Blog - Proverbs 3:2

If you like this blog, then you will like Get Wisdom, Get Understanding which is Pastor Wagner's commentary series on the book of Proverbs which is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle. Find out more here. For all the blogs in this series, click here: Proverbs Commentary. Proverbs 3:2 "For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee." (Pro 3:2)

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Many people today spend much money, time, and energy in a mostly futile effort to lengthen their lives. Special diets, exercise, and expensive supplements are pursued with religious fervor in hopes of getting to spend a few more years on this sin-cursed earth. Worldly men look to advances in science, modern medicine, and even transhumanism as their savior that they hope will stave off death for decades, centuries, or possibly forever. On the other side of the aisle, some religious folks today look to "natural" methods to prolong their lives, endlessly chasing one guru after another who claims to have just what God ordered to make us live at least twenty years longer than His book says that we will.

Psa 90:10 - The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

The key to long life is not found at the Mayo Clinic, the local drug store, or even in one's own garden, but rather in remembering God's law and keeping His commandments (Pro 3:1). If a man would put down the prescription drugs, 3D organ printers, organic food, vitamins, homeopathic potions, and essential oils, and instead pick up his Bible and read it everyday, remember what he reads, and put it into practice in his life, he would stand a much better chance of making it to the ripe old age of eighty. Could some of the above-mentioned things extend one's life? Possibly. Will taking God's prescription for longevity be more effective? Absolutely.

Pro 3:7-8 - Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Pro 4:10 - Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
Pro 9:10-11 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 11 For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.
Pro 10:27 - The fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

The reasons that remembering and doing the word of God result in the lengthening of life are at least threefold. First, the Almighty, who declares that "them that honour me will I honour" (1Sa 2:30), will bless the God-fearing man with a protracted life simply because life is a blessing which is far more desirable than death or suffering. Secondly, God will extend the life of His pious saints in order for them to show "[his] strength unto this generation, and [his] power to every one that is to come" (Psa 71:18). Thirdly, a long and healthy life is a tangential effect of keeping God's commandments, for the man that does so avoids sins which have life-shortening results such as fornication and sodomy (STDs), drunkenness (liver disease, drunk driving), and brawling. Not only will reading, retaining, and practicing the precepts of the word of God increase the length of a Christian's life, but it will also increase the quality of it. Along with length of days and long life, peace shall also be added to the doer of the word. Remembering God's law is equivalent to keeping one's mind fixed on Him, and the man who does so will be kept in perfect peace.

Isa 26:3 - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

The Biblical definition of righteousness is keeping God's commandments. It was said of Zechariah and Elisabeth, John the Baptist's parents, that they were "both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless" (Luk 1:6). "Righteousness and peace" are so closely bound together that they are said to "have kissed each other" (Psa 85:10). Thus, keeping God's commandments, which is righteousness, brings the peaceful life that God has promised, for "the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever" (Isa 32:17). As the scripture says, "mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace" (Psa 37:37).

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