Welcome to my second post, where I will be exploring the book of Proverbs! Today, we will focus on Proverbs 1:20-33. Before diving into my reflections on this passage, please read it for yourself and take some time to reflect on it.
One notable aspect of this passage is that wisdom is personified as a woman, so keep this in mind as you read. Again and again, wisdom is described as: Shouting, raising her voice, crying out, and declaring in public places (v20-21). While re-reading this passage, I am shocked at how similar it is to the book of Jeremiah, where he is always outside the temple gates preaching to people, but nobody will listen. Why do you think wisdom is doing this? Are we just that naive?
Well, actually, yes! The next verse asks us "How long, you naive ones, will you love simplistic thinking?" Don't get me wrong, I like the simplistic lifestyle, I enjoy living minimally, and I greatly appreciate others who are the same. However, what the passage truly means here is: How long will you refuse to help yourself? Also sounds a lot like what Jeremiah had to say in his day.
This brings me to a topic that I could spend hours writing on, but for your sake, I will not do so! Help yourself. It is ok to take time out of your day to help yourself, not selfishly, not greedily, and not egocentrically. With a growing number of self-help books, mental health articles, and practitioners to help you, this has become all the more relevant in today's world.
If you wanted to, you could coin Solomon as one of the first people to write a self-help article. Now, I know that there's a lot of extremely secular self-help information out there, and most of it I don't agree with whatsoever, but what matters is this: You get into the mindset where you let yourself get help from God. God must be approached reverently and in humility... but the key here is JUST APPROACH (James 4:2-3)! Allow wisdom to work in your life so that you can know God on an even deeper level.
Sorry for the side tangent, you'll have to deal with lots of those in this series! Back to the scripture at hand. If we look up to verse 25, it becomes clear that there are blessings and cautions when choosing to regard wisdom as sacred and for ignoring it completely. Verse 23 promises us that God will pour out His spirit of wisdom upon us and that His words will be widely understood by those who seek them. The opposite is, sadly a much longer list. Refusing the calling to gain free wisdom leads to disaster, dread, distress, mockery, and anguish (v26-27). It even goes as far as to say that when these ignorant people then call out for help, and even do so diligently, that help will not come (v28).
Why? Keep reading. We are told that the above happens because of a lack of fear of the Lord, and for knowledge (v29). If you need a refresher on what it means to fear the Lord, check out this post. They also did not accept advice or rebuke; they chose their way. Their naiveness, faithlessness, and complacency will kill them (v30-32).
I would even go further and say that they have already killed themselves because of their actions. The more you are alive, the more you realize that every single thing you do has a consequence. Now these consequences can also be good (I know that sounds counterintuitive). The book of Proverbs is full of these analogies and truths that if you do x, your outcome will be curses, but if you do z, your outcome will be blessings. This is one of the best things about the book: it gives you easy-to-understand wisdom. I like to know what is right and what is wrong; this book helps me to fill in the gaps.
Sometimes, when reading a passage like this, it's easy to go away with the take-away of: Well, I do seek wisdom, so I'm all good. If that is your take-away, I'd encourage you to read it again through the lens of wanting to grow and not be stagnant. Complacency is that of fools; do not be one of them (v32).
Verse 33 wraps it up nicely for us and gives us this beautiful promise: "But whoever listens to me will live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil." Amen, I don’t know about you, but I could use more security in my life and a number of other things that we will learn about later on, too! Stayed tuned!
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