Proverbs 2.1-5
“My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”
The call of Christ is a call to be an apprentice. It is a call to listen to the voice of truth and learn the standards of how life works in the world that was created by God, broken by sin, and redeemed by Jesus. It is a call to trust God, pursue truth, and do the work.
Chapter 2 of Proverbs emphasizes the necessity for being an apprentice to God. The chapter instructs us to listen to and obey the teaching of God our Father. To emphasize the impact of our response to the Lord’s teaching, the chapter is structured as a series of conditional statements: If you relentlessly pursue wisdom, then you will experience blessing. The first four verses are the if statement in the father’s message, and the rest of the chapter provides two different then statements.
The message of chapter 2 is also unique because it has no imperatives. The imperative mood in grammar is the mood of command. As you read through this chapter, you will notice there are no imperative verbs. There are statements of fact and descriptions of action, but there are no commands. The father simply tells his son how the world works, and describes the conditional nature of the way of wisdom.
If you diligently seek wisdom, then you will find it and be blessed. If you don’t diligently seek wisdom, then you will not find it and you will not be blessed.
Here is the message of Proverbs 2 to every Christian: Be an apprentice. Listen to the Lord’s instruction about how life works. Let the Lord and wise people train you in the principles of how God has designed his universe. Learn the knowledge, wisdom, and skills you need in order to live and work successfully.
To summarize: The call of Christ is a call to be an apprentice. It is a call to listen to the voice of truth and learn the standards of how life works in the world that was created by God, broken by sin, and redeemed by Jesus.
