Because of the nature of the book of Proverbs, and the impossibly of commenting on all of a single chapter in these short paragraphs,we choose to pick one or two verses on which to focus.. Please see our  previous post on study tips for Proverbs.

Today this blog will focus on a single short verse from chapter 12. verse 15 reads:

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”  

This has been the plague of men (and women) since  time began; and the more learned we become the worse it gets.  During the cycle of the Judges 17:6 and 21:25 in Israel,  the text says “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  The people would fall into apostasy over and over again until God rescued them and they would start the cycle all over again.   People worshiped their idols and turned away from God until things got so bad that they ended up crying out to him, and then he would save and deliver them.  This continued throughout the kingship of David and even the author of this book.

Even Solomon allowed the women that he turned to lead him into idolatry.  God often has tolerated foolishness by the self-deception of man since time immemorial and has allowed him to continue to make those kinds of mistakes because we have our own freedom to make our mistakes.The wise man listens to the advice and wisdom of our God, His son, and the Holy Spirit.

We are brought up in a world that teaches our children macro-evolution that we are no more than advanced animals that, this world is all there is, and that the Bible is little more than a book of fables.  So-called educated men make it their purpose in life to convince people who there is no purpose in life.  But His evidence is all around us, including His attributes (Romans 1:20).  We exchange the wisdom of God for the foolishness of man that we call wisdom, in order to justify our own unrighteousness and worship our own idols of sin and depravity (Romans 1:22-23). We tell the child there is no God and that he was foolish to believe there is and then we  wonder why so many lose heart and hope.

We must give true wisdom to our children though God’s word to combat the lies that this world tells them about who we are and where we come from; and teach them where they can go.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.