Proverbs 2:4

Are wisdom, knowledge, and understanding as valuable to you as silver or hid treasures? Men pursue silver and hid treasure with excited hearts and at great expense and effort, and Solomon warned that only such desire and work will find the wisdom of God. Unless you have such zeal and diligence, you will miss true knowledge and understanding.

Just a short reading about the mysterious Money Pit of Nova Scotia’s Oak Island will prove the character of men and hidden treasures. At least six lives, millions of dollars, and enormous efforts have been invested, and countless disappointments endured over 210 years, to find the presumed treasure at the bottom of an ingenious manmade shaft.

Wisdom exists, and you must find it and get it, for it is of more value than all riches (Pr 4:7; 16:16; Ps 19:10; 119:14,72,127). You buy wisdom by giving up other things in life to redeem the time and apply the effort to study God’s word; you avoid selling it by refusing any offer of this world to distract you from your pursuit of it (Pr 23:23; 18:1).

Jesus Christ taught that the kingdom of God is life’s greatest priority (Matt 6:33), and He illustrated it by men selling all they had to buy a field or a valuable pearl (Matt 13:44-46). What have you sold, or given up, to pursue this treasure? Or are your treasures on earth? If you have not counted and paid a price, then you are not a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Wisdom will not fall in your lap, for then the wrong persons could get it. Knowledge and truth are not a right, for all men chose a lie in Eden through Adam. Wisdom is a reward to those who ask and work for it. The just and jealous God will not give it to those with only sporadic, lazy, or slight effort, but He will reward zealous seekers (Jer 29:13).

Consider ministers. They must study like workmen (II Tim 2:15); they must give themselves wholly to reading, exhortation, and doctrine (I Tim 4:13-15); and they must do so while enduring hardness as soldiers without worldly obligations (II Tim 2:3-4). If a minister compromises in any of these areas, he and his hearers will lose (I Tim 4:16).

Consider Christians. They must use wisdom or lose it, as Paul warned the Hebrews (Heb 5:12-14). If they do not pay close attention to preaching, they will lose all, even the knowledge they presumed they had (Luke 8:18). The Bereans were noble for an obvious reason (Acts 17:11), and you should follow their good example (I Thes 5:21).

Dear friend, do you read the Word of God? Do you read it with passion and effort? Do you pray for God to open its pages and words to you while reading (Ps 119:18)? Do you study it? Do you crave to hear it taught? Do you meditate upon it day and night? Do you speak of it to others? Do you give up pleasures for it? Do you buy tools to help?

Most men do not make the effort, so they live and die as fools. They are infatuated with the glitter of worldly toys and earthly pleasures. Only a few are ready scribes like Ezra (Ezra 7:6); only a few are fruitful trees (Ps 1:1-3). Only a few keep the words of God, meditate on them, and obey them to have Elihu and David’s wisdom (Ps 119:98-100).

Jesus Christ sought God’s wisdom all night in a mountain (Luke 6:12). And while others slept, He searched for the treasure of God’s will with tears and blood-like sweat (Luke 22:39-46). Was He heard? Indeed! He sits forever as King on Zion’s hill, ruling the universe in perfect wisdom, righteousness, and truth. Seek God’s precious wisdom today!