The Berean Pursuit
These are the proverbs of Solomon son of David,
king of Israel,
for gaining wisdom and discipline,
for comprehending words of insight,
and for receiving instruction in wise living
and in righteousness, justice, and equity.
To impart prudence to the simple
and knowledge and discretion to the young,
let the wise listen and gain instruction,
and the discerning acquire wise counsel
by understanding the proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Listen, my son, to your father's instruction,
and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.
For they are a garland of grace on your head
and a pendant around your neck.
My son, if sinners entice you,
do not yield to them.
If they say, "Come along, let us lie in wait for blood,
let us ambush the innocent without cause,
let us swallow them alive like Sheol,
and whole like those descending into the Pit.
We will find all manner of precious goods;
we will fill our houses with plunder.
Throw in your lot with us;
let us all share one purse"-
my son, do not walk the road with them
or set foot upon their path.
For their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed blood.
How futile it is to spread the net
where any bird can see it!
But they lie in wait for their own blood;
they ambush their own lives.
Such is the fate of all who are greedy,
whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors.
Wisdom calls out in the street,
she lifts her voice in the square;
in the main concourse she cries aloud,
at the city gates she makes her speech:
"How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways?
How long will scoffers delight in their scorn
and fools hate knowledge?
If you had repented at my rebuke,
then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you;
I would have made my words known to you.
Because you refused my call,
and no one took my outstretched hand,
because you neglected all my counsel,
and wanted none of my correction,
in turn I will mock your calamity;
I will sneer when terror strikes you,
when your dread comes like a storm,
and your destruction like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish overwhelm you.
Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
For they hated knowledge
and chose not to fear the LORD.
They accepted none of my counsel;
they despised all my reproof.
So they will eat the fruit of their own way,
and be filled with their own devices.
For the waywardness of the simple will slay them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them.
But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety,
secure from the fear of evil."
My son, if you accept my words
and hide my commandments within you,
if you incline your ear to wisdom
and direct your heart to understanding,
if you truly call out to insight
and lift your voice to understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search it out like hidden treasure,
then you will discern 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 sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,
to guard the paths of justice
and protect the way of His saints.
Then you will discern righteousness
and justice and equity-every good path.
For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will delight your soul.
Discretion will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you,
to deliver you from the way of evil,
from the man who speaks perversity,
from those who leave the straight paths
to walk in the ways of darkness,
from those who enjoy doing evil
and rejoice in the twistedness of evil,
whose paths are crooked
and whose ways are devious.
It will rescue you from the forbidden woman,
from the stranger with seductive words
who abandons the partner of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God.
For her house sinks down to death,
and her tracks to the departed spirits.
None who go to her return
or negotiate the paths of life.
So you will follow in the ways of the good,
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
For the upright will inhabit the land,
and the blameless will remain in it;
but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the unfaithful will be uprooted.
Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case
against an ungodly nation;
deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.
For You are the God of my refuge.
Why have You rejected me?
Why must I walk in sorrow
because of the enemy's oppression?
Send out Your light and Your truth;
let them lead me.
Let them bring me to Your holy mountain,
and to the place where You dwell.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my greatest joy.
I will praise You with the harp,
O God, my God.
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why the unease within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.
I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.
It is not as though God's word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are Abraham's descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, "Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned." So it is not the children of the flesh who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. For this is what the promise stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."
Not only that, but Rebecca's children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's plan of election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, "The older will serve the younger." So it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! For He says to Moses:
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
So then, it does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
One of you will say to me, "Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, "Why did You make me like this?" Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory- including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles? As He says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'My People' who are not My people,
and I will call her 'My Beloved' who is not My beloved,"
and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not My people,'
they will be called
'sons of the living God.'?"
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
"Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth
thoroughly and decisively."
It is just as Isaiah foretold:
"Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have resembled Gomorrah."
What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written:
"See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense;
and the one who believes in Him
will never be put to shame."