We are going to only look at one verse today due to the nature of Proverbs 3:14-18. Why? The length and depth of these verses are going to require much in the way of studying and that will illustrate why Proverbs 3:13 is true. 

Proverbs 3:13 begins again with a statement regarding those who find wisdom and understanding. This is a "hat tip" back to Proverbs 1:2, 7; 2:2, 6, 10. I would encourage a re-reading of those blog posts for we will not change anything of what was said, instead we are going to go deeper now into wisdom and understanding. 

This passage starts off right after Proverbs 3:11-12 which deals with discipline. This of course brings forth wisdom. It is through discipline we learn what is wrong. It was said that our modern version of "being friends" with our children is a lot like putting our children in a giant yard, telling them there are boundaries, but never giving them the boundaries. 

Boundaries give protection, they give guidance. Without these "fences" of boundaries, reinforced by discipline, wisdom is either never learned, or learned at great price. But now Proverbs 3:13 tells us that those who find wisdom and gains understanding are happy.

Happiness is often fleeting in our society. I watched a Youtube channel the other day about a family that moved to Italy, leaving America. They had ligitimate reasons for wanting to do so, and I would agree with some of them. But one of the reasons they gave was the desire for a more work/life balance. They made the statement that they could not find that balance in the US simply because, according to them, those in the US live to work. 

Backing out of these statement a little further, what they are looking for is something that would bring happiness to their family as a whole. For them it was moving to Italy. I am not going to say they are right or wrong, but is this not the cry of all of our hearts in our society today? Looking for happiness? 

Why do people drink,  smoke, self destruct? Is it not, in some ways, because they are seeking happiness? Why do people pursue after goals and dreams? Is it not because of the pursuit of happiness? The heart says, "If only I had one more dollar", or "If only I had more things", or "If I had just a little more time". This is the belief that this would produce happiness. What happens? 

We have many who destroy their bodies by filling it with chemicals, they destroy their bodies by over exersion, and they destroy their finances by trying to not just keep up with the "Joneses" but they are the Joneses. Their family life are wrecked because the husband and wife do not have time to be with each other. The children are a wreck because the parents pay no attention, and the kids self destruct either because they have no relationship with their parents, or they are crying out for some kind of attention. 

Happiness becomes very fleeting. As an unknown author said, "Money may not buy happiness, but I am willing to try if given the chance!" When everything around us seems to be falling apart, and there is a desire and hunger for something solid to "hang our hat" on, happiness becomes that lynch pin. 

The problem lies in the very basis of pursuing happiness for happiness sake. Because then objectivity goes out the window and our society descends into chaos because everyone does what makes them happy. Reminiscent of Judges 17:6. Because when happiness becomes the end goal, then Hedonism becomes the vehicle by which to obtain it. 

Therefore, to say something is wrong that feels right and good and makes us happy becomes the violation of our own constitution and self determination. Tell a drug addict that weed is sin. Our society is now saying it is legal and fine. I have a friend who is a police officer and I can tell you first hand what he has to deal with. 

Tell those who engage in sexual sins* that it is sin. Our society today will now encourage them to take you to court and you get in trouble simply by stating truth. Why? Because society is unhinged from an objective truth and pleasure becomes the end goal. I should say, pleasure becomes the god they serve. 

As the Bible tells us, getting back to Proverbs 3:13, happiness is found in the gaining of wisdom and understanding. Since we have already spent a lot of time looking at wisdom, where it comes from, how to gain it, and what it does for us, let us also look at understanding. 

Understanding has been greatly talked about in Proverbs 2:2-3, 6, 11. I would again, encourage the reader to go back and look at those blogs for more information regarding that understanding. Wisdom without understanding is only half finished. There are many who have wisdom but their understanding is very shallow. To have both is to make us fully equipped. 

Case and point: We can look at what has been said about happiness already, and we can make the case that we can know that what is being said is true. But how do we apply that truth? That is where understanding comes into play. 

Since we know that happiness, as an end goal of itself, leads only to chaos and disorder, wisdom tells us there must be some grounding by which we can have happiness. Proverbs gives us that grounding in all the lessons covered thus far. 

