Lesson 3 | Ask Questions
What’s at Stake: Insight
Gain:
Rich understanding and keen insight
Proverbs 2:1–5 calls us to an eager pursuit of wisdom and understanding. Such a pursuit requires both a heart posture (v. 2) and an earnest engagement (vv. 3–4). Insight does not simply fall onto our laps. We must call out for it, even raise our voice, “Oh Lord, help me understand!” When we approach the Scriptures with a relentless curiosity, like a never-give-up quest for hidden treasure, God will not be stingy. He assures that we will gain a rich understanding and keen insight. Such curiosity comes in the form of asking many questions (what we might call a godly inquisitivitis).
Have you ever noticed in the Gospels just how much Jesus frames his teaching so as to elicit questions from his listeners, especially his disciples? He wants them to ask questions, to chase after wisdom and insight. And they do ...
Let us too call out for insight and raise our voices for understanding. Let us ramp our curiosity so as to ask and ask and ask.
Loss:
Being captivated by evil
Proverbs 2 goes on to lay out the many benefits of gaining wisdom and, by implication, the dangers inherent in failing to do so.
Without wisdom from above we stand at risk of falling prey to every manner of deceit, in which evil ways are made to look good and desirable (see also James 3:13–18).
The apostle Paul warns Timothy of men who, in failing to seek genuine understanding, swerved away from love and truth into empty, fruitless ignorance. They are even ignorant of their ignorance!