20 Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. 21 She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words: 22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. 23 Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. 24 Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, 25 Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, 27 When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. 31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. 32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; 33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.”
Commentary
Vs. 20-21 20 Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. 21 She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words:
Here the call of wisdom is graphically portrayed, and not as an obscure thing that one must climb to the tops of mountains to find, or run to the ends of earth to seek her out. No, it is God's wisdom who seeks us out, who avails herself to us everywhere, at any point in our lives, crying out to us in the open squares and yelling to us from the chief concourses of the city, wherever people are gathered there wisdom calls to us all seeking to reach us all whose persons and lives are in peril. And yet for all of her attempts to reach us, for most she is simply a voice which at best is ignored, or “polity” passed off as something for others, or at worse is mocked and jeered by simpletons and pride filled sinners.
And so in crying out to those who think themselves wise and secure, but in fact they are only simple ones, scorners, and fools, wisdom asks them in rebuke, how long you simple ones ones will you love simplicity? "For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge." Thus wisdom already knows what they are, and what they do, and so they do and say nothing that wisdom does not already know what it is that they will do and say. And because wisdom knows the end of all those things wisdom calls us all to repent, saying:
Vs. 23 “Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.”
Wisdom then is not seeking their judgment, but their redemption! Wanting them to turn at her rebuke so that she might pour out her spirit upon them, so that she might make her words known to them. For wisdom promises that if anyone turns at her rebuke she will pour out her spirit upon them; she will make her words, that is her counsels known to them; and not just in their minds, but practically in their lives, as listening to and obeying God's wisdom always brings positive changes to ones life. Therefore God gives us all both the opportunity and the means to turn from this worlds sin and folly to His wisdom, for where wisdom is, there He always is, and where He is, there is always inner peace and eternal safety, for everyone who believes in Him and obeys Him! Note: the use of the feminine gender in describing wisdom does not entail a female gender to it. It is simply being used as a means to motivate a young man to listen to wisdom, to make wisdom more desirable to him.
Vs. 24-28 24 Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, 25 Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, 27 When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.
And so just as we have wisdom call clearly portrayed so to here we have wisdoms response to anyone's refusal and rejection of wisdom. For wisdom does not just call out to us all and then let her word come to nothing. No wisdom requires a response from us, just like the Gospel does, to either repent and believe, and thus receive the Lord Jesus Christ, or to carry on in ones sins and wayward ways, and thus reap the consequences of both ones actions and decisions. In a sense we have here the warning of God to this degenerate world which refuses to listen to Him, which high handily rejects Him and His Word, that is His Son, and then goes on to arrogantly live by its own degenerate Sodom and Gomorrah “morality,” thinking that they are masters of their own fates and destines, as if there is no accountability to God, who destroyed ancient Sodom and Gomorrah and the people of it for doing so (2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7). Therefore, hear the Word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom, you people of Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:10). God is not mocked, whatever a person sows that they shall reap (Gal. 6:7). For neither God nor His wisdom is not mocked by sinful man. For God always judges in heaven the deeds that take place on earth, regardless of whether or not one believes in Him, or obeys Him. And in this He has innumerable tools at His disposable, from alternating the climate patterns and shutting up the rains from heaven which are needed here on earth to sustain our persons and lives, to removing our peace, whether individually or collectively, by giving individuals or humanity over to their most base and wicked desires, which itself has terrifying ripple effects for all of our societies. For God judges both peoples and nations through floods and famines, diseases and droughts, wars and peace etc. For it is God alone who raises up one and brings down another, who exalts both people and nations or brings them low. Therefore, in the day of prosperity, or here adversity consider, because surely God has appointed one day as well as another (Ecc. 7:14). For the Lord of the heavens and the earth alone makes peace and He alone makes calamity, for He alone sits Sovereign over the affairs of us all (Isaiah 45:5-8, vs. 7). Therefore, to mock and reject His wisdom is only to guarantee that one will find themselves likewise being mocked, jeered and scoffed at by wisdom when their terror comes, when destress and anguish comes upon them all who do so.
Vs. 28-30 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.
Therefore when wisdom's counsels are only rejected and hated by those who only want to continue on in their Godless ways and means. And so when the consequences of their sins and pride and folly come home to roost, wisdom in like manner now turns a deaf ear to them all. And so here we see their back peddling, they’re looking for quick way out, even trying to find her in their time of distress, but they cannot because now she is hidden from them all "because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke." vs. 29-30
Vs. 31-33 31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. 32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; 33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.”
Because they rejected wisdom and did not choose the fear of the Lord they are now made to eat the fruits of their own ways and to be filled to the full with their own fancies. And so all the consequences that go with doing and pursuing Godless deeds and desires they now have to the full! And along with it all of the sorrows, distresses and personal troubles that comes through choosing that path of life. Wisdoms judgment on them begins with their reaping the consequences of all of their sins in this life, of giving them over to all of their fancies, that is giving them over to all of their Godless desires and deeds so that these become the means of their own judgment. In essence their own lives are ruined by their own sinful pride and unwillingness to listen to God. For everyone has the right to choose for themselves whether or not they will serve the Lord Jesus Christ or serve their own sinful and evil desires, and thus be servants of the devil, who always uses these for his purposes. For those are your only two options, for there is no neutrality in this life. You either become a child of God, by receiving Christ; because no one is born a child of God (John 1:12); or you remain an offspring of sin, and thus a servant of the devil, doing his will, and thus storing up wrath and punishment on yourself on the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Judgment (Rom. 2:3-16; 2 Peter 3:7). Therefore, choose for yourself whom you will serve whether Christ, or the devil. Therefore don't be like the wicked, the scoffers, and the deceived, who do not see their own need for Christ, who mock Him and His Word, see your own need for Him and repent and believe in Him! Then you will be secure and safe on the Day of God’s Judgement, living without fear of evil, because you to believe in Him and obey Him through His Word.
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