Proverbs 1:20–26

This book personifies "wisdom" from the first chapter, and that fits its contents exactly. As is well known, this rises up to the Person of Christ in Proverbs 8:22-31. Even in this first introduction, though the form of the word is plural, the cry does not fail. It goes on to take on the seriousness of a divine warning of unavoidable judgment. So it is hard to separate it from the voice of God Himself.

As to your question, Who is it who speaks? It is plain from 1 Corinthians 1:24 that Christ is the "Wisdom of God," and that He is made to us wisdom (v. 30). (Read Proverbs 8:22-35, and compare with John 1:1-2.)

Here, where Jehovah's law ruled, wisdom was not confined to parental discipline. Still less was it shut up in schools of philosophy. It "cries without." She "raises her voice in the broadways" instead of seeking only the refined and important. She "calls at the head of the noisy places where people gather, at the entry of the gates." She looked for the moral good of those who needed it most, even if culture despises the common person. She does not speak her words in the calm and quiet of the country, but "in the city," where there is far more to attract and distract most people.

Does this not mean that wisdom (or the Gospel) is declared everywhere, to wake people up to their deep need to know the grace of God? So the verse points to the open squares, the chief gathering places and the city gates as the areas of this great testimony. It reminds us of Paul's words to King Agrippa: "none of these things" escaped Agrippa's attention, "since this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).

Wisdom speaks aloud, with the authority of God: "she utters her voice in the streets."... We have seen the parental care that guards the young from evil. But in the ways of God there is another testimony — the public warning and call to sinners which wisdom sends out among them. She cries out in the crowd of men, to the simple and to the scorner, the guilty yet misled ones, and the open and insulting enemy. She calls them to turn at her reproof.

Think of a log that glides motionless down the stream, unaware how close it is to the waterfall ahead. Think of the light, feathery down of a thistle, carried by the breeze into the fire ahead of it. That is how these "simple ones" drift along. The veil is upon their eyes. The false congratulation of the devil is enough to still their fears.

This appeal of wisdom — the call, the promise, the refusal, and the calamity of the refusal to listen to Him who speaks — provides an excellent theme for preaching the Gospel to the unsaved.

It is plain that Proverbs 1:20-23 is not a Gospel invitation at all. Hence the danger of using Scripture out of its true place and connection... Still, the passage has no doubt often been used to wake souls up to the invitations of the Gospel, with much real effect.

Wisdom was not confined to a parent's teaching at home, still less shut up in schools of philosophy. Instead she "cries aloud in the street." She "raises her voice in the markets," not looking only for the refined and important. She "cries out at the head of the noisy streets, at the entrance of the city gates." She sought hard the moral good of those who needed it most, even if cultured people look down on the common crowd. She is not said to speak her words in the calm and quiet of the country, but "in the city," where there is far more to attract and distract most people.

Wisdom speaks with the authority of God, and she speaks aloud. We have seen the parental care of the young to keep them from evil. But in the ways of God there is another testimony: the public warning and call to sinners that wisdom sends out among them. "Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice" — in the gathering of men, to the simple and to the scorner, the guilty but misled ones, and the open and insulting enemy.

Wisdom now speaks, and wisdom in this first section of Proverbs is a person, a divine person. The eighth chapter gives us a wonderful vision of that Person, the Son of God, who is the Wisdom. First stands the call of Wisdom. The call may be answered or rejected.

It is an error, which goes beyond the purpose of the verse, to think that the gift of the Holy Spirit is promised here. An inward blessing is certainly promised here, and it always comes by the Spirit, together with an understanding of wisdom's words. This is much, and the LORD made it true from the time the book was written. But there are two dangers. One is to exaggerate what God always was to His people. The other is to make too little of the privileges that waited for redemption through our Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit was not poured out as at Pentecost until Christ was glorified.

And Wisdom is aggressive. Right out into the open streets Her voice cries to men, "Turn at My reproof; behold, I will pour out My Spirit to you; I will make My words known to you" (Prov. 1:23). This clearly pointed forward to Pentecost. Peter then said of his ascended and glorified Lord, "Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing"; and about three thousand gladly received the word.

