There are various forms of foolishness, as we will see. But the ultimate foolishness is to make anything the center of our lives besides God. That will always lead to disappointment and breakdown. Jesus describes the “foolish man” whose home is built on sand instead of on the solid rock of Christ’s word and wisdom (Matthew 7:24–26). Fools fail to see these boundaries embedded in reality—physical, psychological, relational, and spiritual. They step outside them and wonder why they sink.
Where have you seen most recently—either in your life or someone else’s—the bitter fruit of foolishness?
Prayer: Lord, my heart so often wants to deny reality, but that is foolish. Reality in this fallen world is both wonderful and terrible. Help me see it for what it is, and teach me to walk wisely in it. Amen.
January 8
“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?” (1:22)
THE MOCKER. Three kinds of fools are mentioned in this verse. The mockers (Hebrew lesim) prove it is not mental capacity but attitude that determines whether we become wise or foolish.10 At the root of mockers’ character is a high pride that hates submitting to anyone (21:24). Their strategy is to debunk everything, acting very smug and knowing in the process. Mockers, though fools, appear to most eyes as worldly-wise and highly sophisticated.
Some things, of course, deserve critique and even satire. Even God mocks sometimes. However, to “sit in the company of mockers” (Psalm 1:1) is to make cynicism and sneering a habitual response. Habitual mocking will harden you and poison relationships. “To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.”11 We live in a postmodern age that encourages deconstruction and in an Internet age that makes mocking and scoffing easy and reasoned discourse difficult. So we must resist the enormous cultural pressure to become mockers. Contrast this with Jesus: “He will not quarrel or cry out. . . . A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory” (Matthew 12:19–20).
When have you been tempted to roll your eyes and dismiss someone rather than engaging with them?
Prayer: Lord, help me to avoid the world’s shortcuts to looking wise—the cynical air, the inside joke, the sighs and feigned sadness about how stupid everyone is. Let me despise no one and respect everyone, even if I am correcting them. Amen.
January 9
“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?” (1:22)
THE SIMPLE. Every sort of fool is out of touch with reality, but each kind in a different way. The next fool in this list is the Hebrew pĕthiy—the simple. This kind of foolishness is gullibility. “The simple believe anything” (14:15). They are too easily led and influenced. Like children, they may be overimpressed by the spectacular and dramatic, or they may need approval too much and so be taken in by forceful personalities who give it to them. They will support dictatorial leaders who promise them peace and prosperity. They can be intellectually lazy, not wanting to ponder and think out a matter. They are also likely to fall for get-rich-quick schemes (12:11).12
The simple can change and learn sense (19:25) but they can also “inherit folly” (14:18)—graduate into being full-blown fools. Nevertheless, we should be careful not to equate credulity and naïveté with a lack of sophistication. We once pastored an entire congregation of somewhat unsophisticated people, but they were by no means simple. You can lack sophistication, as the world assesses it, and still be wise. And you can be sophisticated—well-off, well connected, and educated—but still be simple.
Whom have you met who you thought was rather simple but turned out not to be so? What traits did they reveal?
Prayer: Lord God, while I see the “mocker” in me, I also see the “simple.” I certainly need human approval too much and I am also intellectually impatient, not wanting to think things out. I have often asked you to save me from my sin. Now, Lord, save me from my foolishness. Amen.
January 10
“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?” (1:22)
THE OBSTINATE. The most common word used for fools in Proverbs is the Hebrew kĕciyl, the obstinate. The main mark of fools is that they are opinionated, wise in their own eyes, unable to learn knowledge or be corrected.
Child psychologist Jerome Kagan discovered that children are born with one of three basic temperaments that determine how they instinctively respond to difficulty.13 Some respond with anxiety and withdrawal, some with aggression and assertive action, and some with optimism and an effort to win through by being social and cordial.14 Each default works well in some situations. But Kagan argued that, unless parents intervene, children’s natural temperament will dominate, and they won’t learn how to act wisely in situations in which their habitual response is inappropriate or even deadly. In other words, we are naturally obstinate and unwise. Modern culture insists that we should let children be themselves, but what feels most natural to us might be disastrous (22:15). To become wise, the anxious must learn to be bolder, the bold to be cautious, and the chronically sunny to be more thoughtful. Only in Jesus do we see one who does not habitually assert or withdraw but always responds appropriately to the situation with perfect wisdom (John 11:23–25, 32–35).
Where are you most opinionated and least open to new ideas or criticism?
