Proverbs 1:24-33

But If They Refuse To Respond To Wisdom's Voice And Fail To Choose The Fear Of YHWH Then One Day, When They Suffer The Consequences Of Their Refusal As They Surely Will, Wisdom Will Mock At Them, And When They Call Will No Longer Hear Them. It Will Be Too Late For Repentance And They Will Continue To Suffer The Consequences Of Their Rejection. But Those Who Do Respond Will Live In Quietness And Peace Without Fear (Proverbs 1:24).

Wisdom now draws their attention to the alternative. If they will not listen to her then disaster will come upon them, and then they will learn too late the laughable nature of their own human wisdom. Note the assumption that in each city there are large numbers who refuse to respond to wisdom. Solomon was well aware of the hardness of men's heart

Proverbs 1:24

‘Because I have called, and you have refused,

I have stretched out my hand, and no man has regarded,

But you have set at nought all my counsel,

And would none of my reproof,'

It is possible, in line with other places in Scripture, that there is here a sudden introduction of the voice of God Himself. It is in fact quite common in the Old Testament to find God suddenly speaking without the writer giving any indication of the fact. It is something which can only be discerned by the content of the words. And that could certainly be true here. But taking the passage as a whole it would still appear to be Wisdom who is speaking. However, in this case the question is not too important, for if it is Wisdom speaking, as it almost certainly is, the writer constantly makes clear that, like the word of God to the prophets, it is the Wisdom of God speaking to men (Proverbs 2:5). Thus she is to be seen as speaking on behalf of God Himself. For in the end it is God Himself Who calls to men and stretches out His hands to them through His Wisdom. And the point here is that they have refused to hear the voice of God and submit to the fear of YHWH (Proverbs 1:29).

Note again the intensity of feeling. Through His wisdom God has ‘called', He has ‘stretched out His hand', He has given ‘counsel', He has ‘reproved'. He has done all that He could. But they have ‘refused', they have ‘disregarded', they have ‘set at naught', they would ‘have none of it'. So through His words of wisdom God has called for man's response, but men have refused to hear; He has stretched out His hand, but they have disregarded it. Indeed they have set His words of wisdom at naught, and have refused to take note of their reproof. The implication is that they are thus found guilty before Him. They have not come to His wisdom in the fear of YHWH. There is a reminder here that we too should take note of His words of wisdom, if we too would avoid His judgment. The proof that we fear God will be found in our response to His Wisdom (and His word).

Proverbs 1:26

‘I also will laugh in the day of your calamity,

I will mock when your fear comes,

When your fear comes as a storm,

And your calamity comes on as a whirlwind,

When distress and anguish come upon you.'

When the day of calamity (a day of trembling) comes, and when the things that they fear most come upon them, (as come they will, just as inevitably as storms and whirlwinds come), Wisdom will laugh at their folly in following their own wisdom. She will mock the folly of their ideas. In other words, wisdom will show up their stupidity. The emphasis is not on her mocking them in their situation, but on her mocking the folly which has brought them to their situation. They had been wise in their own eyes, and now their wisdom has come to nought. It has proved futile. Their wisdom has turned out to be laughable. The point is that basically they had mocked wisdom, and thus wisdom now mocks them. The aim of the words is in order to bring out the laughable folly of those who do not receive the wisdom that comes from God.

Note the interesting contrast between the ‘pouring out' of her ‘spirit' (Proverbs 1:23) like the fruitful rains, and their ‘fear' coming like a fierce storm and whirlwind of calamity. If we refuse the first we will experience the second. Note also the small chiasmus in the parallels, ‘Calamity - fear - fear - calamity', typical of Hebrew poetry. Wisdom emphasises the greatness of the calamity and fear that is coming. Here fear indicates ‘what you fear'. What they fear will come like a storm, something which is inevitable and fiercely destructive. Their calamity (cause of trembling) will come on them like a whirlwind, which arises suddenly and causes distress and chaos. And as a result distress and anguish will inescapably come upon them. It is the inevitable consequence of their refusal to respond to the wisdom of God. Whoever is seen as speaking, whether Wisdom or God Himself, the idea is consonant with other Scriptures that what men sow they will reap, that all our actions lead to consequences. The principle is rooted in Scripture.

