When Wisdom Speaks: A Devotion From Proverbs 1:22-23
We Need to Listen
When wisdom speaks, do we listen? Probably not. In Proverbs 1:20 wisdom is said to be a woman who calls out loudly in the streets. I don't know about you but if a woman called out to me in a loud voice I would listen. I would heed the warnings wisdom has to offer. Or would I.
Solomon understood how the human mind works. Most of the time we heed those things which come from within, not from without. We close deaf ears to what we don't want to hear. How many time have we failed to heed the warning of our parents, teachers and other people in authority all because we thought we knew best. But not listening to wisdom has consequences.
Proverbs 1:22-33
It is clear in these verses it is not Solomon talking but God talking to us. He refers to us as “simple ones” living our “simple lives” which truthfully are not really that simple. When you turn your back on wisdom only bad things can happen. Wisdom says, don't go into debt, but us in our mockery of wisdom say to ourselves, we need debt to help us survive. Then in the end when our world crashes down we cry out, what happened. Then we call out to God to bail us out.
God's response to our call in verse 31 “We will eat the fruit of our labors and be filled with the fruit of our schemes.” In short we are the ones who got ourselves into the mess we are the ones who will have to live with it. Humanly I don't like the answer but had I listened to wisdom of God and those around me I would have lived “in safety' and “without fear of harm”.
God does not answer our call because he does not care. He doesn't answer the call because He is trying to show us the folly our listening to our own ways. Solomon knew this well. Had Solomon listened to the wisdom of God the future Israel would have been totally different. Had we at many times in our lives listened to wisdom, how different our lives would be right now.
Wisdom comes in many forms, God's word, the advice of friends, the advice of the elderly, from deep inside when the Holy Spirit calls out to us, and from many other sources. We must heed when wisdom speaks. If you are not sure about whether you are making the right decision seek out someone with more wisdom than you have. Remember the old adage, “Pride comes before the fall.”
