Wisdom-Greater than Gold

​For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. Pro 8:11
​How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! Pro 16:16
“BETTER THAN GOLD”

The first warning uttered by this wisdom from above is the repetition of a former word. The repetition is not vain. Another stroke so soon on the same place indicates that he who strikes feels a peculiar hardness there. The love of money is a root of evil against which the Bible mercifully deals many a blow. There lies one of our deepest sores. Thanks be to God for touching it with “line upon line” of His healing Word.… A ship bearing a hundred emigrants has been driven from her course and wrecked on a desert island, far from the tracks of men. The passengers get safe ashore with all their stores. There is no way of escape, but there are means of subsistence. An ocean unvisited by ordinary voyagers circles round their prison, but they have seed, with a rich soil to receive, and a genial climate to ripen it. Ere any plan has been laid, or any operation begun, an exploring party returns to head quarters reporting the discovery of a gold mine. Thither instantly the whole company resort to dig. They acquire and accumulate heaps of gold. The people are quickly becoming rich. But the spring is past, and not a field has been cleared, not a grain of seed has been committed to the ground. The summer comes, and their wealth increases, but the store of food is small. In harvest they begin to discover that their stores of gold are worthless. A cart-load of it cannot satisfy a hungry child. When famine stares them in the face a suspicion shoots across their fainting hearts that their gold has cheated them. They loathe the bright betrayer. They rush to the woods, fell the trees, till the ground, and sow the seed. Alas! it is too late! Winter has come, and their seed rots in the soil. They die of want in the midst of their treasures. This earth is a little isle—eternity the ocean round it. On this shore we have been cast, like shipwrecked sailors. There is a living seed; there is an auspicious spring time; the sower may eat and live. But gold mines attract us; we spend our spring there—our summer there: winter overtakes us toiling there, with heaps of hoarded dust, but destitute of the bread of life.—(Arnot)

Wisdom-The Fountain of True Riches

Better than gold! But gold is good, very good, and he who would put forward with success the far higher worth of wisdom had better not begin his argument by putting too low an estimate on gold. Gold is full of service; has in it wondrous potencies for smoothing life-travel, lightening burdens, cheering the poor, helping the needy, and glorifying God. Yet before all its power and glitter and glory I stand up and say, "How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!"
II. Both Solomon and Paul call Christ the Savior by the name of Wisdom. Solomon also calls the Scriptures wisdom, and they who make piety their chief concern he calls wise. To know Christ, then, in the heart as a Savior, in the mind as a Teacher, in the life as a Pattern, and in all things as a King—this is wisdom. It is the fear of the Lord, the love of His law, faith in His Cross, the power of His Spirit, the hope in His Word. This is better than gold.
III. Gold can be but an external possession, a mere accessory of life. Wisdom is a well, a fountain, in the Christian’s soul. It is fed by secret channels direct from the river of life, clear as crystal, which proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The joy of the Lord is his strength, the strength of the Lord is his joy; and, filled from that perennial Fount of good, he lives, thrives, rejoices, utterly independent of the lack of gold. (J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 16)
​
Cross reference: Mat 16:26  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?