Mensa Otabil - The Way of Wisdom
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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. So we do our final reading for the week from Proverbs Chapter 14, and this is verse number 16: «A wise man fears and 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 highlights that 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 are wise or foolish.
Two things stand out. First, it says the wise depart from evil. People who are wise generally fear God. When we say they fear God, it means they respect God; they value His word and 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 not to do something, the wise person, because they respect God, will not do it. They understand the consequences of evil, so the passage says they run from evil.
You know, 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 or pleasure. If you run away from it, people are going to say you are antisocial, not friendly, or that you are not up to date. They may describe you as someone who is missing out on the good things in life. But sin is sin. Whether it sounds good, looks nice, or is entertaining, we have to run from it because in running from it is our safety, our protection, and our deliverance, both in this life and in eternity.
So we must have the wisdom to run from sin. When sin presents itself, true wisdom will turn away from the door of sin and move away. The passage also says the fool rages with self-confidence. This is someone who is making a mistake and doing it very confidently. They rage on, being bullish about it, acting as if they are masters of it while doing the wrong thing. Fools recklessly run into sin because people tend to trust in themselves. They trust their own ability to resolve every problem, believing they can handle anything that comes their way. They believe they are on top, that they are smart, educated, and wealthy, so they rage into sin.
In our world, many people do this. Young people rage into sin because they are youthful and don’t think about consequences; they forget that life is fragile. Older people do it too, thinking their status, power, and might allow them to get away with it. If you’re one of those people who just rages into evil, who rages into sin without considering any consequences, unfortunately, the Bible describes you as a fool. The fool rages into sin very self-confidently without thinking of the repercussions, 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».