Series in Proverbs - Are You Listening!!

 

ARE YOU LISTENING!!

Proverbs 1:20-33

My wife and I were on the Oregon beach, walking in the morning’s silence of the soothing rhythm of the waves and the gentle whisper of the wind. Then all of a sudden, the air was filled with a dreadfully loud siren warning to clear the beach for there was a possible Tsunami. It then clarified that this was only a test to warn all residences of the need to run to higher ground now. We were shocked and startled and a little befuddled. For at the beginning of the warning, it sounded as if the tsunami wave was about to come upon us that very instant. We had to make a choice: should we run as fast as we can, or saunder in the beauty of the morning ambience, ignoring the ominous danger warning. We made the choice to shorten our walk and to leave the beach for higher ground. 

This siren warning was a picture of Wisdom screaming to all those who will listen to do as it was telling us to do for our life’s sake, and this is the lesson that God is yelling to all who will listen and obey the wisdom and instructions in the proverbs.

So let’s begin with the reading of the first portion of the text. “Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square; on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech: “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.”

Solomon takes the concept of wisdom and personifies it as a woman, whose primary care is to warn all who will listen to choose Godly ways and wisdom. The picture is of a town crier proclaiming the most important news to the public in the city’s plaza, square, or arena so that the most people will hear. 

She, wisdom, identifies three groups of people that have not listened: the simple, the mocker, and the fool.

The simple, in Hebrew is na'iv or na'ivim, means those who are uninformed, ignorant, or easily misled. In today’s slang words they are people who are thick-headed, silly, moronic, or dim-witted. This person has no frame of reference of Godly wisdom or even an aptitude to learn it. They prefer to ignore thoughts of wisdom, and let life happen around them, come what may, or a relaxed attitude towards life, “no worries”. 

Lady wisdom calls out to them, “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?” Lady wisdom is desperately trying to lead the simple person into exercising godly wisdom in their life choices, decisions, endeavors, or personal aspirations. The simple don’t give thought to their future or their present circumstances. They operate solely by primal instincts of desire and survival.

Second, Lady wisdom calls out to the mocker or scoffer. The Hebrew word Lēsim has the connotations of someone who mocks or speaks arrogantly. This is a very large group of people that Lady wisdom is trying desperately to turn from their arrogance and pride. For they believe that they have no need for Lady Wisdom or any other source of knowledge or virtuous instruction. They know it all, and they scoff at any other thoughts but their own.

Third, Lady Wisdom is calling out to the fool. The Hebrew for fool is “kesil"  pertaining to someone who hates and rejects instruction, wisdom, or godly knowledge, preferring immoral ways and teachings, denying eternal truth by replacing it with worldliness.

Application - Without being judgmental, we have a multitude of these in our world today. I have seen many of the simple things, for they have said things like the French term, “Se la vie” or “C’est la vie” It is life. Then from the Lion King we get the popularized saying, “HAkuna a matata” meaning “no worries the rest of your life.” We see the simple who just want to live life and take it as it comes, there is nothing I can do about it so “just go with the flow.”

But God has a plan and purpose for all his creation, and it involves Him, and His Word, and the wisdom that he would freely give and generously to all who ask. God knows the end and He wants to keep all from experiencing the wrath that will come upon the world that has turned a deaf ear to wisdom’s call and the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The Second group, the mockers, have taken a stand against God. As Paul wrote in the letter to the Galatians,  “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Gal. 6:7-8) The mocker or scoffer has closed their minds and hearts to God and made them as hard as flint against anything God would say, in fact they doubt even God’s existence. They rely upon their arrogance and pride, their man-based knowledge to direct them in the present and into the future. Peter wrote to the church that this type of mindset would be prevalent in the last days, “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (2 Pet. 3:3-7) Again this sign of the times tells us that we are living in the last days, and that the scoffers and mockers will deny the very signs and situations that God gave us to warn us. Wisdom said to turn to God, not ignore and challenge Him. Refusing God and his Wisdom will negate them from His promise and eternity in His Kingdom.

