WISDOM SPEAKS OUT

Proverbs 1:20-27

Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you -- when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

Wisdom calls out to all – worldly wisdom speaks to the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the influential and the common. The wisdom of the world speaks to people throughout the city – throughout the world. Many follow the wisdom of the world – take care of #1, get rich quick, be a good person but not at the expense of having some fun, don’t let anyone else tell you what to do, truth is relative. When this wisdom calls out, it is readily accepted.

There is another wisdom that is calling out in the world, however – not the world’s wisdom, but God’s wisdom. In these verses, the wisdom of God walks throughout the city calling out to the residents of the city. God’s wisdom speaks and says to the people, “I seem foolish to you but I am the only wisdom that matters. I seem foolish to you and you have treated me foolishly. You have not accepted my message. You have refused to repent. Disaster will come on you and trouble will overwhelm you – if not in this life, then certainly in the next.”

Wisdom isn’t really speaking in these verses. God is speaking in these verses. He calls all to repent – to see the wise things of the world as foolishness and the foolishness of Christ’s cross as wise. The wisdom of the Gospel makes us wise for salvation. May the Holy Spirit continue to empower us to embrace God’s wisdom and to reject the wisdom of the world that would interfere with our salvation.

PRAYER: Lord, you alone are wise. Give me faith to see your wisdom – that you alone save and that you brought salvation through your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.