How Counsel Turns Into Visible, Fruitful Life

• Day 3 of creation: Flourishment, New Life

• The menorah lamp of the righteous: Counsel

• The menorah lamp of the wicked: hands that shed innocent blood

• The 3rd feast of the Lord: the Feast of First Fruits

Because today is Shevat 2, on the Hebrew calendar, we will read Proverbs 2

Proverbs 2:1–5 and the 3rd Day: When Counsel Becomes First Fruits.

When Proverbs chapter 2 opens, a father leans in and speaks to his son:

“My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding …then you will understand the fear (reverential awe) of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.” (Prov 2:1–5)

These verses are more than a call to good behavior. They sketch a whole inner creation story. When read through the lens of Shevat 2, Day 3 of Creation (Flourishment, New Life), the menorah lamp of Counsel, the lamp of the wicked (hands that shed innocent blood), and the Feast of First Fruits (Yom HaBikkurim), Proverbs 2:1–5 becomes a blueprint for how counsel turns into visible, fruitful life.

Day 3: When Dry Ground Appears

On the 3rd day of Creation, God gathers the waters so that dry land can appear. Then He commands the earth to “sprout” with vegetation, seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees. What had been hidden beneath chaotic waters suddenly becomes visible, structured, and fruitful.

Proverbs 2:1–5 mirrors that pattern inside the human heart. The “waters” of noise, distraction, and competing voices are gathered back by a series of “ifs”:

• If you receive My words.

• If you treasure My commands.

• If you tune your ear to wisdom.

• If you incline your heart to understanding.

• If you cry out and search as for hidden treasure.

These actions are like God’s gathering of the waters. They clear space so that dry ground can emerge in the inner life—a place where something solid can grow. Out of that ground, a different kind of vegetation appears: the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. The soil of the heart starts to sustain a new ecosystem.

Day 3 is the day when the world becomes habitable for life. Proverbs 2:1–5 is the day when the heart becomes habitable for wisdom.

The Menorah Lamp of Counsel

In the menorah framework, this section of Proverbs shines especially through the lamp of Counsel. Counsel is more than advice; it is a guiding light that helps a person navigate the terrain of life.

Notice how relational Proverbs 2:1–5 is:

• A father speaks: “My son…”

• Words are “received” and “treasured,” not merely studied.

• The ear is tuned, the heart leans, the mouth cries out, the will chooses to seek.

This is what the menorah lamp of Counsel looks like in motion. Counsel is not passive information; it is a living voice invited into the deepest places. When that happens, there is a promise:

“Then you will understand the fear of the LORDand find the knowledge of God.”

The reverential awe of the Lord and the knowledge of God are the fruit hanging on the branches of Counsel. This is wisdom made practical—guidance that preserves, directs, and protects (which the rest of Proverbs 2 goes on to describe).

The Menorah Lamp of the Wicked: Hands That Shed Innocent Blood

Every lamp has its dark inverse. The lamp of the wicked for this station is “hands that shed innocent blood.” If Counsel leads to preservation of life, the rejection of Counsel leads to the destruction of life.

When the father’s words are refused, when the ear stays closed and the heart remains stiff, the inner landscape never reaches Day 3. The waters remain chaotic. There is no solid ground, no rootedness, no fruit-bearing trees of righteousness. In such an environment, it becomes easy for hands to act violently, because nothing inside has been ordered toward the preservation and protection of life.

Hands that shed innocent blood are the outward manifestation of an inner world where Counsel was resisted. No AWE (fear) of the Lord, no knowledge of God, no internal “land” on which justice and mercy can grow.

Proverbs is brutally honest about this: the path of wisdom preserves from evil men “whose paths are crooked,” and from those who delight in doing wrong. Without Counsel, the lamp of the wicked burns with a deadly flame.

Shevat 2 and Yom HaBikkurim: First Fruits of Wisdom

Shevat is a month associated with emerging life—trees drawing on winter rains, sap beginning to rise, and hidden potential pushing toward visibility. If Day 3 is about land and plants, Shevat is about the first signs that the land is ready to bear.

Yom HaBikkurim, the Feast of First Fruits, fits perfectly here. On that day, Israel brought the earliest ripened sheaf to the Lord. It was not the full harvest; it was the first, the earliest evidence that the season of fruitfulness had truly begun. The first fruits were a declaration: “Everything that follows belongs to You.”

Proverbs 2:1–5 describes the first fruits of wisdom. Before there is a mature, full harvest of righteous living, there is an early offering:

• The first attention—“my son, if you receive my words.”

• The first affection—“treasure my commandments.”

• The first pursuit—“seek her as silver, search as for hidden treasure.”

These are the bikkurim of the heart. When they are offered to God, He answers with His own first fruits: the awe of the Lord and the knowledge of God. These are not the end of the journey, but they are the first ripe evidence that true wisdom has taken root.

In this light, Shevat 2 becomes an invitation to examine what “first” is being brought before God each day. Are the first energies of thought and desire going to His words, or to the noise of the age? Yom HaBikkurim is not merely an agricultural appointment; it is a pattern of daily worship—offering the earliest, tender shoots of attention back to the One who gives life.

Walking in Counsel, Restraining the Hands

When Proverbs 2:1–5 is held together with Day 3, Shevat, the menorah lamp of Counsel, the lamp of violent hands, and First Fruits, a cohesive picture emerges:

• Counsel is the light that brings order where there was chaos.

• Ordered hearts become fertile ground for the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God.

• Such hearts naturally produce “first fruits” of obedience, humility, and righteousness.

• Where this process is resisted, the inner world remains unformed, and the hands are free to become instruments of harm instead of blessing.

To live this passage, then, is to wake each “Shevat 2” of the soul with a simple resolve: receive, treasure, incline, cry out, and seek. Let Counsel light the interior menorah. As that lamp burns steadily, the hands that once might have shed innocent blood are instead turned into hands that bless, protect, and present first fruits back to God.