Foolish or wise?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 4:19-31

TO CHEW ON: "'For My people are foolish,

They have not known Me.

They are silly children,

And they have no understanding.

They are wise to do evil,

But to do good they have no knowledge.'" Jeremiah 4:22

Bible writers didn't hesitate to label certain folks fools or foolish, describing them as being without understanding. Some of the people who earned that description were (linked words lead to four versions of the passage on Bible Gateway):
- The person who spent his time on frivolous pursuits instead of work (Proverbs 12:11).
- The lazy person (Proverbs 24:30).
- The haughty person (Proverbs 18:12).
- The oppressive ruler (Proverbs 28:16).
- The person who made an idol and fuel out of the same block of wood (Isaiah 44:19).
- And those people who did not have the sense to seek after and know God (our focus verse today).

Isn't that a little harsh, we ask. We humans have knowledge that spans the disciplines from Archeology to Zoology and know lots about the human body, mind, and psyche. Does none of this count as wisdom?

God's word tells us it doesn't count for much. In God's economy, the vast sum of things we know is of little account - I Corinthians 1:25. But what we do with the things of wisdom matters a great deal.

So when we hear God's voice (through His word or His servants) teaching, correcting, scolding, advising, chiding, we have a choice. We can refuse to listen (Zechariah 7:11-13) and become confirmed and stuck in our foolish ways (Romans 1:28), or we can take what we hear to heart, letting it root and fruit in our lives (Matthew 13:23).

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to put more stock in what You say than what so-called wise but godless people say. I want to be wise in Your ways. Amen.

MORE: Foolish or wise foundation?

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells this little story (Matthew 7:24-27):

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”