Wisdom Is a Street Preacher

If you do repent, Wisdom promises two things to you. First, you will receive Jesus’s Spirit. Turning to Wisdom will lead to receiving the spirit of wisdom (v. 23). There is much going on here. The Spirit of God hovered over the waters at creation to make the world. The Spirit and wisdom were given to temple builders in the Old Testament like Solomon (see Exod 31:1-2 and the building of the tabernacle). The tabernacle and the temple were patterned after the garden of Eden, so they were in a real sense a rebuilding of creation or a “new creation.” The Spirit of wisdom is also given to Messiah since he will ultimately make all things new (Isa 11). Since the Spirit built creation according to the pattern of wisdom and harmony, having the Spirit is essential to walking according to that pattern. The Spirit is given to you to transform you and to empower you to walk in wisdom, but you must repent to receive the Spirit. When you do, the Lord promises in Ezekiel 36:27, “I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes.”

The New Testament reveals that not only is Jesus the Wisdom of God who gives the Spirit, but he is also the Son of David who receives the Spirit; so the only way we can experience the Spirit of Wisdom is if we are found in Christ.

Second, if you repent you will understand Jesus’s Word. Wisdom will illuminate his teaching so you can understand it and walk in obedience to it. The Word of God and the Spirit of God go together. The Spirit is the one who inspires the Word to be written (see John 14–16; Eph 6:17 “the sword of the Spirit”). We see the connection of the Spirit and the Word clearly in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5. Colossians 3:16 states, “Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, . . . through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” Ephesians 5:18-19 says, “Be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” These are parallel texts that link the “Word of Christ” with being “filled with the Spirit.” The Spirit who inspired the Word to be written will illuminate you to understand it through Jesus. So respond to the invitation of Jesus—the Wisdom of God—by repenting!

Proverbs 1:24-32

Wisdom recounts a past record of refusing the invitation (i.e., the teachings of Wisdom). All of us have failed to live up to the standard of Wisdom. So Wisdom will laugh at your calamity and terror and distress when it comes like a storm (this language is reminiscent of the wisdom conclusion to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount). Wisdom here is clearly linked to the Lord and the judgment he pours out. The Lord is the one who ridicules and laughs at the wicked (Ps 2). The judgment of the Lord is a storm (Ps 83:15). This passage reminds us of a modern parable: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Those who scorn Woman Wisdom will encounter fury.

She moves from accusation to sentencing. She says that trouble will come. Rejecting Wisdom will lead to calamity and terror. There will be ruinous consequences in this life. Calamity refers to things that will wreck your life or things that go bad. Terror refers to the things you fear most. Wisdom says that refusing her means your nightmares will come true. The things about which you lie awake at night, strategizing how you will avoid them, are the very things that will happen to you if you refuse Wisdom. Perhaps that hidden sin of pornography will be exposed, and your wife will be devastated. Perhaps that affair with your coworker will be exposed, and your children will never forgive you. Perhaps your refusal to discipline your children while they are young will lead to them wrecking their lives. Your refusal of Wisdom will catch up with you.

And even if it doesn’t catch up with you in the short run, it will catch up with you in the end. There may be some of you who think everything is OK because you’re able to hide the porn, you’re able to hide the flirtatious relationship on Facebook, and you think you will always be able to manage it. You think it won’t ever catch up to you. It will! There will be a final judgment where all things are exposed and brought into the light. You will ultimately reap what you have sown, even if you don’t in this life. You may walk in foolishness and even prosper in the short term, but eventually it will ruin you. Payday someday (as R. G. Lee famously preached) comes to all of us.

Wisdom says that there is a final judgment, and it is certain. She says that at some point people will call for her and search for her, but it will be too late. She will have eye-for-an-eye retribution. They didn’t listen to her, so she won’t listen to them. They didn’t seek her, so she won’t reveal herself to them. Eventually it will be too late to repent. There’s no second chance once final judgment is cast. If you continue to reject the kindnesses of Jesus—even his kindness of letting you ruin your life in foolishness right now—eventually it will be too late. Once final judgment is rendered, there’s no turning back.

