Proverbs 3:18 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 3:18

Comments

Every believer in life, in a sense, is like a tree. You've got to go through seasons, there'll be times when your leaves are out, you're bearing fruit; you're a picture of health and happiness and prosperity, and there are other seasons when all the leaves will be shaken off the tree and you'll stand there stark in the cold. But a tree that has life in it. It can stand up to the times and seasons, there's always something prosperous about it, And wisdom alone gives this. The person who has insight and wisdom and can handle the spiritual knowledge he has, even when everything goes wrong around him, he can understand it, he can see what the Lord is doing, he can lay hold by faith on the Lord's goodness. He can look back and see how he's been through these seasons before, and what they added to him, and how he should conduct himself, what his attitude should be. He has the ability to handle the things he knows, and he is a lively tree, in spite of the winter, in spite of the seasons.The tree of life was taken from mankind at the time of his earliest rebellion, a tree so greatly to be desired. What does the tree of life mean? It is a figure of that which will cause to live for ever, spiritual life, eternal life, coming into our beings, relating us to God so that we live for ever. So this wisdom, this salvation, this knowledge that comes from God’s word, this conversion to Christ, this is a tree of life and it will bring eternal blessing. ‘She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her.’ Happily most of the modern versions follow the Authorised Version’s rendering. It is the only way to get hold of the Hebrew here - lay hold. It does not just mean take, it does not just mean appropriate, possess. The Hebrew word indicates some urgency, such as when perhaps a child is running away into the road, and about to be run over, and an anxious parent will run and leap towards the child, and lay hold on the child. Salvation comes not to those who coolly investigate without any feeling, or real sense of need, or any interest, not for those who in a superior spirit condescend to give the living God a try. There is eagerness here, a sense of exclusive reliance: I must get this fruit, or all is up with me.

Application

Throughout life, we have a loyalty, a tremendous sense of indebtedness, to God, and we will be loyal to him, and lay hold upon him. Sometimes, even among Bible believers, there is a tendency not to retain this knowledge. So for example you find many people who are true Christians and Bible believers, and teachers of the word, who abandon the six day creation of the word of God because it is not sophisticated enough for them, and they set aside the historical account of God's word concerning creation, and buckle in to various scientific theories. No, God's disclosure of how things have happened is all for us. Then again you will find Christian people who love the Lord, and who believe the word, and yet are turning over to earthly secular psychology. You have got endless Christian books telling us that we need to build up our self-esteem, and so on. You will not find a word of that in the Bible, in other words, even Christians are being tempted to improve on the Bible and the Scripture’s pathway to sanctification. ‘Happy is every one that retaineth her.’

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Proverbs 3:18 Commentary and Bible Study