Proverbs 1:28

‘Then will they call on me,

But I will not answer,

They will seek me diligently,

But they will not find me,

In that they hated knowledge,

And did not choose the fear of YHWH,

They would none of my counsel,

They despised all my reproof.

Then when men and women find themselves caught up in disaster and calamity, they will be brought up short and begin to seek the wisdom that comes from God. They will be desperately looking for any solution. They will thus call on Wisdom, seeking answers to their dilemma. But she will not answer, for they have turned from the way of wisdom. How true to history this is. And how much in line with the teaching of the prophets. When disaster strikes men and women do begin to seek God and His wisdom. But they do it with blinded minds and hardened hearts. It is all superficial. He is the last resort. And once the disaster passes God's wisdom is once more put aside. As Jesus pointed out, the seed sown on rocky ground, which appears to have taken root, will merely grow superficially, and will soon die away when circumstances alter (Mark 4:16).

Note the parallels between Proverbs 1:24 and Proverbs 1:29:

· ‘I (wisdom) have called' --- ‘they hated knowledge''

· ‘I (wisdom) have stretched out my hand' -- ‘they did not choose the fear of YHWH'.

· ‘You set at naught my counsel' -- ‘they would none of my counsel'.

· ‘You would none of my reproof' -- ‘they despised all my reproof'.

Here wisdom is clearly equated with ‘the fear of YHWH'.

So Wisdom (in Proverbs God's wisdom) is here warning that she is not so easily to be found by those who have once rejected her. And why is she not found? Because men hate true knowledge, the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:5), and they do not choose to fear Him. They want the benefit without the true response. They do not want God's counsel. They do not want His reproof. They want Him to show them an easy way out so that they can then get back to sinning.

The warning is that if we close our minds to God's wisdom now there will come a time when that wisdom is no longer easily accessible. We will seek it and will not be able to find it, because our hearts will have become hardened. If we do not submit to the fear of God whilst God is speaking to us, and while our hearts are open, (‘now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation'), we will not find it so easy to submit to it once He has stopped speaking so clearly and once our hearts have built up their barriers against Him.

Proverbs 1:31

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,

And be filled with their own devices.

‘For the backsliding (turning away) of the naive will slay them,

And the careless ease of fools will destroy them.'

And the result for them of all this is that they will reap the consequences that they deserve. They will eat the fruit that results from their choices. They will be satiated with the consequences of their chosen manner of life. Both ideas, ‘eat the fruit' and ‘be satiated with' indicate full participation. They will experience what is coming to the full. And that fruit, and those consequences, will, for the naive and for the fool, be death and destruction. They will be slain. They will be destroyed. The naive, who carry on turning away from, and are heedless of, God's wisdom, and the fools who deliberately with careless ease blind their eye to it, will both inevitably come to final judgment. And instead of finding life they will find death. For, as Paul reminds us, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). That is also the recurrent message of Proverbs.

Proverbs 1:33

‘But whoever pays heed to me will dwell securely,

And will be quiet without fear of evil.'

In contrast, those who heed God's wisdom will dwell in peace and security. They will live peaceful and quiet lives without fear of evil. They will not bring upon themselves the ‘fear' (Proverbs 1:26) which is the consequence of rejecting God's wisdom. Here we find the regular Old Testament principle that the good will prosper and enjoy a good life, whilst the sinful will face the consequences of their sin. Whilst it was not always literally true, it was making clear that the way to the ‘good life' was through righteousness and fearing God. In Jesus' terms, whatever outwardly happens to them, they will still find abundant life (John 10:10). Indeed even when the world seems to be collapsing around them, they will have peace, for their trust will be in God. It is the way of the transgressor which is hard.