Proverbs 1:20 - Meaning and Application

Solomon has already shown how dangerous it is to listen to Satan’s temptations. Here he shows how dangerous it is not to listen to God’s calls, because we will always regret neglecting them.

Notice, first, by whom God calls us: by wisdom. It is wisdom that cries out in public. The word is plural, “wisdoms,” because as there is endless wisdom in God, so there is the many-sided wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10). God speaks to people through every kind of wisdom, and in every word of God there is a wise purpose.

Human understanding is one form of this wisdom. It is the light and law of nature, the powers of reason, and the work of conscience (Job 38:36). God speaks through these things and reasons with people by them. The human spirit is the Lord’s lamp, and wherever people go, they may hear a voice behind them saying, “This is the way.” The voice of conscience is the voice of God, and it is not always quiet. Sometimes it cries out.

Civil government is also a form of wisdom, because it is God’s own appointment. Rulers act as his representatives. By David, God said to fools, “Do not act foolishly” (Psalm 75:4). In the open gates and public gathering places, where courts were held, judges, as the nation’s wise leaders, called wicked people in God’s name to repent and change.

Divine revelation is wisdom too. Every part of it, every command and instruction, is as wise as wisdom itself. God speaks by his written word, by the law of Moses, which sets before us blessing and curse, by the lips of the priests who were to keep knowledge, and by his prophets and all his ministers. He warns sinners as clearly as a town crier announcing something in the streets or courthouse. In his word, God does more than state the issue. He reasons with people about it: “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).

Christ himself is Wisdom, or rather, the source of all wisdoms, because in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He stands at the center of all divine revelation. He is not only the eternal Wisdom of God, but also the eternal Word, by whom God speaks to us. The Father has given all judgment to him, so he is the one who pleads with sinners and then gives sentence on them. He even calls himself Wisdom (Luke 7:35).

Second, notice how he calls us. He does it very publicly, so that anyone who has ears to hear may hear. Everyone is welcome to benefit from what he says, and everyone must pay attention to it. The rules of wisdom are announced in the streets, not only in schools or palaces, but in the busiest public places, among ordinary people passing through the city gates. It is a comfort to cast the gospel net where there are many fish, hoping that some will be caught.

This was fulfilled in our Lord Jesus, who taught openly in the temple and in crowds of people, and said nothing in secret (John 18:20). He also told his ministers to proclaim the gospel from the housetop (Matthew 10:27). God says, “I have not spoken in secret” (Isaiah 45:19). Wisdom’s voice is heard everywhere. Truth does not hide in corners, and virtue is not ashamed of itself.

He also calls very urgently. She cries out, and then cries again, like someone deeply concerned. Jesus stood and cried out. She speaks with complete clarity and with real affection. God wants to be heard and obeyed.

Third, notice what God and Christ call us to. He first reproves sinners for their folly and for stubbornly holding on to it (Proverbs 1:22). Wisdom addresses simple people, those who love simplicity, and fools who hate knowledge. We should still use the means with people we have little hope for, because we do not know what God’s grace may do.

There are three kinds of people here. First are simple ones who love simplicity. Sin is foolishness, and sinners are foolish people. Their condition is very bad if they enjoy their foolish ideas about right and wrong, their wrong feelings against God’s ways, and their own foolish behavior. They take pleasure in their self-deception and in flattering themselves in their sin.

Second are scorners who delight in mocking. These are proud people who enjoy insulting everyone around them, joking at everything, and making fun of all things. The main target here is scoffers at religion, the worst kind of sinners, who refuse to submit to Christ’s truth and law and to the warnings of his word. They take pride in tearing down everything sacred and serious.

Third are fools who hate knowledge. No one hates knowledge except a fool. Only those who do not truly understand religion are against it. The worst fools are those who hate being taught and corrected, and who have a deep dislike for serious godliness.

The rebuke is expressed in this question: “How long will you go on like this?” This shows that the God of heaven wants sinners to turn and be changed, not ruined. He is deeply displeased with their stubbornness and delay. He waits to show grace and is willing to reason with them.

He then invites them to repent and become wise (Proverbs 1:23). The command is clear: “Turn at my reproof.” We do not make right use of correction if we do not turn away from evil and toward good, because that is the purpose of the correction. Turn back to your right mind. Turn to God. Turn to your duty, and live.

The promises are very encouraging. Those who love simplicity find themselves unable, by their own strength, to change their minds and ways. They cannot turn by their own power. God answers this by promising, “I will pour out my Spirit to you.” Do what you can, and God’s grace will work with you, and within you, to will and to do the good you could never do without him. Help yourself, and God will help you. Stretch out your withered hand, and Christ will strengthen and heal it.

The author of this grace is the Spirit, and he is promised here: “I will pour out my Spirit to you,” like oil or water. You will receive the Spirit in abundance, like rivers of living water (John 7:38). Our heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

The means of this grace is the word, which, when rightly received, turns us. So God also promises, “I will make my words known to you,” not only speaking them, but helping you understand them. Special grace is necessary for sincere conversion, but that grace will never be refused to anyone who honestly seeks it and yields to it.

Finally, he declares the doom of those who keep resisting all these means and acts of grace. It is long and very terrifying (Proverbs 1:24-32).

Wisdom, after calling sinners to return, waits to see how they will respond. She listens, but they do not speak rightly (Jeremiah 8:6). So she goes on to show what will happen in the end. The charge against them is serious and deeply offensive to God. In the end, it comes down to rejecting Christ and refusing the grace he offers. They would not submit to the terms of his gospel, which would have saved them from both the curse of God’s law and the power of sin’s law.

