PROVERBS: TURNING YOUR BACK ON WISDOM
by Ivan Maddox
Atlanta, GA


Wisdom is looking for you!

We often think of ourselves as searching for wisdom, as if on a lifetime quest. But Proverbs points out that Wisdom is actively searching for us. The problem, all too often, is that we don’t want it when it finds us!

Proverbs 1:20-22.
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?”

How could this be? How could anyone in his right mind turn down wisdom? The problem is that all too often, we fail to recognize wisdom as wisdom. Thus, when it shows up, we turn away from it as foolishness.

I Corinthians 1:18-29.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are
being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will
frustrate." [3]
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not
God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was
pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger
than man's strength.
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by
human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things
of the world to shame the strong.
28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are
not--to nullify the things that are,
29 so that no one may boast before him.

Here we have the problem laid out for us. The Greeks were looking for wisdom. They wanted it. They were ready for it. Yet, when it came, all too often they rejected it, because it didn’t look like what they thought wisdom should look like.

The problem was that they were too used to their own wisdom. They thought they knew what wisdom was supposed to look like. But the wisdom they knew -- and the wisdom that, all too often, we grew up knowing -- was the wisdom of this world, which, according to James 3, is “earthly, sensual, devilish.”

God’s wisdom is on a whole different scale from our wisdom. I Corinthians 1:25 reminds us that the closest God will ever approach to foolishness is still far, far wiser than man’s farthest reaches of wisdom. What chance do we have, then of obtaining “the wisdom that is from above”? The truth is, none whatsoever, unless God chooses to give it to us. We certainly can’t reach it on our own!

God deliberately chose to give wisdom to men in the guise of foolishness. Why? “So that no one may boast before him.” (I Corinthians 1:29.) Man considers wisdom a personal accomplishment and achievement. He’s worked for it, he’s earned it, he deserves it. God gives us wisdom in such a way that none of us can say, “I earned this.” God does it this way so that we will learn to rely not on ourselves, but on God.

Will you recognize wisdom when it comes looking for you? How will you know it when you see it?

I Corinthians 1:30.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Look at how easy God has made this! When wisdom comes looking for you, it will come dressed as Jesus Christ. More specifically, it will come packaged as the gospel, the good news, about Jesus Christ. Will you recognize it for what it is? Will you accept it, or turn your back on it?

Back when the book of Proverbs was written, Jesus Christ had not yet come. What did wisdom look like then? Like obedience to the revealed Word of God. If you walked according to what God said, rather than according to what you or someone else had figured out for yourselves, you had accepted wisdom. If you chose to “do it yourself,” or if you elevated other people’s word above the Word of God, you turned your back on God’s wisdom.

Now that God has sent his son Jesus Christ to be a ransom for our sins, true wisdom begins with accepting Christ as Lord of your life. This means you recognize his authority to call the shots in your life, to set your priorities, to overrule your decisions. It’s easy to see how this might look like foolishness rather than wisdom to a great many people! But this is the key first step in our day and time to tapping into the wisdom that is from God.

Rejecting God’s wisdom carries a steep price tag, as Wisdom warns in Proverbs 1.

Proverbs 1:23-28.
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.

The time to get wisdom is before you need it! Once you’re in trouble, it’s too late to start looking for it; either you have it then or you don’t. The warning here is clear: If you do not get wisdom when it is offered to you, you will not be given it when you need it. Why? Because the rejection of wisdom involves the rejection of God who gave it.

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."

The penalty for rejecting “the wisdom that is from above” is being required to eat the fruit of your ways and your schemes. If you refuse to give God the awe and respect and obedience He is due as God, if you refuse to learn His ways and insist on going your own way, He will allow you to experience to the full the results of doing things your own way.

Will you recognize wisdom when it comes looking for you? How will you respond to the revealed Word of God? What will you do about Jesus Christ?

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Created 6/15/97, by Ivan Maddox