Proverbs
“Wisdom Rebukes Fools”
1:20-33
(Part 2)
If I can, I’d like to take a step back to look at this passage with fresh eyes. Because I’ve taken so long to
get through these very straightforward verses, I feel I may have lost some of you. So, in an attempt to get
us back on the same page with God here in Proverbs 1, I want to walk through this in a fresh way with you.
I’ve said that here in this passage, God’s Wisdom is personified as a woman going around a city preaching
to people, calling them to listen to what she is saying, so that she might be a part of their lives and enjoy
intimacy with them. This is very true, but I want to try to put it to you in a different way so that none of us
will miss what is going on.
Read Proverbs 1:20-23.
Lady Wisdom can be understood as God’s plan for life. God’s plan for life is being offered to all kinds of
people in all kinds of places (that’s why she goes to all kinds of public places in the city, not the temple).
God’s plan for life is what is there to protect people from destruction. God is crying out to people, calling
them to follow His plan for life, so that they might enjoy both earthly and eternal peace, but is also warning
people, that if they refuse to embrace God’s plan for their life, they are going to suffer terrible judgment.
Yet, the outcome of Lady Wisdom’s pleading, is not good. People reject her. Despite the ways that God
invites people to embrace His plan for life, they reject it. Read Proverbs 1:24-31. People would rather live
by their own standards and their own convictions and their own ideas, than God’s. We see that truth play
itself out everyday, don’t we?
So, because they have rejected her (God’s way of life), she will one day reject them. In other words, on
Judgment Day, those who have refused to follow God’s way of life will see how important and how valuable
it is and they will want to go back and live according to God’s standards, but that will not be possible. They
will have had their chance, and by the time Judgment Day comes, it will be too late. Read 1:26-28.
Still, the overall message of this passage is one of hope. Read 1:23 again. So here, God, through Lady
Wisdom is calling to us to embrace His way of life. He is not just calling people to stop living in sin, but to
turn to God’s way of life. If you turn to God’s way of life, your life will be radically changed. God will feed
you with His wisdom, and you will enjoy intimacy with the Creator of all things, as you enjoy His words (i.e.
the Scriptures – in context, the Proverbs). Lady Wisdom is calling us to choose God’s way of life, so that
we might live with joy both now and for eternity (Proverbs 1:33).
In my view, this is really a call to salvation. God in this passage, is calling you to be freed from a way of life
that will lead to destruction.
WHO DOES THIS APPLY TO?
I want to focus on a single phrase here in this passage to help you think through whether God might be
calling you to repentance here in this passage. That phrase is in verse 32:
For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them… (Proverbs
1:32 – ESV)
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This verse teaches anyone and everyone how to know whether or not they are in danger of the things that
Lady Wisdom promises here.
The first part of verse 32 says, “The simple are killed by their turning away.” Remember that a “simple”
person, according to Proverbs, is a person who just doesn’t want to think about what God has to do with
their everyday life. They’re not fully opposed (at least consciously) to God’s way of life, they’re just not
committed to it. God’s way of life to the simple person would complicate things, even if it’s the right way,
and because it would complicate their lives, they just aren’t willing to embrace it.
This word that is translated “turning away” is used in Hosea and Jeremiah as a label God puts on Israel
(Jer 3:12) for their constant turning away from God. Though they are constantly faced with the truth of
God, they continue to chase after other ways of life and are ruled by gods other than the One True God.
Rather than turning from their sin to God, they turn from God to their sin. This is exactly what simple
people do. Though they are often faced with the truth of God and God’s invitation to embrace His plan for
their life, they instead turn back from God to their sin, because they find sin much more comfortable than
God’s plan for their life.
I think this is probably a good description of many people in churches today. Perhaps it is a description of
you. You are constantly faced with the opportunity to embrace God’s plan for your life, but instead choose
what looks to you to be the easier way. That kind of turning away, if you continue down that path, will kill
you!
The second part of verse 32 says, “The complacency of fools destroys them…” What this means is that
fools will actually have a sense of security. Fools think that they have nothing to worry about. It is this
false sense of security that will destroy them. These are people who hate God, hate the idea of God
having anything to do with their lives, hate the idea of God’s plan for their lives, but believe they have
nothing to worry about. They truly believe that their own way of life is going to lead to some good end, and
so, because they think that they are safe, they will never turn to God, and so, that attitude will destroy
them.
