Proverbs 1:29

God is not obligated to hear your prayers (Pr 1:24-28). He is not at your beck and call, as many presume. If you neglect or reject His offer of wisdom, He promised to ignore your cries for help and to turn your wickedness back on your own head (Pr 1:30-32; Ps 66:18).

If you disregard the knowledge and fear of the great God of the Bible, the LORD Jehovah, you turn Lady Wisdom to be your enemy. She will laugh at your calamities that are coming. If you do not know this God, reader, you do not know the God of the Bible.

Lady Wisdom spoke (Pr 1:20-33). She represents God’s offer of wisdom to men. It is plainly visible in His creation of the heavens and earth (Ps 19:1-6; Rom 1:20). It is confirmed by His merciful providence toward men (Matt 5:45; Acts 14:17). And He revealed it in writing and sent men to preach it (Deut 29:29; Jer 3:15; Col 1:28-29). If you are too busy or too rebellious to humble yourself to this wisdom, she is now your enemy.

What is the knowledge hated here (Pr 1:22)? It is the knowledge of the holy God of the Bible, which is the beginning of understanding (Pr 2:5; 9:10; 30:3). It is the instruction of parents, teachers, and pastors that define God’s will for your life (Pr 12:1; 15:14; 18:15; 19:27; 22:17; 23:12). It is the doctrine of the Bible that describes God, what He has done toward men, and what they should do toward Him (Ps 119:66; II Tim 3:16-17).

What is fear of the LORD? It is reverent awe and worshipful love of Jehovah God that leads men to hate sin, love righteousness, and delight in Him and His ways (Pr 8:13; 14:27; 16:6; Ps 111:10; Eccl 12:13-14). It causes men to despise their own foolish hearts and vain opinions of others (II Chr 19:7-9; Dan 3:16-18; Heb 5:7). It provides an anchor and foundation for character that keep men from compromise (Gen 42:18; Ex 18:21).

How do men hate knowledge? Is not this the information age, when men love knowledge and learning? The only knowledge they love is their own opinion or the opinions of others like them. They reject the existence of God, creation as the origin of all things, moral absolutes for human conduct, eternal punishment, and so forth. What they call science, God calls profane and old wives’ fables (Ps 49:6-13; 94:11; I Tim 4:7; 6:20)!

How do they not choose the fear of the LORD? They choose to love pleasures rather than God, and they give Him only a minor place in their lives. They worship with rituals and a form of godliness, rather than in truth with their hearts and lives (II Tim 3:4-5). They choose pastors who will entertain them with the fables of seeker sensitive religion (II Tim 4:3-4). Because they choose this modern approach to His worship, God will blind and confuse them (Is 29:13-14). He will not hear their prayers; He will judge them instead.

You cannot imagine men hating knowledge? Consider the hatred Hollywood has for morality! The NEA for creation! NOW for human life! The ACLU for God and the Bible! The NFL for church on Sunday! The DNC for opposite-sex marriage! The Vatican for Matt 23:9! College fraternities for sobriety! The PTA for child discipline! MTV for parents! Labor unions for productivity! ESPN for wisdom! Wall Street for charity! Las Vegas for savings! The NBA for modesty! MSNBC for truth! God will judge America!

You cannot imagine men hating knowledge? Consider the hatred Charles Darwin had for Genesis! Princess Diana for marital fidelity! Nietzsche for God! Picasso for beauty! Marilyn Monroe for virtue! Freud for sanity! Carl Sagan for provable science! Ben Spock for child discipline! James Dean for authority! Joseph Smith for monogamy! Pope John Paul II for I Timothy 4:1-3! Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison for godliness! Karl Marx for property! Josef Stalin for benevolence? Where are these rebels today?

If a man hates God’s instruction about marital fidelity, the strange woman will destroy him (Pr 5:3-14; 6:24-35; 7:6-27). If he hates warnings about financial prudence, he will be destroyed monetarily (Pr 6:6-11; 13:23; 14:23; 22:26-27). If he rejects God’s rules for child training, they will break his heart and shame him (Pr 19:18,26; 27:11; 29:15). If he marries an odious woman against the warnings, he will have marital torment (Pr 12:4; 21:9,19; 30:21-23; 31:30). Rejecting God’s practical wisdom brings practical destruction.

Noah preached righteousness to his generation for 120 years (Gen 6:3; II Pet 2:5; Heb 11:7). But they hated the knowledge he taught and the fear of the LORD he offered. They were confident in their Doppler weather radar, college degrees, and donations to U.N.I.C.E.F. So God sent a flood that drowned them all, including the young, the old, the handicapped, and the strong (Matt 24:37-39). You know they cried and screamed outside the ark, but God had already shut the door (Gen 7:16). He mocked their misery (Pr 1:26).

The God of the Bible is still a consuming fire (Heb 12:29). It is still a fearful thing to fall into His hands (Heb 10:31). The Lord Jesus Christ is ruling heaven and earth with a rod of iron (Rev 2:26-27; I Cor 15:25). Have you looked at a political globe recently? Just ask Pharaoh! Assyria! Tyre! Babylon! Belshazzar! Persia! Xerxes! Greece! Alexander the Great! The Roman Empire! Nero! Germany! Hitler! The Soviet Union! Khrushchev!

Do you hate knowledge? Have you rejected the fear of the LORD? Do you know what they are? They were defined above. Did you read over the definitions too quickly? Read them again. Your future and your prayers depend on knowing them and doing them.

Do you hate knowledge? Have you rejected the fear of the LORD? Your thoughts or words are irrelevant. How do you pursue them? Do you carefully read the Bible daily? Attend a church where it is faithfully taught? Count preaching the best part of Sunday? Review and apply what you learn to your life? If your prayers are not heard, and your life is coming apart at the seams, consider this proverb well. Lady Wisdom is offended.