Posted on 03/07/2022 10:05:32 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things” (Proverbs 8:4-6 KJV).
“O ye simple,” the message requires humility. “ye fools,” I have yet to hear a preacher say, “You bunch of fools! Listen to me!” That is exactly what wisdom is saying here. It is talking to those that lack any kind of sense. So, in order to hear what is said, the hearer is going to have to become humble. Pride will always destroy you from hearing the truth.
“. . . be ye of an understanding heart,” understand that you are a sinner, understand that you need instruction. Understand that you do not know it all. Understand that there is someone that knows more than you do, and can help you, and can teach you. A heart that lacks understanding thinks that it can take care of itself and it has all the answers. This verse describes the modern teenager right down to the letters. We’ve all been there. We can remember that time when we knew more than our parents, until we got married and had kids and suddenly discovered that we didn’t know a thing.
We had help though, didn’t we? Our teachers told us that we all had a better education than they had, and there were more mechanical devices and inventions in our day than in theirs. Of course, today I look over and see these three-year-old’s handling I-Phones and think that maybe they do know more than I do.
But with all that, it was interesting how that they would tell me not to fool with something because of the danger involved, and I would fool with it anyway, and reap the results, and discovered that in that area they knew what they were talking about. I still thought they were rather dumb, though. I had a deceptive, deceitful heart.
“. . . be ye of an understanding heart,” a heart that will take correction, will accept reproof, a heart that will get into the Bible and read it, believe it, and apply it. “O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.”
Will Houghton wrote:
“God’s word is the Book of the heart, and so it is universal in its appeal. It tells us that all men are sinners and that for all men the one Saviour died. It tells us of the new birth and abundant life offered to all men. It lays out before us the highway to Heaven in such simple terms that “the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein” (Isaiah 35:8).
“Out of the heart of God comes this divine revelation, and into the heart of man it falls to bring peace for today and hope for the future.
“Let the critic lay aside his scissors and the scientist his microscope and the surgeon his knife and the unbeliever his rebellion and let each one of us take our rightful place as average folk with hearts open to receive the word of God.”
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