Wisdom Is a Street Preacher

Proverbs 1:20-33

Main Idea: Wisdom is a person who pleads with us to repent and not perish.

1. You Need to Accept Jesus, the Wisdom of God (1:20-23).
2. Refusing to Accept Jesus Will Wreck Your Life (1:24-32).
3. Accepting Jesus Leads to True Life (1:33).

Several years ago I ( Jon) went on a mission trip to a country in Southeast Asia. We would travel from place to place preaching the gospel, and then at lunchtime we would stop in an open air market to eat. Our trip leader was a passionate evangelist, so after we had time to eat he would appoint someone to stand up on our jeep and use a megaphone to preach the gospel to the hundreds of people in the marketplace. One day I was chosen to preach, so I got on the jeep and as passionately as I could I gave the gospel. At the end of my sermon I invited anyone who wanted to respond to the gospel to come forward to talk with me. No one came, so I prepared to get down off the jeep. Our trip leader looked at me and motioned with his hand for me to continue to preach. So I preached for a few more minutes, gave the invitation and no one came. Our leader motioned for me to keep going. This went on for several minutes. Finally, some teenage boys who were watching me began to laugh at me. This enraged our group leader. He snatched the megaphone from me and walked toward the boys and shouted with a red face, “You think this is funny! God is gonna laugh at you in hell one day!” I was shocked, and so were the teenagers. It was quite the scene.

Hellfire and brimstone preaching can be harsh, and there are definitely wrong ways to do it. Many people can use the threat of hell as a way to manipulate people into making decisions. But many people preach with this kind of passion—like our group leader—because they really do love people and do not want them to perish. We can debate the most effective methods of evangelism and the best ways to go about it, but what we can’t debate is that there is an urgent need to plead with those headed toward destruction to repent and believe the gospel.

Shockingly, in Proverbs 1:20-33 Wisdom is presented as a “turn or burn” street preacher who appeals to “the inexperienced” to turn and not perish. Wisdom warns that we are heading for disaster because of our foolishness and brokenness. Wisdom pleads with us to repent. This passage is essential to rightly understanding the book of Proverbs and the biblical concept of wisdom. Ultimately, wisdom is not a set of ideas; wisdom is a person—Jesus Christ. You need to begin a personal relationship with him by faith. If you do, he will forgive your sin and give you his Spirit. This will lead you to wisdom for abundant life here and eternal life hereafter. But rejecting Wisdom—Jesus—will wreck your life here and condemn you eternally hereafter. Whether or not you have a relationship with Jesus determines if you walk in wisdom or in a way that seems right to you.

There are three inescapable realities that we see in Proverbs 1:20-33.

You Need to Accept Jesus, the Wisdom of God

Proverbs 1:20-23

Too often we think of Proverbs as an Israelite version of Dear Abby. We think Solomon is simply giving us wise tips on how to live a successful life. The problem is that we are broken; so even if we know the right things to do, we often choose to do the wrong things. We say things before we think; we don’t listen to advice; we tell lies; we disrespect our parents; we brag arrogantly on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; we waste time at work with Angry Birds; and we are stingy with our money. Proverbs has very good news for us. Wisdom is not primarily tips on how to live life; Wisdom is a person with whom you can be in a ­relationship—Jesus of Nazareth. When your vertical relationship with God is right through Jesus Christ, your horizontal relationships with others and the world around you will be right as well. Proverbs teaches very clearly here that Wisdom is personal. You have to know Wisdom to walk the wise path in daily relationships, in the work place, or in how you use your words.

Wisdom cries out in the most public places where there will be a maximum number of people. She cries out in the streets, the open squares, the noisy places, and the city gates (Fox, Proverbs 1–9, 96). Solomon personifies his wise teaching as a woman—Woman or Lady Wisdom. He presents her as a preaching prophetess. This is a poetic device. Personification is representing an abstract idea as a person or creature. This mechanism grabs our attention. We use it to talk about the flag (“these colors don’t run”) and when we say “opportunity knocked” or “Lady Justice is blind.”

