Proverbs 2 invites the listener to choose carefully what he will pursue in life. Like Jesus' promise that those who seek find and those who ask receive, this chapter indicates that we will indeed get what we look for.
I use the pronoun "he" in discussing the audience of the Proverbs because they were written to men. In today's world, however, both genders and all ages can relate to and benefit from the wisdom of Solomon.
Verses 1-4 contain expressions that describe a life lived in pursuit of truth: "making your ear attentive to wisdom" and "cry out for insight", etc. The promised result is found in verse 5: "Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, the good news is that such a path is open to all who truly seek after it.
God is depicted as the source and storehouse of wisdom, and verses 6 through 15 describe the benefits that knowledge can afford you in life. The blessings are both positive ("wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul") as well as protective ("It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely").
Finally, the chapter concludes with a warning about pursuing evil in the form of an adulterous woman, "for her way leads down to death, and her path to the shades" (vs. 18). Just as wisdom and virtue lead to life, so, too, does following a path of vice and wickedness lead to death. You will also find what you seek if you pursue destruction.
The conclusion? "Therefore walk in the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the just, for the upright will abide in the land, and the innocent will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it" (vs. 20-22). Need biblical encouragement to choose the right and shun the wrong? Solomon has your back!
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