Last, are the foolish. This group replaces God with worldliness and rejects instruction from God’s Word or Wisdom. They prefer the teaching of the immoral and denying eternal truth. There is no place for Lady Wisdom’s warnings, for they hinder the self-made plans that the foolish have built their lives and future on. As Jesus told the Jewish leaders and people in a parable, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

We all have been in one of these groups in our own lives, the question is will we listen to the voice of Lady Wisdom and turn to God’s way? 

Last, Lady Wisdom has spotted her quarry. She continues to call out to them regardless of their response. She finally and quietly takes their disregard and refusal to listen to Godly wisdom and her continuous and unceasing warning, she allows them to be overtaken by their simpleness, their sarcastic and deriding attitude of disrespect, insolence, and their intentional taunting and ridicule. And the largest of the group, foolish ones, she gives them over to their preferences for hatred, violence and rejection of godly knowledge. So let’s read the last portion of our text, “But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; 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. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Lady Wisdom sees the futility of speaking to those who will not listen or pay attention to wisdom’s advice and the disciplining by rebuke. She stands back and removes herself from the overcoming disasters that will befall those who will not heed wisdom and the upcoming storms. She is amused that they are so obtuse and their minds are darkened from the searing of their consciences. For the tsunami of trouble and the reaping of the whirlwind will surely overwhelm them.

First, Lady Wisdom has relentlessly given of herself to the warning of what lies ahead in the future and the upcoming calamities and tragedies of misfortune that will overcome the world and of disrespect and denial of God’s plan and purpose.

They willfully ignore wisdom’s call and cling to their hatred for instruction and knowledge of God and the lack of fearing God. When the high raging waters of life’s struggles begin to overwhelm them and erode away all that they trusted in, they may call out to Lady Wisdom but she will not answer them, she leaves them to “eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” 

The willful waywardness to live as a simpleton, or of scoffer who mocked God's commands, mandates and injunctions; at the God who created them, for they are reaping the apathetic and complacent attitude of the foolish that will destroy them. For the raging torrents of life will destroy them and just as Pharaoh and his army of chariot and soldiers chased into the parted sea, they failed to reason the hand of God who held the walls of sea waters at bay, and that it would inundate them with the borrage of judgment crashing down upon them.

But God reminds them that He is the One who is their deliverer and Savior, and that those who choose to listen to Lady Wisdom and listen to God’s instructions and follow His precepts, who put their trust and faith in the Almighty Lord God who created them. Then they “will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Application - Oh how I wished to go back to certain times when I was like those in the groups named, and I could change what was done, and turn from the foolishness that led me into great trouble. But God even then was calling me to turn from evil ways and listen to wisdom. God let me go through the tribulations and trials to show me that “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8-9 NIV) 

He will and has turned away from those who wouldn’t listen to wisdom, correction, and instruction. And there is a legacy written in the pages of Holy Scripture as an admonition for us not to go down that road, or listen to the advice. For it leads to destruction, heartache, and ultimately death.

God is still calling today, Lady Wisdom is still calling, if we will but stop and listen. But there's coming a time when God will stop laughing and destruction will come. “Why the big noise, nations? Why the mean plots, peoples? Earth-leaders push for position, Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers: “Let’s get free of God! Cast loose from Messiah!” Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing. At first he’s amused at their presumption; Then he gets good and angry. Furiously, he shuts them up: “Don’t you know there’s a King in Zion? A coronation banquet is spread for him on the holy summit.” (Psalms 2:1-6 MSG)

Will you listen today and join our Lord Jesus at the great wedding banquet that He has planned for all who have listened and believed in Him and followed in His ways? As the writer of Hebrew stated, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” and “Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other. I have sworn by my own name; I have spoken the truth, and I will never go back on my word: Every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to me.” The people will declare, “The Lord is the source of all my righteousness and strength.” And all who were angry with him will come to him and be ashamed.” (Heb. 3:15; Isa. 45:22-24)

As always, I want to end with presenting the gospel in the form of the ABC’s of salvation for all those who have not yet received Jesus Christ for salvation. For Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. He hears your prayers, and all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him. He will answer you if you will truly believe. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis

I have revised my webpage on Spiritual warfare. Please give it a look. Thank you. http://uss-warfare3.webnode.com