I. Wisdom is to be found. She does exist. Precious metals and choice stones are to be found. They have an existence, and they exist in regions which may be reached by the exercise of man’s intelligence and labour. Those who find them have to dig for them, to seek for them, to give time, and strength, and wealth to the search. So Wisdom, although she is within reach of man must be diligently sought after, must be drawn out (see [“Critical Notes”]) by painstaking diligence. 1. Wisdom is to be found in, and drawn out from affliction. The bee is said to suck honey from bitter herbs as well as from sweet flowers. The context to these words is closely connected with them, and declare him to be truly blessed who becomes by affliction a wiser and a better man. It is within the reach of intelligent faith in God thus to extract the honey of wisdom from the sorrow which to “the world worketh death” (2 Cor. vii. 10). 2. Wisdom is to be found by study of the Divine Word. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God—they are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. iii. 15–16). The record which God has given of His Son is a revelation of His highest wisdom. A crucified Christ is a manifestation of the wisdom of God, and by the study of Him as revealed in Holy Scripture, we may “draw out understanding” of how a man may be “just with God” (Job ix. 2), and how a justified man may become a perfect man. 3. Wisdom is to be found in the practice of Divine precepts. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John vii. 17). He shall know the reality, the power, of the wisdom which cometh down from above by personal and blessed experience. Understanding in these matters is “drawn out” by doing. 4. Wisdom is found by communion with God. Those who talk much with men who are their superiors in goodness and intelligence, and live on friendly terms with them, must become wiser and better through the intercourse. The stronger soul will mould the weaker. The man who holds converse with the highest and best Intelligence, with the Fountain of Wisdom, must draw understanding out of this Living Spring. 5. Wisdom for special needs, the understanding how to act in emergencies, is drawn out from God by the confession of our ignorance and the pleading of God’s promises. Solomon was himself an example of this. By special prayer, by obeying his own precept (verses 5–6), he obtained the gift of an understanding heart to judge the people (1 Kings iii. 5–12). II. Wisdom is beyond comparison with anything outside herself. She is better than wealth because she gives blessings which wealth cannot buy. 1. She gives real heart-satisfaction. Money will bring much ease and luxury to the bodily life, but mere material comfort cannot gladden the inner man or keep away old age and sickness. But Wisdom gives a joy which has its home in the heart, and which increases with the increase of years. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, because they are ways of holiness. Love, and joy, and peace, and all the graces which are the fruit of the Spirit of God are the very elements which in perfection constitute the blessedness of God Himself. They are the fruits which His servants pluck from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. ii. 7). To be holy is to be happy in the true, deep sense of the word. 2. She introduces to better society. Wealth will do much in this way. Gold is a passport to honour in the world generally, often to the Church in the world. But the holy character which is born of heavenly wisdom is the only possession which will open the doors of the “Church of the firstborn,” which will admit to the society of God, His angels, and His redeemed ones. This is the true honour. 3. Her gifts are for eternity. No matter how precious or how great the joy, the honour of earth passeth away (1 Cor. vii. 31). The gifts of Wisdom are for ever. The length of an eternity of days is in her hand.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 13. Never will this solid happiness be known without singleness of judgment and purpose. The inestimable blessing must have the throne. The waverer and half-seeker fall short. Determined perseverance wins the prize (Phil. iii. 12–14).—Bridges.
If God loves a son, He corrects him; and then, “O the blessedness of the man!” It actually makes us wise. Let us not forget the doctrine that affliction—as, indeed, everything—always benefits the Christian.—Miller.
The coherence between this verse and the one preceding it is not to be neglected. To persuade the more to patience under God’s afflicting hand, he tells us, it is one way to get wisdom and happiness. What though thou suffer chastisement, and that be bitter to thee! if thou get wisdom by it, thou art happy.—Francis Taylor.
Saving wisdom is to be “found” and “gotten.” It is not required that we create it. We could not plan, we could not execute, a way of righteous redemption for sinners. . . . This is God’s doing, and it is all done. All things are now ready. . . . But we are required to seek the salvation which has been provided and brought near. . . . Understanding is a thing to be gotten. It comes not in sparks from our own intellect in collision with other human minds. It is a light from heaven. Religion is not all and only an anxious, fearful seeking: it is a getting too, and a glad enjoying.—Arnot.
It was man who, by losing wisdom, became unhappy; and it is man who, by finding wisdom, or rather being found by the wisdom of God, is made happy again. It was man whose understanding was deceived by the subtle serpent: and it is man who, by getting understanding, deceiveth the serpent of his prey.—Jermin.
Verse 14. Here as in ii. 4, we have traces of the new commerce, the ships going to Ophir for gold, the sight of the bright treasures stimulating men’s minds to a new eagerness.—Plumptre.
Wisdom brings more profit than any worldly riches, because it brings better things than riches can. 1. It can quiet a man’s mind, which no wealth can do. Rich men have many cares—many griefs; crowns are crowns of thorns: nothing but wisdom can poise the soul in all tempests. 2. It affords a ladder to climb to eternal things, like Jacob’s ladder, that did reach from Bethel on earth, to Bethel (God’s house) in Heaven.—Francis Taylor.
One grain of grace is far beyond all the gold of Ophir, and one hour’s enjoyment of God to be much preferred before all the King of Spain’s annual entradas. “Let me be put to any pain, any loss, so I get my Jesus,” said Ignatius. What is all the pomp and glory of the world but dung? (Phil. iii. 7, 8). “I esteem them no better” (surely) “that I may win Christ,” said Paul, that great trader by land and sea. This gold we cannot buy too dear, whatever we pay for it. The wise merchant sells all to purchase it (Matt. xiii. 44, 46).—Trapp.