It is plain that Prov. 1:20-23 is not a Gospel invitation at all. So there is danger in using Scripture out of its true place and connection… Still, the passage has no doubt often woken souls up to the invitations of the Gospel, with much real effect.

This appeal of wisdom gives an excellent theme for preaching the Gospel to the unsaved. It has the call, the promise, the refusal, and the disaster that follows a refusal to listen to Him who speaks.

Here it is not the gospel that is shown, but the call of God in the government of man on the earth. So it does not go beyond the judgment of the day that is coming here below. But if He came as the Son of man in grace to the lost, He will surely return as the Son of man in judgment of all who despise Him, whether alive or dead.

Wisdom cries aloud in the street (v. 20). Does this not mean that wisdom (or the gospel) is proclaimed everywhere? It is proclaimed to wake people up to their deep need to know the grace of God. So the open squares, the main crossroads and the city gates stand out as the places of this great testimony. Paul told King Agrippa that "none of these things" had escaped him, "since this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).

reason: non-ESV re-quote of the featured verse; two very hard sentences split It is an ever-growing moral disease, never so common as in these last days. The fools that hate knowledge may be more godless still, and become openly atheist, as Scripture shows.

The world, the entire community by which the earth is peopled, is divided by God into two great classes, the saved and the unsaved; or, the "children of God," and the "children of wrath." But the second class, that of the unsaved, is subdivided into three smaller classes.

Verse 22 asks how long the simple ones will love being simple. This simplicity means ignorance. Sadly, the ungodly prefer it to the wisdom of true faith in the Lord Jesus. They think that showing scorn for the truth will get rid of it, as though their foolish words carried authority. Because they hate knowledge, they delight in scorning.

Those who make up this class live in a region of moral and spiritual quiet. The great question of judgment to come does not trouble them. They take for granted that with them all is right and well. They follow the religion of their ancestors... There may be times of unease, but the relapse comes, and the sluggard's plea lulls the conscience: "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest." So all is quiet again, all is peaceful, all is silent — but it is the silence of death.

They set their brains to work. Proud of the "infallibility of logic" and the "accuracy of reason," they find, to their own satisfaction, what seems unreasonable in the revelation — the Word of God. They cannot allow that this revelation belongs to faith and lies outside reason altogether. So they work by reason instead of faith, and claim to find inconsistency and contradiction. Hence their contempt, their pride, their scorn.

A scorner is a bolder sinner against God and his own soul. He does not like to be reproved; "he will not go to the wise." Self is his aim and in practice his God. Folly is his life, and so he refuses all wisdom from above with contempt.

reason: broken plural/singular grammar around ESV John 3:20; long sentence split

You may have your own way now. Grace may bear with you long, but not for ever. God will take you in hand one day, and, believe me, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Then the Lord tells them plainly to turn at His reproof (v. 23). Turning involves real repentance, for it means a radical change of mind. When this is truly worked in the soul, God promises to pour out His Spirit and make His words known.

Wisdom was not limited to a parent's teaching. Still less was she locked up in the schools of philosophers. She "cries out in the street." She "raises her voice in the broad streets" instead of looking only for the refined and important. She "calls at the head of the noisy places where crowds gather, at the entry of the gates." She looked hard for moral good among those who needed it most, even though refined culture looks down on ordinary people. We are not told that she speaks her words in the calm and quiet of the countryside. She speaks "in the city," where there is far more to attract and distract most people.

Here simplicity means ignorance. Sadly, people without God prefer it to the wisdom of true faith in the Lord Jesus. They think that scorning the truth will make it go away, as if their foolish words carried real authority. Because they hate knowledge, they delight in scorning.

Do not say, "We have no time, no leisure, no opportunity, no ability." You have time for the things of this world. You have leisure for your pleasure, opportunity for your business, and ability for the demands of this life. "You love simplicity." You love that state of indifference to the truth. It keeps you on good terms with the world and its ways. You do not care to clash with your old companions and friends. Going with the stream is easier than going against it.

