Proverbs 1:23

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Wisdom is not so well hidden that it cannot be found. Rather than remain silent and unattainable, she seeks out her suitors and pursues her recipients with a desire to be known. If God is the source of wisdom, and He is, this lady, "Wisdom" is part of His character, and extension of His nature and it is His Spirit that wisdom calls, "mine."

But that does not make the spirit of wisdom the sum total of all the Spirit of God is. To personify wisdom as a lady is not to equate the quality with a deity. She is something, not someone. She flows from God; she is not a goddess.

Yet, wisdom has this uncanny ability to take on a life of its own and move among men with something that resembles a personality.

Wisdom is available. Wisdom can be known. Wisdom can be internalized, verbalized, and realized by even the simplest of people. The next few verses describe the problem: why we don't possess it.

The answer is simple terms is: because we reject it.

Wisdom Calling

Proverbs 1:20-22

20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

Wisdom is proactive. It seeks us out. It pursues us. It follows us around. It gets out in the midst of life with us and says, "Look at me! Here I am! Open your eyes!"

It is called "she," and her voice is everywhere. Not to hear her is to ignore her. She wants to be known because she comes directly from the heart of God and it is the heart of God to be known an wisdom is a gift to us from God to teach us how to live.

21 - She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22 - How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

When we do hear wisdom's call, the words are not always complimentary, but they are unavoidable. She calls us to task for our willful ignorance and puts us on notice that we have chosen "simplicity" over her.

This is not the kind of simplicity that is the emptying of unnecessary frills in our lives. This is just an old way of saying "stupidity." And we choose it, she cries.

How long?

That implies that we can stop any time. We can stop scorning and we can turn from our hatred of knowledge.

Proverbs 1:19

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

These are not reassuring words for the greedy.

For one thing, they associate the greedy man or woman with the violent souls of the previous verses.

For another, it predicts a dubious outcome to life - namely the end of life. Solomon and his teachers suggest that greed sucks the life from the person who possesses it and its spoils.

Perhaps it is difficult to identify with such harsh words. After all, we have not beaten anyone, robbed them, or advocated violence? Have we?

Violence, in English, comes from the same root word as "violate" implying that we are willing to violate someone else's rights, personal sovereignty, or goodwill to achieve our ends.

We must evaluate every urge within ourselves toward greed in this light: Does my drive to gain this "thing" deprive anyone else of something they own, desire, or cherish? If so, it may be that spirit of competitive greed that holds the most rudimentary seeds of violence and needs to be rejected.

Proverbs 1:8-18

Don't Fall For It

8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

The first part is about initiation and the second is about continuity. Listen, heed, and apply what your father is trying to teach you then don't turn away later fromyour mother's rules. There is not a distinction here between the instructions of the father and that of the mother. Rather, the teacher is placing them on equal footing and advising the learner that he or she needs to pay close attention to the truth the parents are teaching and continue to live by that truth throughout life.

9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

The incentive to continue in sound instruction and wise living is that applied wisdom looks good on those who are adorned in it. Both mother and father are out to make their children more attractive, compelling, and relatable through wise behavior. It is in our best interest to be good students.

10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

It is not just "if," but "when." Sinners are notorious enticers but they cannot take us under their spells without our consent. We can resist and reject their pretty words and empty promises. Sometimes we will feel ostracized; sometimes we feel silly; often no one understands. Yet, we know when something is just not right.

Don't give in to them.

There is only one surrender that is legitimate for the ri.ghteous man or woman and that is surrender to God.

11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: 12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: 13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: 14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

Our erstwhile friends will use all of their powers of persuasion to appeal to our basest, vilest nature. They will try to make the ugly seem attractive. They actually gloss over some parts of the story and go to the so-called rewards. They focus on the purse and not the pursuit. Solomon gives us the whole speech with the deleted parts accentuated. Our "friends" say, "Come on; it's all good." Between the lines they are saying, "It doesn't matter who we hurt and how much blood we shed, we'll get what we want. The amazing thing is that some folks will trust scounddrels like that.

15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

Don't go along with the scoundrels. Don't walk in their way. Don't step on their path. Don't emmulate them, admire them, or take advice from them. Stay clear and stay free.

16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

They don't just stumble on to trouble. They run to it enthusiastically. Yes, there are people like that in the world and those are the people your parents warned you about and you warn your children about.

17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

The rewards are really not what they are cracked up to be. It is useless. In the Message it says that no one robs a bank with everyone watching. These folks are not content to be malicious; they brag about it in the open and they almost always, at some point, get caught.

18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

Violent, thieving, coniving scoundrels end up being their own worse enemies. The more they attack others, the closer their weapons get to their own skin. Eventually, they will do themselves in unwittingly, but surely. Don't fall for their lies.

19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Look at the end of the lives of notorious criminals. You will be hard put to find many that end well. Greed that says, "I want what is yours and I will stop at nothing to have it, " is destructive not only of the victim, but also of the perpetrator.

Proverbs 1:4-7

4 - To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

In this case, subtilty refers to prudence. It was seldom a compliment to be called, "simple." To be simple meant that one could not grasp difficult concepts, perhaps not even function successfully in the world. The simple man was intellectually deprived and ostracized as deficient.

However, Solomon declares that even the simple, by mastering the proverbs he teaches, can learn the art of prudent living. The person with the least capacity for intellect can become as wise as the wisest sage by living by practical, eternal principles of truth.

To be young is to lack the experience necessary to be wise. When we are young, we are still learning and becoming. We don't have the frame of reference necessary to appreciate the truth we receive. Paul had to remind Timoth not to let people despise his youth. It was their natural inclination to dismiss him as a youngster, wet behind the ears.

Yet, by taking these practical words of truth and applying them, the teacher says, even those who are young and inexperienced can know both knowledge and discretion. Not only can they receive and process information, but they can use that information to live at a level beyond what their years might indicate they can.

The Proverbs can accelerate maturity.

5 - A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

If Proverbs can benefit the young and simple, what can they do for the wise and understanding?

Solomon suggests that the teachers become students again, that they hear and increase, that they add to their learning and benefit from guidance.

It is a humbling thing for one who perceives himself/herself as older and wiser to seek and take advice. It is a strain for that person to sit in the seat of a learner, but the truly wise do so. Those who have understanding understand one thing above all else: there is much more that they don't know than that they know. There is far more wisdom to attain than any ten men or women possess.

6 - To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

We must hear and we must learn to understand. Understanding comes through practice and application. We can learn by rote and recitation, but we receive the full weight of the Word through refelction in our hearts, rehearsal in our experience, and regurgitation through our actions.

Solomon mentions styles of presentation. Through exposure and practice, we come to recognize these and gain skills in the art of interpration. There is nothing that helps us more to become lifelong students than study. Leaders and readers who become feeders. We read; we apply; we teach. That is the pattern. When we have moved from the first step to the third, we are ready to repeat the first and have eneter the ring where we can wrestly with truth and be joyously overcome by it.

For the last year, I have made a chapter of Proverbs part of my morning discipline. It is changing my life by deepening my understanding of truth and is equipping me for each new day.

7 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

We shall return to this pivotal thought in the next meditation, but this is the truth upon which hinges all truth. Worship God and everything else follows.