Proverbs 2:4–5 (ESV) … “if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”
Mining for silver and finding hidden treasure both call for determined resolve. When I was a boy some of my favorite stories were about looking for hidden treasure. I remember how young Jim Hawkins found the map of Treasure Island in a dead buccaneer’s old sea chest. Squire Trelawney fitted out a ship and the Hispaniola set sail to find the treasure. Dr. Livesey was the ship’s surgeon; Long John Silver was the cook. Smuggled aboard as crew was a ruthless band of cutthroats, the survivors of old Flint’s pirate ship. One and all—the squire, Long John Silver, and the pirates—were motivated by one resolve: to find hidden treasure.
As soon as the ship dropped anchor near Treasure Island, the crew mutinied. War broke out between the pirates and the other treasure seekers. After various adventures, Jim was captured by the pirates. To his astonishment he discovered that the squire had given the all-important map to Long John. The climax to the story occurs in the treasure hunt. The one-legged Long John Silver urges his companions on to the site where they only find a hole in the ground. The treasure is gone. The sole reward for all their murders and villainies is one golden guinea! Poor Ben Gunn, a former pirate who had been marooned on the island years before, had found and concealed the treasure.
Our search for wisdom must be just as resolute as the search for gold in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. People wear themselves out to unearth worldly treasure, which they often squander. We should give ourselves unstintingly to the quest for eternal treasure, the wisdom that can only be found in the Word of God. [1]
[1] Phillips, J. (2009). Exploring Proverbs 1–19: An Expository Commentary (Vol. 1, Pr 2:1–4). Kregel Publications; WORDsearch Corp.