This may raise an objection in your mind: “Pastor, you said that Jesus is Wisdom, but Solomon says Wisdom is a woman.” Why does Solomon present a woman here? First, Solomon is symbolically talking about his wise teaching. He uses the poetic device of personification to get the reader’s attention. Second, the Hebrew noun for wisdom is a feminine noun, so the personification will take on feminine characteristics (again this is poetry; it’s not saying that Jesus is a woman). Hebrew, like Spanish and French, has gender identities for its nouns; so when there is a metaphor, it takes on that identity (Waltke, Proverbs, Chapters 1–15, 83). Third, Solomon knows that his son—a young man—will be drawn to an attractive woman. In order to get his son to listen to his teaching, he personifies it as a beautiful woman whom he wants his son to marry. This might have helped me ( Jon) in high school. I hate biology. I almost failed the subject. It was boring to me, and I didn’t understand it. But if my teacher had presented biology to me as Ashley—the beautiful, smart, funny, complex woman that I married and seek to learn about on a daily basis—then I would have been all ears! That’s exactly what Solomon is doing here. He is telling his son that learning the wisdom of Proverbs is as scintillating, exhilarating, enjoyable, and satisfying as pursuing and marrying a knockout woman!

Later, in Proverbs 8–9, Solomon will reveal that Woman Wisdom doesn’t just stand for Solomon’s wisdom; she also stands for God’s Wisdom that is being revealed through Solomon in Proverbs. In the fullness of time, God reveals to us what Solomon couldn’t have fully known: that Jesus is God’s Wisdom in the flesh. First Corinthians 1:24 and 30 state,

Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. . . . It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Christ is the embodiment and fulfillment of the wisdom of Proverbs in the same way that he is the embodiment of the Word itself ( John 1). So ultimately, the only way to become wise is to accept Jesus’s invitation into a personal relationship by faith.

That invitation is presented here with Woman Wisdom being a “turn or burn” street preacher who gives an urgent invitation to the inexperienced: If they listen to her voice and begin a relationship with her, they will be wise and live; but if they refuse, they will be foolish and die. Like a good street evangelist, she goes to where the people are—the crowded places. She urgently warns them to respond instead of heading on a destructive path. She pleads with three classes of people who have not yet made a decision one way or the other about wisdom (about Jesus!): (1) the inexperienced (i.e., gullible), (2) the mocker (i.e., the hard-hearted), and (3) the fool (the middle of the three classes) (Longman, Proverbs, 112).

She calls them to repent upon hearing her sermon. In the fullness of time Jesus calls us to repent when we hear the gospel—to receive him and his word. Repentance is the key response to Jesus’s message. You must recognize that you’re on the wrong path because of the foolish choices you’ve made and continue to make, then you must choose to follow Jesus.

Jesus does very much the same as Woman Wisdom. In the Gospels he goes to people and calls them to follow him. You have a choice between two paths (wisdom or foolishness), which is ultimately a choice between two persons ( Jesus or Satan). Turn around and run toward Jesus—that’s conversion. That’s salvation. That’s wisdom!

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!

Refusing to Accept Jesus Will Wreck Your Life

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.

Accepting Jesus Leads to True Life

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.

Conclusion

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.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Have you ever encountered a hellfire and brimstone preacher? How was his message received? Is it strange that Solomon presents Lady Wisdom in this way?
2. Why did Solomon choose to personify wisdom? What does it add to the text?
3. Why is Wisdom presented as a woman? What may have been the reasons Solomon did so?
4. The wisdom in Proverbs is not just Solomon’s personal wisdom. What does God reveal in time through his wisdom?
5. Lady Wisdom extends an invitation to her hearers. So also did Jesus to his. What are the two options presented?
6. What is ultimately the only way to become wise?
7. Solomon says that if you reject Wisdom, Wisdom will laugh at your calamity and terror and distress when it comes like a storm. Is this fair? Loving? What did Jesus say about this? What did he say would happen to people who reject him and his teaching?
8. Solomon warns about the complacency of foolishness. About what acts of foolishness in your life are you complacent? Why is complacency in this life so eternally deadly?
9. How are rejecting Solomon’s wisdom and rejecting Jesus connected?
10. What is the immediate promise Solomon makes to those who obey wisdom? What did that mean for the nation of Israel? How does this promise apply to us in the context of the entire Bible?