Then the Lord directly advises them, "Turn at my rebuke" (v. 23). Turning involves some reality of repentance, for it means a radical change of mind. When that change is real in the soul, God promises to pour out His Spirit and to make His words known.

It is a mistake, and it goes beyond the purpose of the verse, to think that the gift of the Holy Spirit is promised here. The verse does promise a real inward blessing, always by the Spirit, and an understanding of wisdom's words. That is much, and the Lord made it true from the time the book was written. But two dangers lie close by. One is to exaggerate what God always was to His people. The other is to undervalue the privileges that had to wait for redemption through our Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit was not poured out as at Pentecost until Christ was glorified.

And Wisdom is bold. Right out into the broad streets Her voice cries to men, "If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you." This clearly pointed forward to Pentecost. There Peter said of his ascended and glorified Lord, "Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." About three thousand gladly received the word.

One day they will reap the fruit of the folly they sowed, under God's government of this world. Then, in their fear and trouble, they will call on Wisdom to guide them. But she will not hear them. By then it will be too late to learn Wisdom's ways. Wisdom will laugh at them, so to speak — it is a figure of speech — at what they suffer. They had treated Wisdom's counsel and reproof as nothing when she cried to them to learn her ways.

Wisdom now speaks, and wisdom in this first section of Proverbs is a person, a divine person. The eighth chapter gives us a wonderful vision of that Person, the Son of God, who is the Wisdom. First stands the call of Wisdom. The call may be answered or rejected.

Wisdom speaks with the authority of God, and she speaks aloud. In the ways of God there is a public warning and call to sinners, which wisdom sends out among them. She cries outside, in the street where people gather — to the simple and to the scorner, to the guilty but misled and to the open, insulting enemy. She calls them to turn at her reproof.

"Refused" is the word the blessed God uses to describe the way man treats His call. This refusal does not always take the same shape or form, but refusal it is. Sometimes, in plain words, it is an open admission of dislike for the subject at all costs. Very often it is a kind of indifference. Most often it is putting the matter off, promising itself a more convenient season — a season, let me add, which in most cases never comes. But whatever its character, it all ranks in God's eyes as refusal.

The whole Old Testament bears witness to the truth of verse 24. God has certainly pleaded with mankind for centuries. If we had been in God's place, would we have been so patient in continuing to plead with rebels? So we can well understand why, because men have disbelieved all His counsel and refused His rebukes, He declares, "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you" (v. 26). What else can we expect in such a case?

The call of God is sent out through many channels. Did He not speak to you by your recent sorrow? Has that recent suffering of yours nothing of God's voice in it? Is there not a voice in your own conscience at this moment? It tells you that if you died now you would be lost for ever. Be sure of this, reader: God has not left Himself without plenty of witness to the patient, long-suffering character of His grace.

When God calls for mourning and you are deaf, when you call for mercy God may be silent (Prov. 1:24, 28). God may take the later time to judge you because you did not take the earlier time to repent in. Though true mourning for sin is never too late, late mourning is seldom true.

In the day of desolation and judgment they will call, but there is no answer. They may fear the judgment, but there was no love, no submission to the truth. They will eat the fruit of their own ways. The ease, prosperity and carelessness they have lived in will be their ruin.

What makes this passage so very solemn is that it is the close, the finish, as we say. This is very serious indeed. The book of Proverbs deals with the government of God on the earth. So the judgment here, though it comes from God and is final, does not go beyond judgment in this world. Here God deals with man in this world, and holds him responsible.

Wisdom now speaks, and wisdom in this first section of Proverbs is a person, a divine person. The eighth chapter gives us a wonderful vision of that Person, the Son of God, who is the Wisdom. First stands the call of Wisdom. The call may be answered or rejected.

