The Treasure Map To The Knowledge of God

Proverbs 2: 1-5 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure , then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

God knows everything. Sounds simple yet is so often glossed over in our walk. God knows everything. He sees everything. Time is not temporal for Him as with us, but is eternal. God was there at the beginning and has seen the end as well. His omniscience is what is known as the knowledge of God. Take a minute and really reflect on the scope and depth of this knowledge. Any decision you come across in your life, God knows the outcome already if you were to make the decision, either way you would make it. Every relationship you enter into, God sees the end result of that relationship. Every career move you are considering, God sees the end result. Any decision to relocate, join a new ministry, switch churches God knows the outcome and end result; period.

Could you imagine having such knowledge? The power you would possess to never make a mistake again. To never be wrong again. Every decision working for your good! THAT is exactly what God wants for you. God wants you to find the knowledge of God in every decision you face in your walk and in your life. The best part is that He provides for us a blueprint for finding this knowledge; a treasure map to the knowledge of God. It is found in the key verses above from Proverbs.

Verse one lays the foundation for finding this treasure. First we must accept His Word and store it up within us. Sounds simple enough but there are many, even within the faith that do not adhere to this basic foundation. Accepting the Word of God is difficult for many people. There are many things within it that make people uncomfortable. This has led to a rash of "salad bar" Christians. People who take the verses they like but discard the verses that rub them the wrong way. The Word of God is not a buffet; it is meant to be taken in totality.

"Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it. Deuteronomy 12:32 (NKJV)

As more and more post-modernism infiltrates the church we see people making cultural or historical arguments for dismissing portions of the Word of God. We see people actually refuting the inerrancy of the Bible, from within the faith itself. But the Scriptures teach us something different:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2Timothy 3: 16-17

Note the definitive statements. ALL Scripture is divinely inspired. It is all we need to prepare Christians for EVERY good work. We either believe what we believe or we do not. Picking and choosing is simply making it up as we go along; recreating God in our own image. No beloved, we must accept the Word God has given us as the first step to finding His knowledge for our lives.

Along with accepting His Word, we must store it up according to verse one. We must not only accept the Word of God but we must remember it. Why? Because within it is the truth we need to get through this life. To defeat the works of the enemy in our lives. So when the enemy tells us we are no good we can remind ourselves that we are children of God (1John 3:1). When the enemy says that we need to be afraid we can remind ourselves that God has not given us a spirit of fear (2Timothy 1:7). When the enemy tells us that we will never achieve what we are working on we can remind ourselves that we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). When the enemy says we will never reach the next level God has for us we can remind ourselves that He who started a good work in us will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6). We store up His Word because it contains all the answers we need to whatever the world or the enemy wants to throw at us. When Jesus Himself was tempted by the devil He answered every temptation with a Scripture. He did not engage in a conversation with the enemy. He did not debate him or point out where he was wrong. He simply relayed the promises God had already made to Him knowing they trump anything else! Storing up His Word also keeps us in line with how God wants us to behave. David spoke to this:

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11

We also need to hide His Word in our hearts to remind us of the paths of righteousness He wants us to walk on. To avoid the ways of the world and the heartache they cause. We must accept all of God's Word and actively seek to store it up inside of us.

Verse two says that we must turn our ear to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding. Interesting observations from this verse. First of all God is telling us that we need to turn our ear to wisdom to God in other words. This speaks to what we choose to listen to. The world is full of messages they want you to hear. Messages of greed and self-reliance. Messages of hate and intolerance. Messages of passing the buck and survival of the fittest. We cannot turn our ears to these messages. Verse two here starts by reminding us that we have to choose what we listen to. God does not want us conforming to the world:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12: 2

To test and approve the perfect and pleasing will of God! The knowledge of God! This world has nothing for us as believers. We must turn our ears to God and the things of God. But the end of verse two reminds us that hearing is not good enough. Knowledge without application is useless. If you knew driving off a cliff would kill you but you did it anyway, what good did that knowledge gain you? Many Christians today know the truth about the cliff the world is offering and are driving off of it anyway. That is because while they have turned their ears to wisdom, they have not applied it in their hearts to understand it.

Knowing the Word of God is not enough. The devil knows the Word! We must go further and apply it to our lives as well. If the Word says do not gossip, we should not find excuses to gossip. If the Word says do not commit adultery, we should not find excuses to allow ourselves to be in such a position. I had a wise friend once who said he could not find the verse that said, "Except me." There is no such exception. Remember, God already made the rules; we just have to have faith and play by them. Seeking the treasure of His knowledge in our daily lives begins with accepting His Word and storing it up within us and continues with choosing to listen to the things of God over the things of this world and actually applying it to our lives.

Verse three however takes us into the relationship the Father wants to have with us. It says we must call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding. The things of God are discerned by the Holy Spirit:

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1Corinthians 2: 12: 14

These verses are usually used to explain why the things of God are foolishness to man but they also explain that it is the Spirit that discerns for us the things of God. Verse 3 of Proverbs 2 deals with our lives beyond the Word of God. Verses 1 and 2 dealt with the Word of God and how we need to handle it in our lives if we are truly seeking the knowledge of God. Verses 3 now deals with our relationship with God which is prayer. While the Word of God contains all of the answers we ever need in our lives; finding those answers is sometimes tricky. Seeking confirmation from God is equally tricky sometimes. God is a personal God. He doesn't want you to simply read His Word and never be bothered with you again! He desires a relationship with you, as any father would want to have a relationship with their child. He spoke of this relational desire to the people of Israel:

I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. Leviticus 26: 11-12

We must not only accept and hide His Word. We must not only choose to listen to the things of God over this world and apply them to our daily lives. We must also have a prayer relationship with Him and cry out to Him for the knowledge that we seek. The usage of calling out and crying aloud indicates the passion with which we should be seeking this relationship. Our prayer life with God needs to be that passionate; crying aloud and calling out for the next step on the treasure map to His knowledge.

Verse four completes the map for us. It speaks to what we value. We must seek this knowledge as we would silver or hidden treasure. His Word and our relationship with God must be the most valuable thing to us. The world offers up treasures that rust and decay (Matthew 6:19). The treasures of God are eternal. Jesus spoke a parable specifically about a hidden treasure:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Matthew 13: 44

In the times Jesus lived in, valuables were often hidden in fields and then when the owner of the treasure passed away, so did the knowledge of that treasure. If someone happened to find it, they would need to own the field in order to own the treasure. Look at the sold-out nature of the person in this parable though. He went and in his joy, sold everything he owned just to possess that treasure. THAT is the zeal the Lord wants us to have as well.

Remember, the treasure is the knowledge of God. A God who sees everything and all time. It would mean always knowing the right choice to make. Knowing every decision you make will benefit you. It is a treasure of unspeakable value and it is available to all believers. We need to accept the entire Word of God as the inerrant truth that it is. We need to then store up that truth within us to help us through the trials and tribulations of life. We need to actively choose the things of God over the things of the world by turning our ear to His wisdom; not what the world offers. We need to then apply all that we know as truth into our lives turn away from the cliffs. We need to develop an intimate and passionate prayer life with God, crying out to Him for His knowledge. Lastly, we need to make this the most valuable thing in our life. It has to be more valuable than the silver and gold the world offers. We have to seek it as we would the treasures of this world and when we find it, we have to be willing to give up the treasures of this world for what God has to offer. His infinite and omniscient knowledge. Discover the treasure of God today.

Reverend Anthony Wade July 23, 2009