“Because I have called you and you refused, I have stretched out My hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all My counsel and would have none of My rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes….Then they will call on Me, but I will not answer….because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD” (Prov 24-29).
The book of Proverbs emphasizes throughout that God has revealed to us those absolute standards by which we are to live. These standards are the “gospel of the kingdom” which Jesus came to preach when beginning His earthly ministry prior to Calvary (Matthew 4:23). To refuse to accept the ways of the kingdom will bring tragic consequences in our lives, for as Paul warned, we will “reap what we sow” (Galatians 6:7-9). This proverb of the week found in the first chapter of the book is an admonishment that sin is the parent of misery. It may seem cruel when God says He will not answer when we call upon Him in the midst of our adversity, but such is the outcome if we disdain His counsel and do not choose the fear of the LORD. Untold multitudes have been brainwashed in present times for the false prophets of whom Jesus has warned us fourteen times in the Word of God. We have been so brainwashed by heretical teaching that scratches our itching ears that many have come to believe that God has only one hand which consists of love, grace and mercy. Indeed, God is love but He wouldn’t be true to His nature did He not have a second hand, namely that consisting of righteousness, justice and judgment. So it is God is telling us that if we will have none of His counsel and despise His rebuke, He will laugh at our calamity and allow us to experience the consequence of having a hardened heart: “Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way” (1:31). Quite a number of these proverbs are directed at the young who face many enticements to sin as a result of peer pressure to join with the majority instead of developing a close relationship with God and seeking to be trained in righteousness by learning and obeying the commands of God. To gain wisdom means to approach all of life from God’s point of view, not merely gaining knowledge of God’s ways but putting such into consistent practice.
