Proverbs 2:4 (Mini Sermon)

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1.      Pro 2:4 – “If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;”

1. The third and final condition necessary to find the knowledge of God (Pro 2:5-6) is also comprised of two elements: seeking and searching (Pro 2:4).
2. We must first ask (Pro 2:3), and then seek, before finding the knowledge of God (Mat 7:7-8).
3. If thou seekest her.
   1. Asking is necessary, but not sufficient, for finding God’s knowledge and wisdom.
   2. We must prove that our desire for the truth is genuine by seeking

• Seek v. – 1. a. To go in search or quest of; to try to find, look for (either a particular object—person, thing, or place—whose whereabouts are unknown, or an indefinite object suitable for a particular purpose).
  1. Asking involves desire, but seeking requires effort.
  2. Asking is relatively easy, but seeking is difficult.
  3. Because of apathy, few men ask for knowledge and wisdom.
  4. Because of laziness, even fewer yet will seek for it.

1. The fact that the knowledge of God must be sought for implies that God conceals it from men in general.
2. He does so by hiding it in plain sight: for wisdom cries from every corner of life (Pro 1:20-21; Pro 8:1-3).

1. If thou seekest her as silver.
   1. Here we see the intensity that understanding, knowledge, and wisdom are to be sought after.
   2. Mining for gold and silver is not for the slothful, but for the industrious.
      1. For millennia men have compassed land and sea, enduring hardship and deprivation, with the hopes of finding precious metals.
      2. They often forsook family and career for the chance of finding a fortune they deemed worth it.
      3. Rarely is silver found lying on the surface of the earth, but is nearly always discovered buried deep within it, requiring extreme effort and risk to extract it.
      4. As it is for him who seeks silver, so it is for the man that seeks the knowledge of God: it will cost him dearly, sometimes including even his family, friends, time, reputation, career, and lifestyle.
      5. The knowledge and wisdom of God are far more valuable than gold or silver, and are therefore worth exerting more time and effort to find and acquire than them (Pro 3:13-15; Pro 8:10-11, 19; Pro 16:16).

• While the act of seeking is difficult, finding the place to search is not.
  1. We must look no further than the word of God (Pro 2:6).
  2. We must “search the scriptures” (Joh 5:39; Act 17:11).
  3. God’s law (where His knowledge is found) is more precious than gold and silver (Psa 19:7-10; Psa 119:72, 127).

1. And searchest for her as for hid treasures.
   1. If a Christian is to find the knowledge of God, it will be by searching for it with the same ambition as he would when looking for a sunken ship full of precious cargo or treasures that ancestors had buried on the family farm.
   2. To find material treasures, a man might have difficulty ascertaining where to begin looking.

• But to find true treasure, he only need look as far as Jesus Christ, “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3).

1. To know the truth of God, we must read and study the word of God (Joh 8:31-32).
2. By doing so, we can lay up “treasures in heaven” (Mat 6:20).
3. Finding the treasure of the knowledge of God is worth selling all that a man has to buy them (Mat 13:44-46).

It is worth giving up whatever one has to obtain that treasure (Mar 10:28-30).