Prayer: Father, I see Jesus moving through life without a wrong word or false step. He knows exactly when to be quiet and when to speak, when to correct and when to affirm. How I want to be like him! Please begin to re-create his wisdom in me, through your Word and Spirit. Amen.
January 11
A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart—he always stirs up conflict. Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy. (6:12–15)
THE TROUBLEMAKER. Another kind of fool is the troublemaker. The mark of this person is constant conflict (6:14). This is the opposite of the peacemaker (Matthew 5:9), the bridge builder whose careful, gracious answers (15:1) disarm and defuse tensions. The troublemaker instead stirs them up. This is not the person who disturbs the false peace with an insistence on honesty. Rather, this is someone who always feels the need to protest and complain rather than overlooking a slight or wrong (19:11). When troublemakers do contend, they do not present the other side fairly. Their corrupt mouths produce deceptive omissions, half-truths, and innuendo. Their body language (winking, signaling) creates a hostile situation rather than one that leads to resolution.
Troublemakers tell themselves and others that they just like to “speak truth to power.” But disaster will overtake the troublemakers (6:15). As time goes on, it becomes clearer that the troublemakers themselves are a reason that conflict always follows in their wake. They can be permanently discredited by events that expose them for what they are. But the ultimate reason for their downfall is that “the Lord hates . . . a person who stirs up conflict in the community” (6:16,19).
If you have been involved in a series of conflicts, is it because you have the traits of a troublemaker? Do you know any troublemakers you should confront?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for this warning. It is right to tell the truth, even to people who do not welcome it. But show me if I am speaking the truth in love or instead asserting it unnecessarily or harshly. I want to be valiant for truth, not a troublemaker. Give me the wisdom to discern the difference. Amen.
January 12
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. . . . A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to
rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. (6:6–11)
THE SLUGGARD. Another kind of fool in Proverbs is the sluggard. The wise are self-starters, needing only internal motivation, not threats, to do their work (6:7). They also are not impulsive, instead practicing delayed gratification (verse 8). In contrast, the sluggard makes constant excuses for apparently small lapses (a little . . . a little . . . a little) but then is surprised when he is assaulted by poverty (verses 10–11). “He . . . deceives himself by the smallness of his surrenders. So, by inches and minutes, his opportunity slips away.”15
In Hillbilly Elegy the author tells of Bob, who worked with him at a tile warehouse with his girlfriend. Bob missed work once a week, was chronically late, and took many breaks each day, lasting over half an hour each. His girlfriend missed work every third day and never gave advance notice. When they were fired, after many warnings, Bob was furious. The author concludes, convincingly, that too many today are “immune . . . to hard work,” and that what used to be thought of as good, reasonable jobs are now seen as demanding unreasonable standards.16 The result is social decay, as Proverbs warned. Contrast this with Jesus, who said, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working” (John 5:17).
Is there any area of your life that is “slipping away” because you are not getting to work on it?
Prayer: Lord, it is wrong to overwork, driven by a need to succeed and please others. But it is equally wrong and destructive to be lazy. Here, as in so many other areas, I need divine aid to strike the godly balance. Help me, Lord! Amen.
January 13
For their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood. How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it! These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves! Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it. (1:16–19)
TRAPPING YOURSELF. No bird of the air would be stupid enough to fly into a visible trap (1:17). But even the birds are wiser than those who think they can get up the ladder by trampling on someone else. Those who do wrong to others are lying in wait for their own blood. They ambush . . . themselves—something the stupidest animal would not do.
The New Testament makes the same point, that gaining the world at others’ expense means losing your soul (Mark 8:36). How does it happen? When you are ruthless to others, you unleash your heart’s capacity for cruelty and selfishness. Those appetites get out of your control and lead to bad decisions.17 When you live to satisfy not others but only yourself, you will be eternally unsatisfied. Jesus, the ultimate teacher of wisdom, tells us we must lose our lives in service to God and others in order to find them (Matthew 16:25).
Have you ever done something selfish that ricocheted back onto you? How did that incident illustrate the gospel principle “Lose yourself to find yourself”?
Prayer: Lord, my heart tells me that I have to make the pursuit of my happiness the primary thing. But then my heart stays empty. Instead of seeking happiness, I will seek you and say, “Come what may.” And only then will I be happy in the end. Amen.
