Listen to the Lady!

Welcome to the Real World!

by Pastor Frank Rice

Proverbs 1:20-33

“How may I help you?” So goes the question printed on the greeter’s shirt as you enter the superstore. These kind folks are paid to assist you in your quest to find the item for which you’re shopping. We may be tempted to avoid them if we’re confident we know where to find what we’re looking for! We may be forced to return and ask for their help. That’s humbling!

Every normal person makes decisions, trying to minimize heartache and pain. They want to approach life’s challenges intelligently and skillfully!

 

❖      A few words to help us understand, appreciate, and appropriate the Proverbs…

1. Learn to read and/or listen to the text as if you were the “My son!”
2. “Wisdom literature, through observation and advice, seeks to guide the student to navigate life. If there is a right way to live life, then there is also a wrong way. The biblical book of Proverbs speaks to this as the way of wisdom and the way of folly. Those who take the right road are themselves wise; those who take the wrong road are fools. In Proverbs, there is a strong ethical content to wisdom and folly. Wisdom is connected to justice and righteous-ness. Wisdom is constructive and leads to life, while folly is destructive and ends up in death.” (Longman)
3. The Proverbs are a “compressed language,” designed to “say a lot with just a few words” and “to be read reflectively and not quickly.” (Longman)

❖      Make no mistake; there is a correct starting point for living your life skillfully! Any other point will result in eventual failure (1:7)!

1. Proverbs 1:7 “claims that there is no ‘knowledge’ apart from a relationship with Yahweh that is characterized by fear. Wisdom is not simply a matter of learning certain principles of life and applying them mechanistically. Wisdom begins with a relationship with God.” (Longman)
2. Some have libeled the book of Proverbs as “non-theological” because of the scarcity of references to God.
3. The most important character in the book disproves that claim! Woman Wisdom “is the personification of Yahweh’s wisdom and thus stands for God Himself.” And “There is no wisdom outside of a relationship with this woman.” (Longman)

❖      The Lady does everything she can to catch the attention of all who pass by; she preaches, she counsels, she teaches, and prophesies!

1. Parents are the first line of defense as they guide their offspring away from self-destructive choices (1:8-19)!
2. The Lady turns up the volume so that no one can fail to notice her invitation and no crowd can drown out her appeal! “Lady Wisdom is no gentle persuader. She shouts, pleads, scolds, reasons, threatens, warns, and even laughs.” (Aitken)
3. She pursues her audience with unparalleled passion and an intense motherly concern for their well-being!
4. She makes her counsel available to everyone everywhere, trying to get their attention before they destroy themselves! Wisdom is available and offered to the commoner, not just the elitists, the religious, or the intelligentsia.

 

❖      She questions why her audience is so slow to respond to her offer of assistance (v. 22)! Their complacency has gone on far too long!

1. The naïve cling to their naiveté; they are willingly ignorant!
2. The scorners amuse themselves with their disparaging cynicism and criticism (SNL?); everyone is stupid except them! The scorner is the defiant and cynical free-thinker.
3. And fools adamantly despise and reject knowledge, most likely the knowledge of God. No one seems to be in a listening mood! The fool is morally insensitive and deficient.

❖      She continues her insistent yet seemingly ineffective appeals to assist those who are headed for disaster (v. 23).

1. Her objective is to turn them back from the disaster for which they’re headed. Evidently, they didn’t see it; they didn’t need anyone to correct their lifestyle! “Leave us alone!”
2. Her objective is “to birth in them” a change of heart and to help them comprehend her counsel… for their benefit!  

❖      She explains the consequences of their rejection (vv. 24-25)!

1. There is all the justification in the world for what is about to happen to them (v. 24)! “Because” explains upcoming disasters! “God visits people with the full consequences of their deeds only when they have been properly warned.” (Waltke)
2. She invited, they refused her; she held out her hand, they ignored her; she counseled, they snubbed her; she corrected, they rejected her (v. 25)! (“What are you gonna to do?”)
3. The text applies not only to temporal, but to eternal issues! “She will be as unresponsive to them at the time of judgment as they had been to her at the time of salvation.” (Waltke)  

 

❖      She tells them how she will respond to their calamities (v. 26). This is the “laughter of unbelief” at the stupidity of their actions.

1. “The figure of laughing reveals the absurdity of choosing a foolish way of life and being totally unprepared for disaster.” (Ross) Expect it!
2. “Wisdom does not laugh at disaster, but at the triumph of what is right over what is wrong… Truth has a harsh edge, and Wisdom does not dull it.” (Waltke)
3. We could paraphrase, “I will scoff when the dreadful disaster you deserve comes.” (Waltke)

❖      She foretells what’ll ultimately happen and how they’ll react to these eventualities (vv. 27-28). (Not “if” but “when” they happen.)

1. The fears, disasters, distress, and oppression that they so richly deserve will come suddenly, violently, and unstoppably!
2. Then he will do the calling & seeking, but she will be unavailable to take his call; and he’ll not be able to find her (v. 28)! Lady Wisdom is not unfamiliar with caller ID! [We must grieve for those who have made poor choices and suffered the consequences.]

❖      She reiterates the justification for her unavailability (v. 29-31).

1. They rejected the knowledge (of God) which was available to them and they stubbornly refused to fear Him (v. 29).
2. They had no interest in her counsel or correction (v. 30).
3. They’ll now experience the consequences of their poor choices and be “stuffed” with the counsel they gave themselves (v. 31).

 

❖      Intentional ignorance and complacency will completely devastate those who are guilty of such, no exceptions (v. 32). False security is just that; it’s merely a matter of time… and eternity.

❖      Enthusiastic enlightenment and compliance to the invitation of wisdom will provide security, both objective and subjective (v. 33). It will be real and it will be felt! There is a stark “contrast between the false security of the wicked and the true and lasting peace of the righteous.” (Ross)

Listen to the Lady; she wants to help you!