the buckler of God.

This is the kind of worship of God the godly father is to communicate to his son.

This is what the fear of the Lord produces in a godly father and what is to be produced in the son.

He communicates to his son the love of God for his people.

God beautifies his own with holiness (separation) and they are his inheritance and he intends to bring everyone of them to conformance to his own son.

There will be none lost that God has found for he:

This godly father teaches his son that his God is a preserving God.

This God is not capricious, or eccentric or erratic or fickle or impulsive.

His paths of judgment are sure and unchanging.

The very universe of God declares that his paths of judgment are kept.

The stars cry out that their courses are preserved by the one who ordained their existence.

This is the knowledge of what the fear of God brings to the son.

How does the father teach this about God?

He teaches this by being sure and unchanging himself.

This father is not capricious or eccentric or erratic, fickle or impulsive either.

This father is righteous and a characteristic of righteousness is consistency

The son is taught by the life of his father the character of God.

What is the result of this kind of teaching?

The father has instructed the son to receive his words and hide his commandments within him.

He has told his son that this will cause him to incline his ear to God and will cause him to seek after wisdom with the same diligence as those who seek after hid treasure.

The result is an understanding of the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God.

He has instructed him in the benefits of wisdom to the righteous and the preserving nature of God.

Proverbs 2:7,8 Continued,  He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

We may think that the verse "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" only pertains to wickedness and the results of wickedness and wicked living!

But this passage in Galatians 6:7,8 not only pertains to wicked living but also pertains to holy living:

Yes, a man that sows to the flesh reaps corruption but on the contrary God has also ordained that a man that sows to the Spirit reaps life everlasting.

As with all promises of God that can fully be depended upon!

When the father of this passage tells his son that God keepeth the paths of judgment and preserveth the way of the saints he was telling his son this very same positive message that Paul wrote in the book of Galations.

By God keeping the paths of judgment God insures that the sowing to the Spirit brings life everlasting.

God is the God of cause and effect.

In the natural world God is the God who insures that gravity operates all the time.

God is the keeper of gravity. He maintains gravity. He never rests in this keeping function.

We totally depend on his keeping of gravity and think nothing of it.

We take it for granted and think that it is there without the keeping hand of God.

And as he maintains his natural laws so he also maintains his spiritual laws.

He keeps the paths of judgment means that he always honors his spiritual principals and by so honoring, consistent results will follow every time to those who exercise those principles.

The righteous can always depend that right decisions or judgments will be honored by God.

The judgments mentioned in this proverb refer to verdicts.

Decisions resulting from choices. What is your best judgment in a particular situation?

What is your verdict about a particular thing?

Is it a decision that is based on self or have you acknowledged God's word in your verdict?

This proverb tells us that God always honors judgments or verdicts or decisions in accordance with his word.

So if you make a judgment in accordance with his word you can expect a predicable result for God always honors his word.

That's what it means when God keeps the paths of judgment.

A woman keeping the home means that she cares for the home and sees to it that all is in order and that all needs are met in the home.

Everything is done decently and in order in a kept home.

Everything is in its place and members of the home know where all things are.

The home is kept. So too does God keep the paths of judgment.

God sweeps the paths regularly and there are never potholes or stumbling blocks or thorns or thistles on God maintained paths.

He is a path keeper.

Today instead of focusing on God the path keeper many focus on man the promise keeper.

Instead of teaching that God keeps the paths for his children and all honor should go to him, many trust in the the promise keepers, the moral majority and the Christian coalition as the keeper of the paths.

This week I saw a church marquee boast this: "We are awesome in the anointing."

There is nothing about man that is awesome, only God is awesome.

He is the one who keeps the paths.

He is the one who preserves the way of the saints.

We are not to be praised!

When man draws attention to himself he will always be disappointed.

When man draws attention to God he will never be disappointed.

The yoke of Jesus Christ leads in the God kept path and preserved way.

Jesus said in:  Matthew 11:29,30,  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

He was saying that God maintains the paths of the saints.

The paths of the saints are God maintained highways.

Wander from the paths as you would wander from an interstate highway and see what results.

Proverbs 1:33 says it this way,  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

George Lawson said it this way in his Proverbs commentary "The lovers of wisdom are furnished with the best wisdom , and led into those paths of holiness where safety is to be found."

What will result from walking those paths?