Our desires dominate our paths. The beginning of the path determines the end of the path. In an open field, one may wander in various directions. On a path, once you start, your ending point is really already determined.
The phrasing suggests that by wisdom we will be saved from the "evil man" and the "foreign woman." Perhaps it is better understood, however, as delivering us from BECOMING an evil man, or a foreign woman.
Without wisdom, those paths are inevitable. We must be delivered from them; without some active preservative agent (wisdom), we will NOT choose the right path but consistently the wrong.
God "hides away" wisdom in a treasure house. He "stores it up" like a squirrel stores up nuts. It is gathered into one place, which is convenient, but it is also hidden, which is not convenient. What is His purpose in this?
Previously the writer instructs us to do a similar thing: to create a treasure-store of wisdom in our hearts. Then he enjoins a very active process for filling this storehouse:
1. Listening-the attentive ear
2. Understanding-the inclined heart, active mind
3. Crying Out-the responsive voice
4. Seeking-the engaged body
The outcome is the Fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. Is this knowledge about God? Or God's knowledge? It seems to be God's knowledge, for follows, "the Lord gives wisdom."
The point of the process is desire-transformation. If we cultivate the desire for wisdom, God will then preserve us on the path of wisdom; that is, he will take our initial desire, and give us more desire. It is desire that keeps us on the path: "wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul."
If we reject the initial desire, we will develop a desire for evil, and it also will be multiplied into more and more desire for evil. They "delight in doing evil, and rejoice in its very perversity."
Evil and deception go hand in hand, as do righteousness and truth. Evil ways become ways "of darkness," "crooked," and "leading to death."
So, God hides wisdom because in order to keep wisdom, we need the travail, the effort of finding it; we need the heart-workout that will transform our desires. Where does He hide it? In us! That is, in other wise men who have chosen to desire Him. The community of faith becomes the repository of the wisdom of faith. By associating with wise men, I learn their desires and ways, and tap into their store of wisdom; I then become a store house of wisdom others may tap into.
The community is always in relationship to the land. The righteous community will endure on the land; the wicked will be cut off from the land. They have no treasure, no storehouse, no roots.
What is the land? God created man to rule over the creatures, but to find sustenance in the plants that spring up by their seeds out of the land.
The phrasing suggests that by wisdom we will be saved from the "evil man" and the "foreign woman." Perhaps it is better understood, however, as delivering us from BECOMING an evil man, or a foreign woman.
Without wisdom, those paths are inevitable. We must be delivered from them; without some active preservative agent (wisdom), we will NOT choose the right path but consistently the wrong.
God "hides away" wisdom in a treasure house. He "stores it up" like a squirrel stores up nuts. It is gathered into one place, which is convenient, but it is also hidden, which is not convenient. What is His purpose in this?
Previously the writer instructs us to do a similar thing: to create a treasure-store of wisdom in our hearts. Then he enjoins a very active process for filling this storehouse:
1. Listening-the attentive ear
2. Understanding-the inclined heart, active mind
3. Crying Out-the responsive voice
4. Seeking-the engaged body
The outcome is the Fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. Is this knowledge about God? Or God's knowledge? It seems to be God's knowledge, for follows, "the Lord gives wisdom."
The point of the process is desire-transformation. If we cultivate the desire for wisdom, God will then preserve us on the path of wisdom; that is, he will take our initial desire, and give us more desire. It is desire that keeps us on the path: "wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul."
If we reject the initial desire, we will develop a desire for evil, and it also will be multiplied into more and more desire for evil. They "delight in doing evil, and rejoice in its very perversity."
Evil and deception go hand in hand, as do righteousness and truth. Evil ways become ways "of darkness," "crooked," and "leading to death."
So, God hides wisdom because in order to keep wisdom, we need the travail, the effort of finding it; we need the heart-workout that will transform our desires. Where does He hide it? In us! That is, in other wise men who have chosen to desire Him. The community of faith becomes the repository of the wisdom of faith. By associating with wise men, I learn their desires and ways, and tap into their store of wisdom; I then become a store house of wisdom others may tap into.
The community is always in relationship to the land. The righteous community will endure on the land; the wicked will be cut off from the land. They have no treasure, no storehouse, no roots.
What is the land? God created man to rule over the creatures, but to find sustenance in the plants that spring up by their seeds out of the land.
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