Proverbs 1:8-32 CONTRASTS, CONCLUSIONS, COMPARISONS (contrasts - “but;” concluding – “and;” comparisons – “so.”) The introduction to Solomon and the purpose of writing the book opens the door to wise sayings that compare wisdom as a parent with an evil woman personifying all that seeks to trip up, stumble and bring down a young person. “The fear of the Lord” is a most suitable beginning to the whole subject of principles to apply to daily living. Parental guidance is the next tier of authority and guidance to young people. Parents do not only have the experience of having lived longer than their children, but they also have an emotional attachment to their children that no group of friends or cadre of secular instructors in schools and universities have.
When children are little they learn daily from their parents and don’t even realize that fact. Personality and bents are easily recognized by mothers and fathers who should guide each child “in the way he should go.” Educators often have their own personal template that they try to impose on students, and unfortunately many governments support the teachers and undermine wise parental guidance. Moral character is passed on in homes, not in laws. The moral character of wisdom is personified as a father and mother who pass on to their offspring their own learned wisdom and resulting honor.
But then comes the problem of peer pressure from those who do not have the character traits of wisdom. After a child reaches a certain age, often between twelve and twenty, they resist parental guidance and authority to the point of resentment against those who truly love them. Enticement by others who have already been practitioners of open sin and its fleeting pleasures, becomes an absorbing temptation. The tantalizing attractions of walking close to the edge of the law and morality claims the young person’s thoughts at night and then they try gradually to practice them in the day. Linked with that is the pressure to be accepted by peers rather than follow the parental guidance of wisdom. Instead of thinking about the consequences of bad choices, they look for the thrill and false promises of lawbreakers. The desire to be like those of their own age, and to do the things they do, ignores the inevitable results of deliberate sin.
Wisdom calls again with an urgent appeal, giving warning that they are getting close to the place of no return if the course which they are following continues. Getting close to capital crimes for some reason appeals to the sinful nature of people. They want to try one step across the boundary of morality to see whether they can get away with it and avoid the consequences. The society in which they want to live believes that one murder of an innocent unborn child doesn’t make a person a murderer. Or one act of sexual congress with a person to whom they have made no legal vows, doesn’t make them immoral. The craving for excitement and lust is life-threatening, but they are convinced it will bring some form of satisfaction. So, they take the action and live with the regrets of an awakened conscience they had ignored, and live their whole life from then on with a sense of guilt. Those who are greedy for that which is not their right to have, destroy their lives and that of others around them, or at least impose on themselves an unhappiness inside that will not leave.
From verse twenty to the end of the chapter, there are urgent warnings from wisdom speaking as an honorable woman calling out pubic warnings to the whole group of people who are like a gang of young people challenging each other to go a step farther on the downward course. Wisdom invites them to listen to wise counsel, but even though they are warned and entreated, they refuse to repent and go in the right way that is opened before them. Wisdom rebukes unteachable fools again and again, but to no avail. So, a solemn warning is given.
Wisdom will always have the last word. Payday is coming. Calamity cannot be avoided. When one listens to the counsel of wisdom and obeys, there is deliverance, but distress and anguish will inevitably be brought on one’s self who will not listen. The laughter of wisdom is not humorous, but a grieved reaction to open rejection. Righteousness will be vindicated, and sadly the resulting fall of one who rejects the counsel of wisdom, which is personified in our Lord Jesus Christ, will bring suffering, trouble and desperation from which there will be no escape. Calls of regret will be too late and will not be answered. Such calls after the consequences of sin comes, will all be futile.
Those who hate or reject common sense, knowledge and the fear of the Lord, are losers. To reject sound advice and wise correction from wisdom, no matter which parent or concerned person gives it, will leave a foolish person in a hopeless condition. Wrong choices bring bad results. Consequences suitable to the choices made, will always come. The outcome of rebellion, stubbornness and the rejection of wisdom is death and damnation. Fools could have had peace and could have lived in safety and security. They could have had meaningful lives. Fools are not mentally deficient; they are morally deficient.
Faith in God is a fundamental principle for effective living, for understanding the times and having a right attitude toward life, people and God. It enables one to live in an honorable and wise way. We learn from the people at home first, but also people around us should be able to discern our values, moral standards and priorities by watching our conduct and listening to the way we speak. Reverence and respect for God are not just evident in our words, but are also demonstrated in our actions.
The attractiveness of sin is often based on what is popular to people in this place and time. Even though we know fads do not last, they are attractive because that is what the majority of people want to do. The media and advertising that we see on every hand, is calculated to make us discontent, so we will buy what others are buying and do what others are doing. For a believer in Christ to adapt to what is wrong, he or she will be negatively affected very quickly. Financial or personal gain from short-cuts is a trap to one’s soul and life. Wrongful gain leads to more covetousness and a habitual determination to get more.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is made to us “our wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” His wisdom is offered to us but not forced on us. We as children of God make choices and eat the “fruit” of our choices the same as those who are not believers in Him. Taking heed to advice will preserves us from pain in the present, and for unbelievers, rejection by God in the future.