Wisdom speaks aloud, with the authority of God. This is an important principle about the results of sin. We have seen the care of parents to keep the young from evil. But in the ways of God there is another testimony — the public warning and call to sinners that wisdom sends out among them. She cries out in the crowd of people. She speaks to the simple and to the scorner, to the guilty but misled and to the open, insulting enemy. She calls them all to turn at her reproof.

Then the Lord tells them plainly to turn at His reproof (v. 23). Turning involves real repentance, for it means a radical change of mind. When this really happens in the soul, God promises to pour out His Spirit and to make His words known.

So they would reap the fruit of the folly they had sown, under the government of God that repays people in this world. In their fear and trouble they would call on Wisdom to guide them. But they would not be heard. It would then be too late to learn Wisdom's ways. Wisdom would then laugh at them, so to speak (it is a figure of speech), for what they were suffering. They had set at nothing Wisdom's counsel and reproof, when she cried to them to learn her ways.

The whole Old Testament bears witness to the truth of verse 24… God has pled with mankind for centuries. If we had been in God's place, would we have kept pleading with rebels so patiently? Men have disbelieved all His counsel and refused His rebukes. So we can well understand why He declares, "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you" (v. 26).

What is shown here is not the gospel. It is the call of God in His government of man on the earth. So it does not go beyond the judgment that will be carried out in the day that is coming here below… He did come as the Son of man in grace to the lost. He will surely return as the Son of man, in judgment of all who despise Him, whether alive or dead.

It was the pressure of despair that wrung a useless cry to the Lord out of Saul's heart. There was no real turning to Him — and He never shuts out the most despairing cry from a soul that is truly broken. All help was gone. In his fear he asks the Lord whom he had made a habit of disobeying and neglecting. Many others since have done the same, and like him have sunk deeper into the swamp of despair.

True, the grace of God has no limit. But the day of grace is wearing to its end. For long centuries the sunlight of grace has shone on this guilty world. Now the shadows lengthen and the night draws on.

In this passage it is "Wisdom" who speaks, crying in the streets to the simple, the scorner, and the fool. She calls them to turn at her reproof and to stop loving their own ways, and promises them her spirit and her words. So when they were reaping the fruits of the folly they had sown, under God's government that repays men in this world, they would call on Wisdom to guide them in their fear and calamity. But she would not hear them. It would then be too late to learn Wisdom's ways. Wisdom would then laugh at them, so to speak — it is a figure of speech — for what they were suffering. They had set at nothing her counsel and her reproof when she cried to them to learn her ways.

Refused is the word the blessed God uses to describe the way man treats His call. This refusal does not always take the same shape or form, but refusal it is. Sometimes it is an open admission of dislike for the subject at any cost. Very often it is a kind of indifference. Most often it is putting things off, promising itself a more convenient season — a season, let me add, which in most cases never comes. But whatever its character, it all ranks in God's eyes as refusal.

The Book of Proverbs refers to the government of God here on earth, on the principle that "whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). This is true of saint or sinner. Grace saves the vilest, but the government of God is over all... The grace of God in salvation never sets aside these principles of His dealings with men... A true Christian may do something for want of discretion, and for want of listening to Wisdom's words, which he may have to repent of all his days.

What makes this passage so very solemn is that it is the close, the finish, as we say... The judgment here, though of God, and final, does not go beyond judgment in this world. It is man in this world, dealt with in his responsibility.

All the Old Testament bears witness to the truth of verse 24. God says there, "Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded." He has pleaded with mankind for centuries. If we had been in God's place, would we have been so patient in continuing to plead with rebels? Men have disbelieved all His counsel and refused His rebukes. We may well understand, then, why He declares, "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you." What else can we expect under such circumstances?

It is not because judgment is His delight... "As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." ... Where He foretells those judgments in the most solemn terms, He speaks of rising "that he may do his deed — strange is his deed! — and to work his work — alien is his work!"

How terrible when the Lord, patient and long-suffering, laughs at the calamity of those who despised Him! He mocks the fears, distress, and anguish of those who mocked Him. He has no answer when they call, and they will not find Him, though they search hard for Him then. To fear the judgment, above all when it falls, is not to fear the Lord.