Pam's Perambulation

What do we consider to be wisdom?  Saving for a rainy day?  Learning the lessons of a previous generation?  Looking both ways before we cross the road?

There are many ways to be wise – and many ways to ignore wisdom and think we know better.

Proverbs 1:20-33

    wherever crowds gather.
²¹ She shouts in the marketplaces
and near the city gates
as she says to the people,
²² “How much longer
will you enjoy
being stupid fools?
Won’t you ever stop sneering
and laughing at knowledge?
²³     Listen as I correct you
and tell you what I think.
²⁴ You completely ignored me
and refused to listen;
²⁵ you rejected my advice
and paid no attention
when I warned you.

²⁶ “So when you are struck
by some terrible disaster,
²⁷ or when trouble and distress
surround you like a whirlwind,
I will laugh and make fun.
²⁸ You will ask for my help,
but I won’t listen;
you will search,
but you won’t find me.
²⁹ No, you would not learn,
and you refused
to respect the Lord.
³⁰ You rejected my advice
and paid no attention
when I warned you.

³¹ “Now you will eat the fruit
of what you have done,
until you are stuffed full
with your own schemes.
³² Sin and self-satisfaction
bring destruction and death
to stupid fools.
³³ But if you listen to me,
you will be safe and secure
without fear of disaster.”

So, do we listen, or sneer and ignore when good advice comes our way?

Wisdom seeks to offer correction – advice for the right way, and so often it goes ignored.  BUT we pay no attention at our peril.

We are reminded that

In the book of Proverbs the word “wisdom” is sometimes used as though wisdom were a supernatural being who was with God at the time of creation.

and I think it is in that context that this passage is best read.