PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:5).

We're talking about understanding here.

“Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words" (Daniel 10:12).

What you are seeing here is that Daniel did what Proverbs 2 said: He inclined his ear and he applied his heart; he was crying after, and laboring for what? Understanding. What we learn from this is that when you do what the Lord asks, He does respond. But the first thing you have to do is admit you don't know what's going on.

“The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit" (Proverbs 14:8).

A couple of verses later we read, “there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Man is just famous for thinking that he knows what he's doing but the truth is he's in folly and he's just deceived, he's just deluded.

“Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge" (Proverbs 19:25).

So, you have a scorner there and he just deserves getting hit, and the simple will learn from it. But notice that if one reproves a man that has understanding, he will understand even more. There are men to whom the Lord has already given some knowledge, and He'll give them even more; but if you don't do something with what understanding and knowledge that the Lord’s already given you, He'll take what you've got away.

“. . . reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.”

Can you take reproof? Can you take somebody standing up and correcting you? Because that’s what it says there. It says that that is what you need. It says there that if you reprove someone that has understanding he'll understand knowledge.

A man says, “I'm just not into going to church, man. You know, they are always yelling, and are negative and critical and all that kind of thing.” But that's really a blessing because as bad as it gets, if you come to church where you leave feeling worse than when you came, that's not so bad. Especially if it leads to you reevaluating some area in your life that is just not right. That's better than the Lord getting your attention with a car accident. “Well, I went to church today expecting to hear a nice message on Christmas, instead he preached on hell! The preacher stood up there and bawled me out. I just don’t understand.”

Well, maybe God got your attention there, and he won’t have to get your attention some other way.

“Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things" (Proverbs 28:5).

Half the battle in this life is keeping before the Lord on things. It's about going to the Lord with things you don't understand, and things you think you understand, and all that. “Evil man understand not judgment,” anybody that you've ever heard go to the Greek to overthrow judgment, that ever quoted “Judge not lest ye be judged,” to keep you from judging something that's wicked; do you know what they are? They are evil men. They are evil.

“Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God."

Not just knowledge about God, but God's knowledge about things. For example, it's like the love of God. The love of God can be God loving me, or it can be me loving God. The love of God was manifest toward me through Christ, God loving me; but my love of God is sometimes lukewarm, but that's my love for God. So, in that passage right there, the knowledge of God is not just that you are knowing God, but it's also God's knowledge about things, and you want the mind of the Lord.

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