8:1-36
Here wisdom is again personified. It is something beautiful ... to aspire to. And the good news is that all you have to do to get wisdom is eagerly desire it.
Wisdom is truth, exists alongside prudence and contains knowledge and discretion. Wisdom hates pride and arrogance, evil behaviour and perverse speech. Wisdom follows the way of righteousness and justice.
God brought wisdom forth as His first work and Wisdom is described as being from the beginning. It is suggested Wisdom is an attribute of Jesus and signifies Jesus, preparing the people for the concept of the Messiah and how He would fit in with God.
If you look at verses 32 to 36 you will see the same instructions Jesus gives:

• Blessed are those who keep my ways.
• Listen to my instruction.
• You are blessed if you listen to me and wait on me.
• If you find me you find life and receive favour from God.
• If you fail to find me you harm yourself and love death if you hate me.

Worldly wisdom is not how we know God.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Paul writes of the message of the cross being foolishness to the worldly and to those who follow Jesus it is the power of God.
The wisdom of the world is foolish. It is not possible to know God through the wisdom of the world. Only through Jesus, the power and wisdom of God can we know God. The true wisdom of God is greater than earthly wisdom. Even the foolishness of God is greater than earthly wisdom. We acquire Godly wisdom when God calls us, and God calls the lowly so we may not boast or our own wisdom.
Because God chose us we are in Christ Jesus. He has become for us wisdom from God. If we look at Proverbs 8 that means He is our:

• Righteousness
• Holiness
• Redemption

Look back over the instructions of verses 32 to 36 and read Jesus in place of ‘my’.

This is true wisdom. This is Jesus.

Seek Him and you will find Him.

Seek Him and you will also receive Godly wisdom.

Seek Him and you will find life.

7:1-27
“… keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live …” v1-2 NIV.
“say to skilful and Godly Wisdom, You are my sister, and regard understanding or insight as your intimate friend” v4 Amplified Bible.
This chapter again speaks of the need to maintain a deep intimacy and knowledge of God. To seek out and utilise Godly wisdom in your life. It is only when armed with a deep knowledge of God, the commitment to follow and obey, that you can resist the temptations of life and follow Jesus effectively on that narrow path.
Again this chapter speaks of adultery. The verses detail a young man, without any understanding of Godly wisdom, who seeks out a bored woman whose husband is away so he can have sex with her. She is equally willing to have sex with him.
In the original Hebrew “adulteress … wayward wife” of v5 means ‘stranger’ and ‘foreigner’. It means anyone other than your own spouse is off limits, like a foreigner who worships another god. This applies to all people. One thing to be wary about with these verses is interpreting them as saying women lead men astray. The language in this chapter downplays the fact the young man was seeking out a woman to have sex with. But it does not provide a justification for such behaviour. Both men and women will lead others astray, or even lead each other astray. To misinterpret these verses is dangerous. It can lead to beliefs that women are always to blame for the actions of men and is a twin to the belief that women who are raped dressed or behaved seductively.
Godly wisdom is an intimate partner to respect. The wise respect others and treat them respectfully. To force yourself on another person is disrespectful. There is never any justification for disrespectful and or violent behaviour.
 

6:20-35
If this was to have a title it would be “Some very practical advice on the perils of adultery.”
v27 “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” NIV
It is tempting for some to cheat on their spouse.
“It won’t hurt”
“Who will ever know?”
“My needs are not being met by my spouse”
But the person who commits adultery is playing with fire. Or as v27 says – scooping it into their lap.
Adultery affects so many people. It is not just an act between the two people involved in the relationship. It affects each of their spouses, their children, their relatives and friends. Marriages have been destroyed by adultery. Families have been split. Children’s lives have been upended. Relatives and friends have had to endure the turmoil and often have to choose between the two friends or lose contact with children who mattered to them. Murders have been committed because of adultery. Even if the couple try to mend their relationship there is hurt and destroyed trust.
There are always repercussions. What can seem casual and unimportant can take on massive proportions very easily.
The wisdom here is that adultery has consequences so think before acting and walk away. It doesn’t talk about moralistic reasons, just practical, common-sense ones.
Every action is like a stone thrown into a pond. The ripples travel far out across the pond. The seemingly unimportant lapse in judgement has effects that reach further than we realise.
 

I have a poster on my wall that I look at often to remind myself how important it is to trust God and surrender to Him. It says:
“True rest always involves surrendering to God.”
Do you trust Jesus enough to look in his eyes and not look down to check where your feet are?
Are you unable to totally surrender to God, keeping one hand surreptitiously clasped on something firm because you do not quite believe God will not let you fall? Are you missing out on the peace that comes from total faith in God because you will not surrender all to God?
How hard is it to surrender?
Remember the joke about the man who falls over the cliff and finds himself catching hold of a small tree that will not hold his weight for long, so he knows he must get help soon.
He calls and no one answers.
Then he hears God calling to him.
“I will help you. Will you trust me?”
“Yes Lord.”
“Then let go of the branch.”
“…. Is anyone else there?”
We all laugh at it, but it carries a vital truth. Trust involves letting go, even when we think it is the ‘wrong’ thing to do. You know that wrong thing. The choice that worldly wisdom says is sheer madness. But God’s wisdom is not madness. It makes perfect sense to God. We can only see imperfectly, not in the way God can see. That is why earthly wisdom is the mad choice. God knows the way we should go. Sometimes letting go of that branch will lead to a fall to our deaths and sometimes it will lead to a miraculous intervention. Worldly wisdom tells us a defeat is a failure and a bad thing. But sometimes failure is the way forward with God. Those who planned Jesus’ death on the cross would have said that Jesus’ death was Him failing. But we know His death was a victory. It didn’t seem that way at first, but in the long term, when Jesus had risen from the dead and then the Holy Spirit was sent to the disciples, it was obvious it was a victory.
We fall for earthly wisdom and do not do what God requires of us because it seems the wrong decision to us. And because we do not listen to God we never experience true rest. In the covenant God drew up with the people of Israel, He told them they must follow him or they would not know true rest in the Promised Land. True rest always involves surrendering to God. Surrendering to God is something the Israelites did not do. Surrendering to God is something we do not do.
In our walk down that narrow path, following Jesus, every step requires surrender to God. Life will bring unpleasantness and terrible discomfort. But these things are transient. True rest is for life, eternal life.
 

6:12-19
This is an interesting little interlude about the person who is more than a fool and lazy. This person is deceitful. Such a person seeks to deceive others and slander them. It leads directly into the six things God hates and the seven that are detestable to Him. There is pride, lying, the one who kills the innocent, the one whose thoughts are of the planning of evil, the one who is quick to perform evil acts, the one who bears false witness and the one who stirs us trouble amongst people. For these people, God’s judgement will be on those people.
It is interesting that there is such emphasis in the Bible on the damage done to a person by the slander and evil schemes of others. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus describes the act of slandering another as a worse sin than murder (Matthew 5:21-26).
I am sure many of you reading this have suffered at the hands of the malicious lies and gossip spread by others. And it is quite likely those people have been Christians. It is sad how easily people allow their human inadequacies to overcome obedience to God and seek to tear others down through the murder of their good name and reputation. If that has happened to you and the pain is still raw take heart. Here God makes it clear, that person will be judged for what they have done. Such a crime does not go unpunished.