“I’ve got some good news and some bad news” a series of jokes begin. The not so funny second chapter of Proverbs starts out by encouraging the quest for wisdom from the good side (what God’s wisdom could produce in our lives.) Then, a little later in this chapter, we find what might happen to those who avoid or ignore the wisdom of the Lord (and this focuses on the bad side of life.)

It (God’s wisdom) will save you from the way of evil,
from those who speak perversely,
who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil;
those whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.

You will be saved from the loose woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
who forsakes the partner of her youth
and forgets her sacred covenant;
for her way leads down to death,
and her paths to the shades;
those who go to her never come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.

Therefore walk in the way of the good,
and keep to the paths of the just.
For the upright will abide in the land,
and the innocent will remain in it;
but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Proverbs 2:12-22

If those are the options, I choose wisdom and the way of the good.

Prayer

Dear God, guide me down the path that Jesus walked, so that I can find joy in the life that You have chosen for those who trust in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.