The Rejection of Wisdom.

     "Because I called and you refused,

I stretched out my hand and

no one paid attention;

and you neglected all my council

and did not want my reproof;

I will also laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your dread comes,

when your dread comes like a storm

and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,

when distress and anguish come upon you.

"Then they will call upon me,

but I will not answer;

they will seek me diligently

but they will not find me,

because they hated knowledge

and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

"They would not accept my council,

they spurned all my reproof.

"So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way

and be satiated with their own devices."

Proverbs 1:24-30 NASB



       These are sobering words. One must ask the question, "How long can a person, society, or nation spurn God, reject truth, and remain willfully ignorant of true wisdom, before He casts them off and allows them to remain forever entrenched in their ignorance?"
     We read in Romans of the kindness of God, who is patient and long suffering with the wicked, in hopes that they will come to repentance. Yet there comes a point when people reach a place of no going back. By remaining stubborn and unrepentant, they store up wrath for themselves in the day of God's righteous judgment (Romans 2:4-5).
     These are not verses that we would commonly hear read in our Sunday services. Most Pastors would not pick this passage out of Proverbs to preach a series of sermons on, yet it is God's word to us, and a very severe word at that. We dare not trifle with God; we dare not reject wisdom when it calls. As we read in Proverbs 2:1-6, only those who diligently seek wisdom will discern the fear of Lord, and discover the knowledge of God, as wisdom only comes from God. 
     What a tragic thing to spend a lifetime rejecting truth in the pursuit of our selfish lusts, only to find that in the day of trial when we so desperately need wisdom, we are denied.