Ahab and Jehoshaphat tried to change the word of God, just like the people of the world are today. Ahab tried to have his own desires forced on God, but then attempted to hide when he realized it wasn’t going to work out for him. (2 Chronicles 18, 1 Kings 22)
The things God has deemed as sinful will still be counted as sins on the judgment day no matter how much society tries to convinces us of the contrary.
13 Foolishness is like a loud woman;
she does not have wisdom or knowledge.
14 She sits at the door of her house
at the highest place in the city.
15 She calls out to those who are passing by,
who are going along, minding their own business.
16 She says to those who are uneducated,
“Come in here, you foolish people!
17 Stolen water is sweeter,
and food eaten in secret tastes better.”
18 But these people don’t know that everyone who goes there dies,
that her guests end up deep in the grave. – Proverbs 9:13-18 NCV
Living a godly life takes a lot of practice. It is a life lived by surrounding ourselves with good things.
Sinfulness is always present and ready to lead us away from the light. Peter says the devil is a “roaring lion on the prowl” (1 Peter 5:8). Be careful not to trade a lifetime of happiness for a day of fun.
12 It will keep you from the wicked,
from those whose words are bad,
13 who don’t do what is right
but what is evil.
14 They enjoy doing wrong
and are happy to do what is crooked and evil.
15 What they do is wrong,
and their ways are dishonest. – Proverbs 2:12-15 NCV
Proverbs 2 lists five fruits of wisdom. This third paragraph is about the evil that God’s word will deliver one from.
Read about the first fruit, Finding God, here.
Read about the second fruit, The Rewards of Wisdom here.
Have you ever noticed that places where sinful things happen are usually in the dark? People have a built in desire to hide when they are doing something wrong. To associate with these things then is to avoid the light and to eventually enjoy them (v14).
Paul reminds us to cast off the darkness (Romans 13:12 – and yes, that means not to associate with it) and gives us a few examples of things that occur in the dark (Romans 13:13)
Christians are expected to avoid being in sinful situations. Those who accept God’s wisdom are insulated from desire to sin (v12).
3 Whips are for horses, and harnesses are for donkeys,
so paddles are good for fools.
4 Don’t answer fools when they speak foolishly,
or you will be just like them.
5 Answer fools when they speak foolishly,
or they will think they are really wise.
6 Sending a message by a foolish person
is like cutting off your feet or drinking poison.
7 A wise saying spoken by a fool
is as useless as the legs of a crippled person.
8 Giving honor to a foolish person
is like tying a stone in a slingshot.
9 A wise saying spoken by a fool
is like a thorn stuck in the hand of a drunk.
10 Hiring a foolish person or anyone just passing by
is like an archer shooting at just anything.
11 A fool who repeats his foolishness
is like a dog that goes back to what it has thrown up.
12 There is more hope for a foolish person
than for those who think they are wise. – Proverbs 26:2-10
The discussion of wisdom and foolishness in the Proverbs is usually a discussion of godliness versus sin or evil. It is rare that foolishness is referring to intellectual deficiencies as we would use the term today.
In Peter’s passage on false teachers (2 Peter 2) we see him quote verse 11 – a vivid simile about a Christian returning to sin.
Paul refers to verse 12 as he discusses giving over our lives to God in Romans 12.
Can you see how relevant the Proverbs are when we equate foolishness with sin?
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
listen to my words of understanding.
2 Be careful to use good sense,
and watch what you say.
3 The words of another man’s wife may seem sweet as honey;
they may be as smooth as olive oil.
4 But in the end she will bring you sorrow,
causing you pain like a two-edged sword.
5 She is on the way to death;
her steps are headed straight to the grave.
6 She gives little thought to life.
She doesn’t even know that her ways are wrong. – Proverbs 5:1-6 NCV
Proverbs 5 contrasts the rewards of straying and the rewards of working on ones marriage. The lure of sin – any sin, is so convincing, so reasonable, that we often find ways to justify following it.
For those unable to resist, the results are clear. Reread verses 5 and 6 and compare to Romans 6:23 to find an alternative.
21 By her clever words she made him give in;
by her pleasing words she led him into doing wrong.
22 All at once he followed her,
like an ox led to the butcher,
like a deer caught in a trap
23 and shot through the liver with an arrow.
Like a bird caught in a trap,
he didn’t know what he did would kill him. – Proverbs 7:21-23 NCV
Proverbs 7 is again a warning to avoid the adulteress. The spiritual desolation this sin leaves is described in these verses.