Scripture Reading:

Proverbs 14:18-19

Proverbs 14:18

The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. 

Some people may be classified as ignorant and shallow, while others are considered intelligent and shallow. Either way, these are shallow individuals as long as they fail to acknowledge God their Creator, and refuse to live their lives for His glory. Instead they dedicate their lives to serving themselves as conceited little gods, fulfilling their own desires for pleasure or acting as the very source of all truth, knowledge, and ethics. So whether they be the partying, go-for-the-gusto, selfcentered pleasure seekers, or the intellectual replacement for God in the universities, they are all simple and shallow-minded people.
According to this proverb, these folks will inherit folly.

Meanwhile, a prudent man may not possess the most outstanding intellect as far as the world is concerned. He may be the fellow who installs tires at an automotive repair shop. But if he fears God and “looks well to his ways” (vs. 15), God will give him more knowledge — true knowledge that will keep him in the way.

The things we know are always connected to other points of knowledge to produce a complete system of thought. Some very smart man may think he knows something about the gravitational force equations which keep planets revolving around the sun. But if he fails to connect this fact with the fact that God providentially sustains the order of nature, his system of knowledge is fatally corrupted and will eventually destroy itself. This is already happening to the field of science in our day. The simple will inherit folly, eventually.

Proverbs 14:19

The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. 

The story of Esther is one of the best illustrations of this principle. By God’s providential workings, the wicked Haman, who would have destroyed God’s people, ended up bowing before Mordecai the Jew. And then, he was hanged on the gallows he had built for others. It is important to remember that the Bible presents life as a story with many related events working their way out in serial or parallel connections. On the one hand, it is true that evil people do not always bow before the good, and evil will prevail for a time as man’s proud empires form. But in the end, God always vindicates the righteous. Those great empires that persecuted humble believers have always collapsed into piles of ashes. The persecutions may last for a few decades, but these promises guarantee a perpetual position of honor for the people of God. Whether the persecutors reside in Persia, the Soviet Union, or the United States, the Hamans of the
world will always come to bow before Esther and Mordecai (Esther 6:6ff). Ungodly governments simply do not last.

Family Discussion Questions:

1. How would you describe an intelligent, intellectual man? Would this be the same way the book of Proverbs would describe an intelligent man?

2. Compare Corrie Ten Boom and Adolf Hitler or Paul and Nero. Whom do you think enjoyed more honor in this life, not to mention the life to come? What are other examples of the evil and the good, appearing in biblical history or Christian history?