Mensa Otabil - The Wise and the Fool (10/18/2025)
This week, we’ve been looking at wisdom from the book of Proverbs, and we focused on Proverbs chapter 14. We’ve read various verses and learned lessons from them, and so we do our final reading for the week from Proverbs chapter 14, and this is verse number 16. A wise man departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident. I don’t know about you, but the writings in the book of Proverbs sometimes put a smile on your face because you can almost picture what the verse is saying.
The passage says one important way to mark the difference between the wise and the fool is their attitude toward evil. When something is wrong, how do they approach it? Our attitude toward sin will determine whether we’re wise or we’re not wise; we’re fools. There are two things that it focuses on. First, it says the wise departs from evil. People who are wise generally fear God, and when we say they fear God, it means they respect God. They value His word; they value His principles. They know that God’s word is sure, so they have deep respect and reverence for God and His word.
As a result, they are very careful about the things that God warns us about. If God says don’t do something, the wise person, because they respect God, will not go and do it. They know the consequences of evil, and so the passage says they run from evil. Sometimes the best way to deal with sin is to run away from it. People may laugh at you, but you have to run away from it. The reason is that sometimes sin is presented as fun, as pleasure, and so if you run away from it, people are going to say you are anti-social, you are not friendly, you are not modern, you are not up to date, or whatever it is they describe you as. They describe you as somebody who is losing out on the good things of life.
But when sin is seen, whether it sounds good or looks nice, or is entertaining, we have to run from it because in running from it is our safety, our protection, our deliverance, both in this life and in eternity. We must have the wisdom to run from sin. When sin stands or presents itself, true wisdom will turn away from the door of sin and move away. The passage says the fool rages with self-confidence. It’s somebody who is making a mistake and doing it very confidently. They rage on, and they are bullish about it; they go on as if they are masters of it, but they are doing the wrong thing.
Fools recklessly run into sin, and the reason is that people tend to trust in themselves. They trust in their own ability to resolve every problem. They believe that, come what may, they can handle it. They think they are on top; they believe they are smart, they have the education, they have the money, so they rage into sin. In our world, there are many people who do that. Young people rage into sin because they’re so youthful they don’t think about the consequences; they don’t understand that life is fragile. Older people do the same because they have status, power, and might; they think they can go ahead and still rage into sin.
Now, if you’re one of those people who just rages into evil and sin without considering any consequences, unfortunately, the Bible describes you as a fool because the fool rages into sin very self-confidently without thinking of the consequences. But the wise person runs away from sin. Let’s pray: say with me, «Heavenly Father, help me to depart from evil and stop short of acting rashly. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»