October 8

Oct 8 - Today from Proverbs 8 we look at verse 18
"With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity."

The subject of this verse is wisdom - personified and speaking in the first person. The key word in this verse, in my opinion, is the word enduring. One needs some wisdom just to properly interpret this verse. If the focus were to be riches and wealth, it could tend to pervert the motive of the disciple in a pursuit of wisdom.
Let's take a Biblical look at endurance, and apply it to spiritual values.
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Jesus, Matt. 24:35).
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor. 4:18)
". . . now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater value than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine, and may result in praise glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:6, 7).
It doesn't take a lot of commentary to develop a proper set of values by meditating on these passages. One of the greatest indicators of value is endurance. The riches of this world have an expiration date - even gold refined by fire will perish. They will not endure. When we set our hope on perishable things, we will perish with them. "Yeah, but at least in the meantime I am going to enjoy my perishable things." (sic) There is no wisdom in such a statement. A soap bubble can be as beautiful as a diamond, but who of us would trade a diamond for a soap bubble? People are doing it every day.
What enduring wealth and prosperity does wisdom then offer? Jesus reveals one - His words. They are alive and active, and hold the power of salvation and deliverance. Peter reveals that our faith endures. Our faith can see us through the most difficult of trials, and rather than diminish, it grows even stronger. Paul adds two more to faith in 1 Corinthians 13:13; "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." Agape love. It is much different than the temporary love the world plays with. Agape love is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person. That is how God loves me. That is how He loves you. That is how Jesus has called us to love one another. When one is the recipient of such enduring love, all the riches of this world pale in its significance.
Growing in wisdom is growing in our understanding of God's purposes. As we grow in our understanding, we accumulate and distribute the enduring riches of His word, of our faith, and above all, of His love. Everything else is going to perish.