by Rose Murdock

"My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.  Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.  For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."  Proverbs 4:20-22

His words are life to those that find them and health (medicine) to all their flesh.  Life and health.  These words he’s talking about are the "instruction of a father (verse 1)."  God, who is our heavenly Father, gives us instruction through His Word.  And His Word is life and health.  But to whom does His Word bring life and health to?  To everyone?  No, only to ‘those that find them.’  Are they life and health to those who need life and health?  No, to those that find them.  So how do we find God’s Word?  What does it mean to find God’s Word?

To find something means that we come upon it.  We meet with it.  That would mean that it was something that we previously hadn’t come upon or met with.  The way we use the word ‘find’ can mean that we found something by accident or on purpose after searching for it.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."  Matthew 13:44

Here Jesus is talking about someone who finds a treasure by accident.  But when he does he recognizes the value of that treasure to the point of him hiding it again so no one else will find it and then selling all that he has in order to buy the field so the treasure is rightfully his.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."  Matthew 13:45-46

Here is a man who is seeking goodly pearls.  He is actively searching for something valuable, finds it, recognizes it and sells all that he has in order to have it.

In the one case we have someone who accidentally came across a treasure and in the other case we have a man who is looking for a treasure.  Both men find a treasure.  Both men recognize the value of the treasure and both of them sell all that they have in order to possess it.  Once they both find and recognize the value of the treasure they end up in the same place.  They both end up possessing the treasure.  But one was actively seeking for it and the other wasn’t.  The point is that people may come across the treasure in different ways.  In Jesus’ day there were the Jews who were (supposedly) actively looking for the Messiah and then there were the Gentiles who weren’t.  But whatever brought them both to the place of discovering the treasure and the value of it didn’t matter as much as what they did once they found it.  What do we do once we find God’s Word?

Let’s go back to Proverbs 4.  He gives us instructions on what to do with the Word of God once we’ve found it.

"My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.  Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart."

These words don’t describe what we should do in order to find God’s Word but what to do with them once we find them.  This scripture is not telling us how to discover the Word of God.  It’s telling us what to do once we have found the Word of God.  If we are to attend to His Words then that means we’ve already found them.  If we are to incline our ear to His sayings then that means the Word is available for us to hear.  If we are to keep them in front of our eyes and in the midst of our heart then that means we already have access to His Word.  His Word is not undiscovered by us!

The point is what will you do with His Words now that you have found them?  Do you recognize the value of them?  Will you sell all in order to have them?  Paul said in Philippians 3:8:

"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,"

Paul is saying that whatever he had gained he counted as loss except for (or compared to) the (intimate) knowledge of Christ Jesus.  Paul realized that nothing was as valuable as knowing Jesus.  Nothing came close in comparison.  He counted it all as dung compared to the Lord Jesus.  He had sold all in order to have Him.

How does Jesus Christ, the Word of God, compare to the other things in our life?  Where does He rate on our list of priorities?  We can tell by how much time we spend with Him.  Are we attending to His Words?  How much time do we spend reading and studying the Word of God?  How much time do we spend in prayer, praise and worship?  How much time do we spend doing what He says to do?

Notice back in Proverbs how it says to attend to His Words.  It says to incline our ears to His sayings.  It says not to let them depart from our eyes and to keep them in the midst of our heart.  That’s how we "sell all" in order to possess the treasure.  What are we attending to?  What’s going into our ears?  What’s in front of our eyes?  What’s in the center of our heart?

The Word of God is here and available for us.  Once we recognize the value of the Word and we do what it says here in Proverbs to do with the Word, then we have ‘sold all’ in order to possess the treasure.

What is the treasure?  The treasure is Him.  The treasure is having Him, knowing Him, being with Him.  And besides the treasure of knowing Him and all of the joy that comes from being with Him and experiencing His presence, His Word brings us life and health.

We’ve found the Word of God, now are we willing to sell all in order to possess Him?

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