Wisdom Warns
20 Wisdom shouts in the street,
She [f]lifts her voice in the square;
21 At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:
22 “How long, O [g]naive ones, will you love [h]being simple-minded?
And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing
And fools hate knowledge?
23 “Turn to my reproof,
Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 “Because I called and you refused,
I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
25 And you neglected all my counsel
And did not want my reproof;
26 I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
27 When your dread comes like a storm
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord.
30 “They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.
32 “For the waywardness of the [i]naive will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
33 “But he who listens to me shall [j]live securely
And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”
The last passage of this chapter reminds us that wisdom is not far off. She is shouting in the town square, crying out in the streets, and speaking at the city gates. Okay, most of our cities don’t have gates, so what is the equivalent? The gates were where folks met to do official business, it was where you could find the most influential folks, and so I would liken that to our government gatherings.
Whether a town council, or county government, state legislature, and on up the chain, wisdom is not silent. But it’s noisy out there, and a lot of voices are competing for our attention. So how do we know if we are listening to the voice of wisdom, or that of a charlatan, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”? We need a standard, and Solomon gives us the key once more in v. 29.
Those who are deceived, and those doing the deceiving, are in that state because they reject knowledge. Which knowledge? There’s a lot to know our there! Keep going, and see that they did not choose the fear of the Lord. That’s the beginning, the root, of wisdom, and it is what separates the wise from the foolish.
One might ask, how do we know who to believe? And our standard is God and His word. If it lines up with God’s voice, the only truly wise One, then we are on the right course. Not everything is explicit in God’s word though, so we have to know God’s heart, what would He say about the current situation? Sometimes that makes sense to us, and sometimes it catches us by surprise. Love our enemies? What??
If our standard isn’t based on God’s truth, we will believe anything that sounds good. You may have heard it said that “facts are stubborn things”, but so are our minds. Once we choose to believe a lie, it is difficult to tear ourselves away from that course. Only the light of God can expose it, but we have to be willing to be vulnerable, to be exposed ourselves, to be clothed by righteousness instead.
There’s one more clue in this passage, which is in v. 22. Those who are simple-minded delight in scoffing. Boy is there plenty of that on all sides of the political spectrum! If someone doesn’t know God, it’s a natural reaction, especially after a “victory” of any sort. But Jesus instructed us to be known by our love, not our self-righteousness.
When confronted by something that challenges our beliefs, is our response name-calling or scoffing? If so, maybe those beliefs aren’t so great… God’s wisdom needs none of that, it is the truth, plain and simple. Let it light up your life, and put your mind “at ease from the dread of evil.”