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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Proverbs 4:7
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This best of all marriages is the principal thing in Solomon's illustration – ‘therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.’ The most important thing is for you to have this perfect bride for the future of your homestead, your smallholding, your family, and the ideal upbringing of your children. In fact the way this verse is cast, reminds us that the illustration has a purpose. So we are half illustration, half application, but the salvation of God is the absolute principal thing. 'The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom' is the Hebrew, not so much, 'Wisdom is the principal thing', which is a little bit interpretive. And whereas the Authorised Version may be a little weak in its first phrase, it is beautifully precise in the second, 'therefore get wisdom,' simple and straightforward. 'And with all thy getting’ – with anything you are after – ‘get understanding’, which is used here as a synonym for wisdom more than anything else. It means this: another condition for having wisdom is this; that you want wisdom more than anything else. If you don't want it you'll never get it. That's the principal; that's what is being taught here from verses 7 to 9. Or let’s put it another way. You may imagine that if you just live the Christian life and read the word of God and you are diligent and careful, you will automatically acquire wisdom. No, says the word of God. Wisdom is a very curious virtue and faculty. You only get it if you desire it, if you consciously go after it, admire it, if you are concerned to develop it, and to grow in it, that's what these verses are saying.
Application
We live in days that are very full; days that are very cluttered; days that are very busy, and there is so much going on around us that it is very difficult to remember everything. But, says the word of God, there is one thing you must remember, something which will never come to you automatically, it must be consciously desired, and that is wisdom; the ability to handle knowledge. You can get knowledge without admiring knowledge; you will pick-up something every day: read a book, watch the TV, engage in conversation, you will be picking up information all the time, but you can only pick up wisdom if you consciously desire it and want it.
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