Proverbs 2:4: Bibles are expensive!

“if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,”
-Proverbs 2:4

What is this Book worth to you?

It’s funny, because I was recently out shopping for Bibles, and the cost of some of them surprised me. I found that I really couldn’t afford the ones I wanted. You know, the nice ones with all the footnotes and cross-references. I did, in fact, buy one of these for my wife, but I do have an older study Bible, so I passed on one for myself.

I’m the type who wants to topical Bible, the commentaries, the different translations, et cetera. But I get them more slowly than I would like, because they are very expensive.

But that’s my reaction to a book, not The Book.

Let me explain. Perhaps I can’t afford the new leather-bound study Bible with full color maps right now. But that is a book. I have plenty of copies of the Bible, which is The Book. The particular binding or paper is not the important part; it’s the message. That, to me, is worth any price I could pay and more.

Solomon tells us we should seek God’s Word like silver and treasure. He’s not the only one to make this comparison. Psalm 19:9 tells us this of God’s teachings: “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” Jesus also compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure someone finds in a field, and that person sells all he has to buy the field so he can have the treasure (Matthew 13:44).

See, nothing in this world is sought by people like money. For money, we would sell out anyone or anything. And Solomon, the richest man in the world at his time, perhaps the richest ever, tells us, “Yeah, seek the Word with that intensity, that hunger, and that desire. You see what money means to all those people out there? Make sure God means that much to you.”

Why? Why should this Book be so important to us? Because it tells us how to gain life. In all our sins, like greed, we deserve death, but the Son of God, Jesus, came down from Heaven to take our place in death. By repenting and believing in Him, we can have eternal life. We can live, even though we die. If we follow Him, then we will not find the death we have earned, but the life that He has earned.

How do I know that? Because the Bible is about Him. That’s why it’s called “The Good Book.” Eternal life is something worth seeking after with that intensity. It is worth any price.

The great thing is this: you don’t have to drop a huge amount of money to get it. Oh, it’s worth it, but the Bible is available for free online at places like Bible Gateway. Many churches will give you a copy if you don’t have one. I recommend starting in the Gospel of John. Read it a couple of times, and you will have a good idea of who Jesus is.

I know what you are thinking. You’re too busy for all of that, right? Work’s been rough, and you have to put in some extra hours, and then there’s so much to do at home. There’s just no time to read John!

Do not fall for the lie that work or even home life is more important than this. Seek God as though your life depends on it. Because it does.