2 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
The emphasis in the opening part of this chapter is similar to that in 1:20ff, and what is said is a counterpart to the earlier passage. There, wisdom was crying in the streets, clamouring to be heard, and therefore accessible to all. Here, two further thoughts are given us, (i) that wisdom is hard-won and must be diligently and eagerly sought (1-5); and (ii) that wisdom is God-given in the first, we are told how we must seek; in the second, what issues when we find. We should note, first of all, the double emphasis: in 1-5 it is earnest seeking and searching after wisdom on our part that is un- derlined, then in 6 we are told that it is God who gives wisdom. There is no real contra- diction here: discovery of wisdom and revelation of wisdom are inseparable. We would never discover anything unless God chose to reveal it to us. But the fact that God does reveal it does not make painstaking search unnecessary; revelation certainly does not mean sitting back and waiting for it to come, suspending one's mental processes of un- derstanding and reason. That way lies shipwreck of faith: God reveals wisdom to us in and through painstaking search. It is, as we have already pointed out, a question of 'work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure' (Philippians 1:12, 13).
Next, we should observe where we are to seek for wisdom. We are not left in doubt about this. God gives His wisdom, as He gives the revelation of Himself, in His Word. We shall turn to a detailed consideration of this thought in tomorrow's Note.