Christ called to them to warn them of danger. He stretched out his hand to offer mercy, and even to help them out of their miserable condition. He held out his hand for them to take, but they refused and no one paid attention. Some were careless and did not even notice what was said. Others were stubborn, and though they heard Christ’s will, they gave him a flat refusal. They loved their foolishness and would not be made wise. They resisted every method used to bring them back. God stretched out his hand through mercies he gave them, and when those did not move them, through corrections as well, but all was useless. They paid no more attention to his works than to his words.

Christ also rebuked and counseled them. His rebukes were not only corrections, but loving guidance meant to help them do better. Yet they treated all his counsel as worthless and would not accept his rebuke, as if it were beneath them to be corrected by him, and as if they had done nothing wrong (Proverbs 1:24-25). This is repeated in verse 30: they would have none of his counsel and rejected it with scorn. They called his rebukes insults (Jeremiah 6:10), and treated all his correction as a joke. Those who are deaf to wise counsel and correction are marked for ruin.

They were also urged to submit to right reason and to true religion, but they rebelled against both. Reason was not allowed to rule them, because they hated knowledge (Proverbs 1:29). They hated the light of divine truth because it exposed the evil of their deeds (John 3:20). They could not bear to be told what they did not want to know. Religion also could not rule them, because they did not choose the fear of the Lord. Instead, they chose to walk in their own hearts’ desires and in what their eyes wanted. They were urged to keep God always before them, but they chose to push him and his fear behind them. Those who do not choose the fear of the Lord show that they have no true knowledge.

The sentence is then pronounced, and it is sure to end in ruin. Those who will not submit to God’s rule will surely perish under his wrath and curse, and even the gospel will not help them then. They would not take the benefit of God’s mercy when it was offered, so it is just that they fall under his justice (Proverbs 29:1). These warnings will be fully seen in the last judgment and in the eternal misery of the unrepentant, though there are already signs of this in present judgments.

Right now sinners often live in comfort and feel secure. They are at ease and laugh at sorrow. But calamity will come. Sickness will come, along with diseases they will feel are the first signs and messengers of death. Other troubles will come in mind and in possessions, and these will show how foolish it was to keep God at a distance. Their calamity will also strike them with fear. They will be seized by dread and imagine that worse is coming. When God sends public judgments, sinners in Zion are afraid, and hypocrites are overcome with terror. Death is the king of terrors to them (Job 15:21; Job 18:11), and that fear will torment them without end.

What they feared will actually happen to them. Their fear will come like a great ruin, like a powerful flood sweeping everything away. It will be their destruction, total and final, and it will come like a whirlwind that suddenly carries off all the chaff. Those who will not accept the fear of God leave themselves open to every other fear, and their fears will not be groundless. Their terror will then turn into despair. Distress and anguish will come upon them, and having fallen into the pit they feared, they will see no way out (Proverbs 1:27). Saul cried out, “Anguish has come upon me” (2 Samuel 1:9), and hell is a place of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, because of the anguish of the sinner under the righteous wrath of God (Romans 2:8-9).

God now pities their folly, but then he will laugh at their calamity (Proverbs 1:26). They laughed at his counsel, and he will answer them in kind. Those who mock religion only make themselves ridiculous before the whole world. The righteous will laugh at them (Psalm 52:6), and God himself will too. This shows that they will be shut out from God’s compassion forever. They sinned so long against mercy that they have now completely lost it. His eye will not spare them, and he will have no pity. Indeed, since his justice will be shown in their ruin, he will be pleased with it, though now he would rather they turn and live. “I will be relieved from my enemies.”

God is now ready to hear their prayers and meet them with mercy if they would only seek him. But then the door will be shut, and they will cry out in vain (Proverbs 1:28). They will then be glad to receive the mercy they now reject and treat lightly, but he will not answer, because when he called, they would not answer. The only answer then will be, “Depart from me, I do not know you.” This has happened to some even in this life, as with Saul, whom God did not answer by Urim or prophets. But in ordinary life, while there is life there is still room for prayer and hope, so this points especially to the final judgment. Then those who ignored God will seek him earnestly, but it will be too late. They will not find him, because they did not seek him when he could be found (Isaiah 55:6). The rich man in hell begged for help, but he was denied.

Now they are eager to follow their own way and like their own plans, but then they will have enough of them (Proverbs 1:31). As the saying goes, people will drink what they have brewed. They will eat the fruit of their own way, and their pay will match their work. As they chose, so will they be judged (Galatians 6:7-8). First, sin has a natural tendency toward destruction (James 1:15).

Sinners are truly miserable if they only reap the fruit of their own way. Those who are destroyed must blame themselves, not anyone else. It is their own choice, their own plan, and they can take pride in it if they want. God gives them over to their delusions (Isaiah 66:4).

They now think highly of their worldly success, but that will only make their ruin worse (Proverbs 1:32). They are proud that they can turn away from God and shake off the restraints of religion, but that very thing will bring them down. Later, even the memory of it will cut them to the heart. They are also proud of their ease and pleasure. But the ease of the simple, as the margin reads, will kill them. The more secure they feel, the more certain and more terrible their destruction will be. The prosperity of fools helps destroy them by making them proud, fastening their hearts to the world, feeding their sinful desires, and hardening them in evil.

The chapter ends with a promise of safety and peace for all who accept wisdom’s instruction (Proverbs 1:33). “Whoever listens to me and lets me guide him will dwell safely.” He will live under God’s special care, so that nothing can truly harm him. He will also be calm, with no troubled fear of danger. He will not only be safe from evil, but free from fear of it. Even if the earth were to shake and fall away, he would not need to be afraid.

If we want to be safe from harm and free from fear, we must let religion guide us and let God’s word counsel us. That is the way to live safely in this world, and to be at peace about the world to come.