So, how do you know if you’re a simple one who is turning away from God’s plan for your life (i.e.
obedience and wisdom – skill in pleasing Him in all you do), or a fool who is living in a false sense of
security?
A few questions to help you diagnose the state of your soul:
1. In general, what do you think when you hear passages like this taught (calls to repent and be
saved)? Are you interested? Do you care? Do you find them boring? Do you want to know
more?
2. In general, do you enjoy being taught the Bible? Do you enjoy being taught God’s perspective?
Do you enjoy being taught God’s plan for your life?
3. Does the idea that God calls you to live a specific way interest you, bore you, offend you, or
something else?
4. In general, when you learn about what God commands you to do in a specific situation, do
you do it? Do you do it joyfully? Do you appreciate His commands and want to know more of
them?
5. As a characteristic of your life, do you seek to choose God’s way in your decisions, or your
own way? Does your answer to this question encourage you, scare you, or effect you in any way?
How?
That last question is really the key question. As the general characteristic of your life, are you seeking to
choose God’s way in your daily life, or would you have to admit that you are choosing your own way? But
even more importantly, if you have to admit that you are choosing your own ways, do you care? And do
you wish it were different?
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Quickly, let me just address those of you who admit that you’re living your own way, and just don’t care.
Better yet, let me just allow God to address you directly.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who
sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the
Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8 – ESV)
If you admit that you are choosing your own plan for your life, and also that you are just fine with that, you
need to know that if you continue on in that attitude, you’re in serious trouble. God is going to have the
final say with you, and He promises that if you continue on this path where you are the god of your own life,
calamity is going to come upon you, and when it does, there will be no turning it back.
Now, for those of you that admit you are choosing your own plan for your life, but want to stop living in that
way, and sincerely want to embrace God’s plan for your life: Know this, God’s plan for your life (i.e. God’s
Wisdom) is Jesus Christ.
Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:24b – ESV)
In [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:3 – ESV)
This is key because when I say that God calls you to embrace His plan for your life, I’m not talking about
your future job, or the person you’re going to marry one day, or the things you are good at doing. This is
what the world speaks of when it speaks of a plan for your life. God’s plan for your life is different, and it
has everything to do with Jesus. God’s plan for your life is Jesus. The path God wants you to choose is
the path where Jesus is Lord. It is the path of a life that says, wherever you lead Jesus, I will follow!
The path God wants you to choose is to live under Jesus, as your Master, your King, your Commander,
your Teacher, your Counselor, and your only true Authority. The path God invites you to walk down is
Jesus, where at the beginning you say, “I trust You Jesus, Your obedience, Your death, and Your
resurrection as the only possible way I can be right with my Heavenly Father.” At the beginning of this
path, God makes you right with Him because of Jesus and all that He has done. This is called
“justification.”
Then, as you walk down the path of Jesus, your life becomes more and more about getting to know Him,
loving Him, and pleasing Him, and as you walk down the path Jesus changes you to be like Himself.” This
is called “sanctification.”
Then as you become more and more like Jesus, you get more and more excited about his return, and live
more and more like He is going to return, when you will forever be changed into a completely sinless
human being and will live the rest of eternity worshipping Christ by living on the earth like humans were
originally intended to live – showing all of Creation just how valuable God is. This is called glorification.
So then, from beginning to end, this path that God is inviting each of us to walk down, is all about Jesus
Christ. If you have not yet begun down that path, I want to invite you to go to God right now, plead for His
grace and forgiveness, ask Him to make you a new creature, and ask Him for the grace to follow Christ for
the rest of your life. Ask Him for the gift of repentance, so that you might turn from your sin, and live
without the dread of judgment. I am going to pray for you in just a moment.
As for those of you who are on the path of Jesus. You are living to please Him. You are serious about
obeying Him, and want to know Him more deeply, I encourage you to look over your life to see where you
might be rejecting His wisdom. Are there any areas in your life where you need to repent? Are there any
areas where you need to stop following your own plans, and instead look to Him for His? I invite you, all of
us, to do so right now.