January 14
“Since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you.” (1:25–26)
ABSURDITY. When disaster strikes the foolish, Wisdom laughs. Is this cruel? No. Wisdom here is a representative figure, and the laughter is not coldheartedness but a way to convey “the absurdity of choosing folly.”18 Albert Camus argued that our hearts long for love without parting, but a universe without God gives us only “the conscious certainty of death without hope.”19 This chronic lack of fulfillment Camus called “the Absurd.” He saw life as one long black comedy of incurably, unchangeably seeking things out of life that it simply cannot provide.
Camus thought there was no God. Proverbs knows there is, but it agrees that life lived without God will bring futility, because the things of the world cannot fulfill the deepest heart longings. You can never get out of romance, money, and accomplishment the fulfillment that only a relationship with God can bring. So life in a world without God will indeed feel futile and absurd. “The expectation of the righteous ends in joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing” (10:28).20
Are you experiencing frustration and futility, even a sense of meaninglessness? Is there something in this world that has failed to satisfy? What can you do about that?
Prayer: Lord, older books and movies ended with good defeating evil, but today they depict life as dark and ambiguous, with no happy endings. Both views of the world are simplistic and foolish. You assure me that my life’s story will contain beauty and absurdity and will end in eternity. Renew that assurance in me today. Amen.
January 15
“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.” (1:32–33)
COMPLACENCY. As we have seen, the mark of the fool is to be wise in his own eyes. This leads to the deadly spiritual condition of smug complacency. There is nothing more foolish than to think you have life under control when it is not controllable. The classic example is Jesus’ parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:19–20). No matter what type of designer life you think you have put together for yourself, bereavement, illness, betrayal, and financial disaster happen to everyone. No amount of wealth, success, power, or planning can make you impervious to them.
Fools live in a dream of metaphysical self-sufficiency. They think they have everything sorted, and the complacency leads to disaster. But the opposite of complacency—anxiety—is no solution. We can lose our overconfidence and still be at ease, without fear if we remember that we have the omnipotent, sovereign Lord of the universe as our father. Christians also remind their hearts that if God did not spare us his own Son, how will he not give us whatever we need (Romans 8:32)?
If things are going pretty well for you, are you getting complacent? If things are not going well, are you getting anxious? How can you avoid both?
Prayer: Lord, I have been so often whiplashed back and forth between thinking I have everything under control and feeling panic that everything is out of control. Neither is the case. You are in control, and until I rest in that, I’ll be a miserable fool. Amen.
January 16
He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed. (3:34)
MOCKING THE MOCKERS. The mocker “wears a perpetual sneer.”21 His talent for cutting insults and invective looks like intellectual sophistication. Behind the mask of witticisms, however, is a vastly inflated confidence in his own opinion and intelligence. That is why here proud mockers are contrasted with the humble.
Mockers are especially influential with the simple, among whom they often rise up to become ringleaders. In our current cultural atmosphere, the most socially sought after people are the greatest scoffers and debunkers. But there is nothing worse than looking up to mockers, who make it impossible for you to develop loyalty or reverence for anything. They do so not with heartfelt arguments but with sighs, snarky comments, and arched eyebrows.
The final judgment on them is deadly and fitting: [The Lord] mocks proud mockers (3:34). He “opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). The ultimate example is how God came into the world, not as a proud mocker but as one who is “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29, KJV).
Do you have any friends or people you admire who are mockers? Are you in any way drawn to them for this trait?
Prayer: Lord, the world tells us that the superconfident and self-promoting are the ones who get respect, but it’s only temporary. Actually, we reap what we sow. Lovers are loved, and mockers are mocked. Help me to remember this all day today. I so need it! Amen.
How Do We Become Wise?
January 17
If you
call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (2:3–6)
UNDERSTAND THE PARADOX. In Proverbs chapters 2 through 4 there’s much teaching on how wisdom develops and grows within us. At the start we are confronted with a paradox. Wisdom is something we should seek. Just as Wisdom cries out to us (1:20–21), so we are to cry aloud for wisdom (2:3). But after 2:3–4 calls us to the greatest of effort, likening it to searching for hidden treasure, verse 6 tells us that ultimately wisdom is a gift from God. This idea runs through the whole Bible. Philippians 2:12–13 calls us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” but immediately adds, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
The paradox itself is wise. If it were all up to us, we would labor under crushing anxiety and burn out. But if God only worked apart from us, we would lose all sense of initiative. The paradox gives us enough incentive and enough assurance to pursue the knowledge of God all our life long.
God's Wisdom for Navigating Life Page 3