Biblical Sense for a sensless world

Proverbs 2

Proverbs 2:1–22 HCSB

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity so that He may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His loyal followers. Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity—every good path. For wisdom will enter your mind, and knowledge will delight your heart. Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, rescuing you from the way of evil— from the one who says perverse things, from those who abandon the right paths to walk in ways of darkness, from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion, whose paths are crooked, and whose ways are devious. It will rescue you from a forbidden woman, from a stranger with her flattering talk, who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death and her ways to the land of the departed spirits. None return who go to her; none reach the paths of life. So follow the way of good people, and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land, and those of integrity will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous uprooted from it.

Formula

If you, then I, Delivered, Walk

Worldly Senses (2:2-4)

Simple/Ignorant/Prisoner/Institutional

No Storing - No longer meditating, no memorization

No Listening - Hearing, but no longer pondering, thinking upon the sentence as a whole. Mostly focuses on “one word.”

No Direction - Consistently does not answer the question of “why”, when answered very seldom contains an accurate historical, big picture understanding, or “how” the action, thought, idea, or belief brings closure or finalization

Absent-Minded/Arrogant/Vacational/Lazy

No Calling - Opinionated, little to no evidence of gifts, fruits, or talents in or for the position being filled.

No Seeking - Have already arrived to destination, relaxing, being served/sought after

No Searching - Have already arrived at a conclusion, no working

No Discovering - Truth/Reality

Transitional Sense (2:5-10)

A gift from Yahweh that contains both knowledge and understanding

The form of communication was/is through oral and written methods

Failure-Success; Dishonest-Integrity; Injustice-Justice; Etc.

Godly Sense (2:11-22)

Resourceful -

■ adjective having the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties. (Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Protective - pro•tect \prə-ˈtekt\ verb

[Middle English, from Latin protectus, past participle of protegere, from pro- in front + tegere to cover—more at PRO-, THATCH] verb transitive 15th century

1 a: to cover or shield from exposure, injury, damage, or destruction: GUARD

b: DEFEND 1c 〈protect the goal〉

2: to maintain the status or integrity of especially through financial or legal guarantees: as

a: to save from contingent financial loss

b: to foster or shield from infringement or restriction 〈salesmen with protected territories〉 〈protect one’s rights〉 specifically: to restrict competition for (as domestic industries) by means of tariffs or trade controls

3: DEFEND 5 〈protect a lead〉 verb intransitive: to provide a guard or shield

(Inc Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).

Rescues - ■ verb (rescues, rescuing, rescued) save from a dangerous or distressing situation.

■ noun an act of rescuing or being rescued. (Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

From the way of evil (List of evil things)

Persuasive/Perverted speech

Leave good deeds/works

Walk in ways of darkness

Enjoy and celebrate the pleasures and “the good things” of this world/life

Crooked - Those who are crooks (someone or something that is not straight)

Forbidden Woman (A woman who is already married/engaged)

She abandons the roles of a wife

She forgets her position/vows/covenant (Mother)

She is deadly (loss of a child’s heritage, uncertain future)

Communion