ME AND WISDOM ARE CLOSE
Proverbs 7:1-5 NKJ
7 My son, keep my words,
And treasure my commands within you.
2 Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers;
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your nearest kin,
5 That they may keep you from the immoral woman,
From the seductress who flatters with her words.
When the Proverbs use the term “my son,” without a stretch, we can take these words as the Father God speaking with His earthly children. When we look at the Proverbs from that perspective, we can take the words personally.
We know that it is right to keep God’s words and treasure His commands in us. Even more than an earthly father talking to his child, we can take these verses as God speaking to us. These five verses speak to the attitude we can adopt towards God’s Word and His wisdom.
Keep God’s commands and live and keep His Word as our primary focus. Jesus spoke of God’s way as narrow but leading to life. Keeping God’s commands is the narrow way that leads to life. For example, being forgiving toward others because God has forgiven us is keeping God’s commands. Pursuing righteousness and godliness, faith and love, is keeping God’s commands. There is much to learn, so focus on what you do know. The more we live and have a relationship with the Lord, the more we adjust and learn to walk in His ways. Keeping a focus on God’s Word is a big help in keeping God’s ways. When we lose focus, we tend to drift in the wrong direction.
Bind them, God’s Word, on your fingers and write them on the tablet of your heart. Again, this will refer to keeping God’s Word close. Anything you put on your fingers you’ll be more conscious of. And writing God’s Word on your heart will be a function of awareness and intentional focus. I have found that if I memorize a passage and repeat it regularly, it just gets in me. I don’t know that there is a particular formula for getting God’s Word in us, but memorizing and speaking is a great way to start.
Solomon shifts gears but is still talking about our attitude towards God’s Word. God’s Word contains God’s wisdom. Call wisdom your sister. And understanding your nearest kin. Sisters and nearest kin are close relationships. My sister is not foreign to me; we grew up together. Again, Solomon is talking about our mindset toward God’s wisdom. We are close, wisdom is important and valuable to me, just as my sister is important and valuable.
Paying attention to God’s Word and wisdom is a stance I adopt. And it produces life and protection from following the lure of immoral women and those who try to seduce me. I have always taken this to have a twofold meaning. One, God’s wisdom, when followed, will keep me from immoral affairs. The second is seeing the immoral woman and the seductress as a type of the ungodly world and its sinful desires. Sin has an alluring way about it. It flatters and seduces, then stings when we give in. Solomon’s father, David, wrote that a young man could cleanse his way by paying attention to God’s Word (Psalm 119:9).
Placing a high value on God’s Word and wisdom yields great results in our lives. And the heart of our Father God wants us, His children, to do well. He has given us His Word, His Holy Spirit, and His wisdom to help us.