Proverbs 4:7-9

PROVERB PRACTICALS

Proverbs 4:7-9, Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

What a contrast this appeal is to the appeal made to the sons of today!

How many fathers have defined this purpose for their children?

How many fathers have defined any purpose for their children but have left that to the siren calls of this world.

What do you, in your home, communicate to your children as important.

By your pursuits what do they hear?

What do they pick up by the silent words of your daily walk.

Oh, how actions speak so much louder than our words.

The father of this Proverbs passage intends for his son to live on a high plane of service to God.

He knows his purpose in God giving him a son, and he intends to carry out that purpose.

He is not ignorant to this purpose for his own father had the same purpose, for it is a purpose to be carried on from generation to generation.

His first instruction to his son is to hear his instruction, to place his whole being in attention so that he will know understanding.

How important it is for mothers to prepare the son with that hearing ear while under her intense care in those first several years.

She must have a heart for this.

A heart that presses toward a son who hears and shows that hearing by obedience.

A heart that is readying her son for the father’s good doctrine.

For no instruction will be understood without that hearing ear.

He insists on the attention of his son to his instruction.

Understanding is the key and fulfillment of the father’s purpose.

The father promises good instruction, good doctrine and intends for his son to receive only good doctrine, only good instruction.

This father intends to follow the word of God as given in Psalm 1.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The father’s confidence is such that he can assure his son to not forsake his law and that if not forsaken will bring a preserved life and kept life and long life.

Any authority, operating by this conduct will also realize these benefits.

So this father’s whole being is engaged in efforts to provide his son with understanding so as to give him everything he needs to be a servant of God.

He says:

How we see in the appeal of these words the imperative of this father to his son to get wisdom, to get understanding.

For this Father feels in his heart that unless this is done his son is doomed.

How much this intensity of responsibility should be felt by every father.

This father has a heart that communicates that unless instruction is given, unless attending and hearing and understanding takes place this child is doomed.

He feels that the load of responsibility is entirely upon him even though he knows that God’s grace must do the saving.

But this father is convinced that God will save if he does his part.

Oh, son this is the most important thing.

Take heed to my words.

What a contrast this appeal is to the appeal made to the sons of today!

How many fathers have defined this purpose for their children?

How many fathers have defined any purpose for their children but have left that to the siren calls of this world.

Simply a roll of the dice

What do you, in your home, communicate to your children as important.

By your pursuits what do they hear?

What do they pick up by the silent words of your daily walk.

That which is exalted in your home will be what promotes your children.

That which is lifted up and embraced in your home will honor your children.

What is lived in the home is what will be lived in the child.

Oh, how actions and patterns of life speak so much louder than our words.

But the promises of pursuing wisdom and understanding are not the empty promises that this world offers, promises that are temporal, based upon the crumbling foundation of time, but are promises built upon an eternal foundation.

Oh, how this must be preached in the home by the lives we lead and the words we say.

He says: Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

To exalt Wisdom, son, you must know Wisdom.

Only strangers to her are indifferent.

Those that know her can only exalt her.

Look how David, the man after God’s own heart exalted wisdom.

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Jesus Christ compared the quest for wisdom to a search for a pearl of great price that was worth selling all in order to buy the pearl.

It is compared to the value of the whole world for Jesus Christ also asked what profit is it to a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul?

God places all value on wisdom and we know that wisdom personified is Jesus Christ for in:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

So by this father’s instruction, this father’s doctrine, he intends for his son to know this, to prize as a prize of infinite value the knowledge of Wisdom, the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

He intends for his son to have deep within him that wisdom is the principal thing, to be gotten first.

Jesus said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

Throughout the word of God, God puts this first.

First place or it is no place.

Ye are either for me or against me. No middle ground!

It is to be pursued with the attitude that all else will be forfeited for its gain.