Day 3 – Rejecting Wisdom
Scripture: Proverbs 1: 20-33
20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: 22 “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? 23 If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. 24 But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, 25 since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, 26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you – 27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. 28 “Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. 29 Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, 30 since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, 31 they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. 32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; 33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”
What is the writer saying?
It is obvious when we make the wrong choices in life – so obvious that it would seem that wisdom takes life and cries in the streets to us: “How long will you choose to love the base way you are living? How long will you mock what is good by rejecting that which is right? If you had responded to the rebuke that came, you would have gained wisdom. But since you rejected wisdom and common sense, since you ignored counsel and correction, I (wisdom) will appear to mock you when your own calamity comes.”
“Calamity and trouble always causes people to seek wisdom but it eludes them because they do not naturally seek what is right and, in this failure, reject the Lord too. As a result, they will eat or experience the consequences of their decisions and actions. Their waywardness will rob them of life. Their unwillingness to apply what they know is right and make the right choices – causes them to be fools and destroys them. But whoever applies wisdom to everyday life will live with confidence and without fear.”
How does this apply to my life?
When I ignore what is right and make the wrong choices, it is stunningly obvious. So obvious that the correct choice seems to scream at me at every turn. When I say the wrong thing or utter harsh words, it haunts my soul so that I cannot focus on anything else. It is in those moments that I need to bring my thoughts into check, quickly turn around (repent) and do the right thing. When I have wronged someone or treated them harshly, I need to apologize. Whatever the wrong choice I have made, I need to resolve it with those who were affected. If I don’t nothing will seem right in my world. The consequences of the continually making wrong choices and my failure to correct my path will continue and until one day they destroy me.
But there is hope. If I will apply what I know to be true, then I may once again live in peace and contentment.
My prayer:
Father,
As a boy comes to his dad for understanding and counsel, so I come to you. I am not hesitant to call you my dad because you love me with unimaginable love. And like my dad, (but much more so) you are Wisdom to me. You know what is wrong in my life, what I do – and even what I think. Let me, O God, see myself as I really am. And help me to be so sensitive to You and your will, that I am quick to do the right thing. As I come to you each day I promise you this: I will listen to what you say – and do what you direct me to do.
Your son