Proverbs 3:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 3:14

Comments

Now there's a certain amount of repetition in these early chapters. That again is due to the wisdom and understanding of the Lord, because how much we need it. These things are put to us several times over in slightly different ways. It is the tradesman picture here. In order to find the wisdom of God, though it is nothing at all really, there is something for us to do. We have to repent. We have to yield to him. We have to desire him and cry out to him and seek him in order to receive his blessing. In the ongoing Christian life you simply won't be blessed by the Lord unless you pray to him and obey him and study his word. What we get is infinitely more valuable than the poor effort we put in and that is the picture that Solomon presents here. Here is the picture of trading. The merchant buys his material and he sells it. Are you in silver and gold, precious stones? As for us, we are in wisdom. We trade in spiritual truth - the skill to live the Christian life and to be a means of blessing to others. We have to pray, to judge matters just like the trader who goes and looks at those silver, gold articles and the jewellery and he assesses them. We have got to assess teaching that comes to us from various sources and test its value. The merchandise of the truth of God, the Christian life, growing in grace, knowing the Lord, proving him, experiencing his blessings – this is better than trading in silver.

Application

What is so special about silver? To know the Lord and to walk with him and to know our dear Saviour and to drink in his truth, to be deepened in the word, is better than trading in beautiful objects of art crafted from silver. These objects were very intricate, very detailed; they were refined products, not just bags of grain. Here is something which has been subject to considerable craftsmanship. Here is something which stands for the ultimate in human sophistication and craftsmanship, intricacy. But there is nothing more wonderful, more intricate than the word of God. In the word of God we can see the most amazing prophecies in the most intricate way describing human nature and behaviour and the present age. We can see things which are so sophisticated and consistent, so amazingly constructed in the Scriptures. Isn't the word of God something which moves us the more we get into it, the more of its depths we see?

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Proverbs 3:14 Commentary and Bible Study