Wisdom Warns 

Proverbs 1; I die daily devotional.

²⁴ “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;

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So how are we to be reproved by Wisdom? As our previous verse describes, Jesus is our reproof. Now, here we are, and how appropriate—considering the new year upon us. We are at a … ‘stand still’, a pause … because these 7 days we celebrate the gift of grace; people are home for Christmas before being home for New Years, gifts are waiting to be unwrapped and hope is in the air, work is less of a burden. We have grace to be alive and share in this gift of life for Wisdom. Wisdom is calling sinners to repent and heed the gospel, but who refused?

YOU REFUSED

Wisdom was preached from the prophets of old, the ancients, people moved by the Spirit of God, yet not the Word of God themselves, but sinners. Words of God were preached and proclaimed from the mouths of the dead, wisdom called, but was still refused. So the Word of God became flesh, a hand stretched out to the world, but have we paid attention? The scriptures, appearing to be an abstract notion of hope spoken and written down through the seed of Adam for the preservation of the human soul by God, until there was such a voice that claimed authority as being those very scriptures made alive into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. Again, have we paid attention? Jesus, the Son of God, innocent of any sin and proved to be the miracle all prayed for, was murdered on the cross by the human race—crucified. The entire human race is guilty of murder. Every soul was guilty of the sin of Adam who disobeyed God for the questionable position of whether to receive from the hand of his wife or not, but now worse, we’re guilty of sin itself having murdered the Son of God who took away the sin of the world. We refused the gift of God. …no one paid attention.

• Have I heard?
• Have I paid attention?
• Have I believed?
• Have I faith?
• Have I forgiveness?
• Have I Jesus Christ?

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RECOURCE

Proverbs 1 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
¹ The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: ² To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, ³ To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; ⁴ To give prudence to the naïve, To the youth knowledge and discretion, ⁵ A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel, ⁶ To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles. ⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  ⁸ Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching; ⁹ Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck. ¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. ¹¹ If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; ¹² Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit; ¹³ We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil; ¹⁴ Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,” ¹⁵ My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path, ¹⁶ For their feet run to evil And they hasten to shed blood. ¹⁷ Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net In the sight of any bird; ¹⁸ But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives. ¹⁹ So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors. Wisdom Warns ²⁰ Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; ²¹ At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: ²² “How long, O naïve ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? ²³  “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. ²⁴ “Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; ²⁵ And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof; ²⁶ I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, ²⁷ When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. ²⁸ “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, ²⁹ Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. ³⁰ “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. ³¹ “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. ³² “For the waywardness of the naïve will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. ³³ “But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

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COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P1-V24) Commentary
3. He reads the doom of those that continue obstinate against all these means and methods of grace. It is large and very terrible, v. 24-32. Wisdom, having called sinners to return, pauses awhile, to see what effect the call has, hearkens and hears; but they speak not aright (Jer. 8:6), and therefore she goes on to tell them what will be in the end hereof.

• (1.) The crime is recited and it is highly provoking. See what it is for which judgment will be given against impenitent sinners in the great day, and you will say they deserve it, and the Lord is righteous in it. It is, in short, rejecting Christ and the offers of his grace, and refusing to submit to the terms of his gospel, which would have saved them both from the curse of the law of God and from the dominion of the law of sin.
  • [1.] Christ called to them, to warn them of their danger; he stretched out his hand to offer them mercy, nay, to help them out of their miserable condition, stretched out his hand for them to take hold of, but they refused and no man regarded; some were careless and never heeded it, nor took notice of what was said to them; others were wilful, and, though they could not avoid hearing the will of Christ, yet they gave him a flat denial, they refused, v. 24. They were in love with their folly, and would not be made wise. They were obstinate to all the methods that were taken to reclaim them. God stretched out his hand in mercies bestowed upon them, and, when those would not work upon them, in corrections, but all were in vain; they regarded the operations of his hand no more than the declarations of his mouth.