Prayer

Reading: Prov 1:24-31.

Meditation.

We ignore wisdom’s call at our own peril, and to do so invites certain destruction. It will do us good, then, to consider the way of the fool that we might avoid it for ourselves. The first mark of a fool is that they refuse to listen to wisdom. A fool, if they were to even read these words at all, would read and forget them before the day was out. A fool would refuse to listen, and would ignore the advice of wisdom. Now fundamentally, let’s be clear, this rejection is a rejection of Christ. The Book of Proverbs is not a moralistic book, it is gospel-istic. The words of Proverbs are not just the words of some wise old sage, these are the words of Christ. In Colossians 2:3 we read that all of the treasures of wisdom are hidden in Christ. Christ is God’s revelation of wisdom, and so the Book of Proverbs comes to us as Christ speaking to us. The ignorance of fools is first and foremost a rejection of Christ.

But the scorn of wisdom intensifies in verses 26 and 27: “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a stormand your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.” As the fool refuses to listen to wisdom, their calamity follows. If we refuse to listen to wisdom, that will be our fate too. Terror, distress, and anguish is the lot of the fool. This is no laughing matter, wisdom is not some optional thing that you can take or leave. The opposite of wisdom is disaster.

Wisdom is patient, persistent, and available to all, but the time then eventually comes when wisdom is silent. To those who refuse to listen, calamity comes, and ultimately their doom also follows. If a person willfully ignores the call of wisdom and the correction that she offers, there is a point of no-return that eventually comes. Our choices always have consequences. Verse 28 presents a terrifying image: “Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.” Here we find the thought that one day it will be too late to listen to Christ speaking.

Be doers of the word…

The “scorn” of wisdom that we’ve been speaking about works on two levels. On the one hand, this is the stuff of everyday life. Let me give you an example, consider Proverbs 13:4. “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.” If a man lives his life as a sluggard until he is 55, never saving his money and never using it wisely, he can’t get those years back again. He can’t go back to being 25 and make up for lost time by living diligently. In that sense – he has been foolish. The picture of wisdom laughing at his calamity is that it can’t be undone, he now has to eat the fruit of his ways. In a sense we all face these kinds of consequences from our foolish choices. If we didn’t work in school, we can’t go back and do it again, our choices have consequences. However, one of the beauties of salvation in Christ is that, while we can’t undo these things, God will forgive us for them.

The second level of wisdom’s scorn speaks to an eternal outcome. Eternal judgment is the ultimate doom of the fool. If we reject Christ, we will face ultimate destruction. Verse 32 thus says: “For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.” That is the doom of fools.

Where do you stand with God? Each of us needs to consider for ourselves: Where do we stand with Christ? It really is a matter of the heart. Let me put it this way, when the Word of God comes to us, our hearts will respond in one of two ways: we will accept God’s word, or we just won’t want it. So if you hear the word spoken, and your inner response is: “I just don’t want it”, or: “I am not willing to forsake my sin”, then that is a very dangerous place to be. And, again, this is a special warning for young people. A young person might grow up in a christian family, they behave well, they know all the right answers, but they also know that as soon as their chance comes they’re going to live life their way. If there is a young person reading these pages thinking such things, then you need to hear the truth: the ignorance of fools is in your heart. That goes for all of us who are set on some path of sin as well. We must listen to wisdom. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration.

Lord Jesus, please keep me from the deadly pride that hears your voice yet turns away. Please open my heart to receive your word while mercy still calls. Save me from the folly that forgets your counsel and must later eat the bitter fruit of its own ways. Please grant me a tender spirit that trembles at your voice, gladly forsakes sin, and walks in the path of life. Let me not seek you when it is too late, but today make me a hearer and doer of your word, resting in your forgiving grace. Amen.

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Ep 150: Wisdom's scorn (Prov 1:24-31).