Seek Wisdom (Proverbs 8:35–36)

For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, 36 but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”
– Proverbs 8:35–36

This verse gives us a picture of a wisdom personified. So it’s a wisdom speaking to us as we’re reading this and the Bible says, “forever finds me”. So wisdom speaking, “whoever finds me”, whoever finds wisdom finds life and obtains favor from the Lord but he who fails to find me injures himself. All who hate me love death.

Proverbs 8:35–36 Shows Us Where Life is Found

That picture here could not be clearer. When we find wisdom, when we seek wisdom, when we ask for wisdom, that’s equated in Proverbs 8:35 with finding the life. All of the abundance God has designed for our life is dependent on us having wisdom. The opposite of that would be foolishness and Proverbs 8:36 is saying whoever fails to find wisdom, whoever walks in foolishness injures himself and all who hate wisdom, who walk in foolishness, love death. So there’s a picture here. If we want life, then we seek wisdom. If we want death, then we seek foolishness and we ignore wisdom.

When we find wisdom, we find life.

Proverbs 8:35–36 Shows Us the Value of Wisdom

Then that phrase, whoever finds wisdom finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. What a beautiful phrase. Now this is not to be mistaken with this picture of trying to earn God’s favor. We know that any favor from God towards us is purely based on his grace and his mercy but that’s the beauty of this picture of wisdom. We have a God that is all wise and who has said, “if you have wisdom, you have life” and he has said, “ask of me and I will give it to you.”

This Verse Gives Us a Picture of Wisdom

This picture of wisdom saying, “find me.” It’s an invitation to experience God’s grace and in the process of finding wisdom and walking in wisdom, to experience, to enjoy the favor of God. To walk in the favor of God. What a powerful picture. So God we pray, we want this. We want wisdom. Help us. Give us wisdom today we pray in our lives, in our families, in our work, in the church. Lord help us to be wise. We seek you for wisdom. We ask you for wisdom and we praise you as the all-wise God who has promised to give us wisdom when we ask.

So we pray for wisdom and in the process of walking in wisdom, we pray that we would experience life as you’ve designed for us to experience. We pray that you would enjoy your favor as we walk in the wisdom you give and the gracious wisdom you pour out in our lives. We pray for that today. Please give us wisdom and in the process give us life and help us to walk in the favor of you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.