As we will see in Proverbs 3:14-18, the areas of happiness touched by gaining understanding and finding of wisdom is the area of finances (Proverbs 3:14-15), material possessions (Proverbs 3:15), long and happy lives (Proverbs 3:16), pleasant and peaceful journey through this life (Proverbs 3:17), and finally, leading to true life, and not the fictictious life often thrust upon us by society and commercialism that says we can never be happy until we by xyz (Proverbs 3:18). 

I ask you, dear reader, where do you find this type of life in our society? In the corporations? The very notion of commercials is to get us unhappy with what we have so we spend money. How about in the pursuit of happiness as the end goal? What do we feel when the euphoria wears off? Sure, the pleasure of sin is there ( Hebrews 11:25), but there will come an ending of that pleasure. The sexual promiscuity that promises such highs, afterward brings about misery, calamaty, and destruction (ask those who are affected by spouses that cheat, or that end up getting a STD). The drinking always shows good times, and excitement. Then in the morning those who partake of it are hugging the procelain throne and deal with hangover (not to mention the loss of money, and potentially destruction of personal and public property in their drunken stupor). Or the smoker who says they love it, but then expect everyone to bend over backward to help them because they only have one lung, or they have to talk through a mechanical device because cancer has eaten away their body. I belive I have given enough examples that a serious thinker will be able to make and draw any other application necessary. 

But here, in the pages of Scripture, we have the one source that gives us EVERYTHING the world promises, without the downsides. Does it promise us we are going to be as flashy and carefree as those around us? No, but are they really carefree, and all that flash comes with a price tag. I heard a couple of funny statements which illustrate this. These statements are poignent to show the futility of pursuit of happiness outside of wisdom and understanding.

Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what we already have.  - Thanksgiving meme from someeecards. 

Or how about this quote:

We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like - Dave Ramsey

Funny? Yes. Irony? Absolutely. Truth? Sadly yes. However, this is how our society is going, and if we look around and wonder, what is happening, here is just one vein off the main root. Again, I refer us to the statement in Judges, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Yet, dear reader, you and I are now faced with not one but two options. 

Option one is we continue scraping and scratching a the dirt trying to etch out some little form of happiness in this life, or, option two, we try a new way (which, in reality, is not new). The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. 

Our society has been doing the same thing over and over expecting happiness, only to be led deeper into depression and anxity (have you seen how many anti-depressent and anxity medications people take now?). Perhaps it is time to change this up. Perhaps it is time to now do as the Bible says: find and gain. 

Find means to find or attain. Very widely used in Scripture (some 449 times), this word has the idea of actually receiving and getting possession of. Finding, not money, power, fame, but wisdom. True wisdom. Wisdom built, not on the sands of mankinds frailty but wisdom built on the eternal foundation that is God. Wisdom that can only be found in God by those who come to God. 

Gain is not used often (only seven times). Has the meaning of totter and is found under such meanings as: not FURTHERING the schemes of the evil (Psalm 140:8),  Having all of our needs SUPPLIED (Psalms 144:13),  OBTAINING favor from God (Proverbs 8:35; 12:2; 18:22), EXTENDING ourselves (Isaiah 58:10). I have capitalized the words that are the same as the one here in Proverbs 3:13. These are the same Hebrew Words. It isn't just a matter of gaining, but it is the obtaining, supplying, and furthering of that wisdom into the realm of understanding. The natural outflow of wisdom through understanding. 

This wisdom and understanding, as we are going to see, Lord willing, over the next couple weeks will give to those who pursue it, something the world cannot achieve or have on its own. 

Beloved, do not be dismayed when those who have power, fame, riches, position, seem to be content. They are not. That is why they act the way they do. Inside, they are empty and hollow. Even if they deny it, their only pleasure is in this life. In that state, what an empty existance it is, for all that is amassed is only here for the short period of our lives on this earth. What happens afterward, where our spiritual existance will spend eternity, is what goes on forever. 

So, find wisdom, and gain understanding. That will put those who obtain further ahead than anything gotten from the world and society we live in. Are we ready to learn and see what is obtained? 

 

 

* Sexual sin here will include any form of sexual activity that is not one biological male, and one biological female, in a heterosexual, monogamous, covenantal marriage that is vowed before God in an act of praise and worship to Him. God created marriage and sexual intimacy, and He alone has the right to define marriage and decide what is and is not permissible. In Matthew  19:4-5; Mark 10:6-8, Jesus (Who is God) did just that.