Searching For Treasure

“If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.” (Pr 2:4-5 AV)

 

The ‘her’ spoken of above is wisdom.  Reasoning with the mind should lead us towards God and not away from Him.  This is why the LORD tells us to come to Him and reason together with Him.  The more we seek truth, the close we get to God.  What struck me this morning are the two phrases I have underlined.  Truth should be treated with respect.  Much like one would treat a hidden treasure.  Something to be searched out and sought after as though it had indescribable value.  That which we seek after often does.  Seeking wisdom as though it is mere academics needed for a final exam does not teat wisdom with the worth it should be afforded.  Wisdom should be treated as the treasure that it is.  What we also want to note is that seeking wisdom as a treasure results in the fear of the LORD and the knowledge of God.  This is a bit backward from the first chapter of Proverbs.  In the first chapter, the fear of God must precede the discovery of wisdom.  This may seem contradictory, but it is not.  One needs the fear or respect of the LORD so that He might show you more that will grow that fear and respect.  But I digress.

Who hasn’t played pirates or hunt for buried treasure?  My siblings and I played that a few times.  Something of value to the ‘pirate’ is hidden somewhere in the house or buried in the lawn.  A map is drawn and clues are given so the ‘pirate’ can find his hidden valuables.  The more valuable the hidden object, the more fun it was to play.  I remember my brother and sister and I used to play this a bit.  The object of the game was to see how much we could frustrate our siblings.  We had a large house, so hiding the object was not that difficult.  The most difficult step of the game was hiding something so valuable our sibling would never give up looking for it.  Our clues and maps were sophomoric at best.  We tried!  Eventually, we moved from that house to a new one, and no telling how many objects the new owners found as they remodeled one room after another.  I am sure there was a G.I. Joe or two hidden in the walls.  Summertime was rather interesting because toys we had buried would surface after a hard rain.

If we are to walk into the knowledge of the Holy, then His wisdom must be the most precious of all pursuits.  The mere fact that God allows us the knowledge of Him should humble the soul.  That God would allow finite and sinful man to know Him is beyond grace.  If we see that wisdom as a treasure of His grace, then we will do whatever it would require to find the treasures of His wisdom.  To know God is to know His truth.  To know His truth requires we work very hard to find it.  If we do not value it, then we will never find it.