More Precious than Rubies

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Jan 21, 2016 1660

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour (Proverbs 3:13-16).

Solomon here personifies wisdom as a feminine representation of the Lord. He tells his readers that if they find wisdom, everything of lasting value will be theirs.

In Solomon’s day there were no banks, so when a country was engulfed by war its citizens put their valuables in a clay pot and buried it in a field, hoping one day to return and recover their treasure. Most never did. Much later, when the land was at peace, a farmer would sometimes unearth the pot when he was ploughing the ground (Matt. 13:44). If he owned the field then the pot of treasure belonged to him. But while he got silver and gold, that was all he got. He could invest it foolishly and lose the lot the very next week. Solomon reminds us, however, that if we have wisdom and knowledge we will have something much more precious than silver, gold and rubies.

When Jesus told the parable of the hired servant who discovered buried treasure (Matt. 13:44), Jesus likened that treasure to his discovery of God’s kingdom. In order to receive such a great treasure he had to let go of everything that prevented him from doing so. That was true wisdom then, and it still is today.