Today is the day of salvation. That’s Wisdom’s purpose in this sermon. She wants to move the audience to present action. Wisdom doesn’t want you to wait until you wreck your life. Jesus wants you to repent now and turn to him because he knows where you’re heading, and he wants to save you from the ruin.

This happened to them because they despised knowledge and didn’t choose to fear Yahweh. They had their chance, and they refused. They rejected the wisdom of this book, and that means judgment. Wisdom tells us plainly here that rejecting Wisdom is the same thing as rejecting the Lord. All of the practical wisdom this book exhorts you to do and all of the foolishness it warns you to avoid is ultimately about whether or not you’ve accepted the Lord. The reason you are caught in that sexual sin, can’t finish your homework on time, or shoot off at the mouth and get yourself in trouble is not just because you’re an idiot. Ultimately it reveals that you have rejected Jesus. You’re not in right relationship with God, so you are not walking rightly through his world. This will ultimately mean judgment. Your failure is not a failure of effort or desire; it’s that you’ve missed Jesus. Wisdom—Jesus—is the mediator who brings us into right relationship with God and the world around us. Choose humble faith in the Lord over your own way that seems right to you but leads to death.

These men would have none of Woman Wisdom’s ways, so they face the judgment. C. S. Lewis said there are two types of people in the world: “Those who say to God ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God finally says ‘Thy will be done’” (Lewis, Great Divorce, 72–73). Ultimately God will give us what we’ve chosen. Proverbs presents judgment as reaping what you have sown. If you reject Wisdom ( Jesus), you will eat the fruit of your own way. The Lord built the world in such a way that certain consequences are inherent in certain actions. Bad actions will reap bad consequences; good actions will reap good consequences. If you are lazy, you will be poor. If you cheat on your spouse, you will lose what you have. If you are hasty with your words, you will lose friends. This is the way the world works; and if you ignore that, you will wreck your life. God made everything, he knows how it works, and he reveals that to us because he loves us and wants what it best for us. The things he lays out in Proverbs are not his way of raining on our parade but rather his way of telling his beloved children how life works best. We end up hurting ourselves, this text says, when we choose autonomy from God. It’s not just that sin is wrong, although it is, but sin is also destructive. In the end, the Lord will see to it that his order works out. Proverbs 24:12 says, “Won’t he repay a person according to his work?” So refusing the wisdom of this book (i.e., refusing Jesus), as we all have, will wreck your life now and/or later.

The wages of foolishness is death. The judgment for unfaithfulness to the Lord is death (1:32). The “apostasy” (abandoning of the Lord) of the inexperienced will kill them. This word apostasy is used in Jeremiah and Hosea for cheating on the Lord ( Jer 2:19; Hos 14:4). Foolishness isn’t about mental capacity; it’s rebellion against God. The sentence for that is death. In the immediate context of Proverbs 1:32-33, this means the “death” of exile for Israel. And for us, in the scheme of the whole Bible, it means eternal banishment in hell. The really sad part of verse 32 is that it talks of the “complacency” of fools. We can be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that everything is fine. We can think that our folly is not that big a deal. “This isn’t something I need to worry about right now; I’ve got plenty of time to address that.” We often don’t recognize that our behavior, which we think may just be a minor character flaw, is a rebellion that will ultimately destroy us.

Proverbs 1:33

While the complacent fool will have his feet knocked out from under him, those who accept Wisdom—those who listen to her and are in a personal relationship with her—will live securely and be unafraid of danger. Again, in the immediate context of the life of Israel, this refers to safe dwelling in the land without fear of enemies or exile. In the context of the whole Bible, this refers to living with God forever in the homeland he has provided for us, the new creation. We experience something of this confidence now because we know that our ultimate enemies—sin, Satan, and death—can’t ultimately destroy us when we are in Christ. This knowledge should enable us to sleep at night without nightmares that our worst fears will be realized.

We’ve all been foolish. At times we have all failed to walk in wisdom. The good news is that wisdom isn’t a thing; Wisdom is a person we can trust. He will forgive your failures and enable you to be wise. But he warns you not to be complacent because today is the day of salvation.