Proverbs 17:16
Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
FOOL: Biblical definition: one who knows the Word of Life and does not obey it.
Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?
FOOL: Biblical definition: one who knows the Word of Life and does not obey it.
Why is there money in the hand of the fool to purchase wisdom, though he does not have an understanding heart? A fool may have money in hand to hire a teacher, but it will be to no avail if he lacks will and appreciation of the importance of knowledge.
My wife is a grade school teacher. One time she was correcting a child’s wrongly spelled word when to her amazement he replied, 'oh no Ma’m’, this is how I spell it.’ We may find the young child amuzing, but sad to say, we as adult d have a tendency to act this way. This proud attitude may be bad enough in the academic field, but it becomes a tragedy in the realm of religion. It is easy to convince someone they do not as know as much as we do about the details of a particular trade or academic field, but when it comes to hermeneutics, it feels sometimes that everyone wants to be their own rule book. Every one wants to feel free to interpret and define doctrine according to their own limited knowledge and experience.
Mathematics, physics and astronomy for examples have foundation rules that do not, and cannot change. Two and two always make four; what goes up always comes down and the constellations always show the same story. But when it comes to Bible hermeneutics, it seems to be a free for all. Even though the text it self tells us that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, we have myriads of interpretations. Even though the apostle tells us that there is one faith, one baptism and one doctrine, we are plagued by deep differences. The answer can only be that we, instead of thoroughly searching for The Answers, have allowed ourselves to be taught by other men who did not know the answers either but pulled answers out of their magic hat and called it divine inspiration or even worse ‘new revelation’. My personal motto is: let the Book answer the Book within its own cultural and historical context, and that without any stretch of personal interpretation. No man has the right to come between us and the defined interpretation of Scripture. We need to make sure that our understanding is Scripturally inspired and divinely downloaded, not interpreted.
Let us now ask ourselves: are we a generation of fools? Are we a generation who prides itself in the number of teachers we can hire for ourselves? Teachers who become blind guides of the blind? Are we blinded by our arrogant lack of desire and appreciation for true knowledge? The apostle described our generation in these sobering words: Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7
My wife is a grade school teacher. One time she was correcting a child’s wrongly spelled word when to her amazement he replied, 'oh no Ma’m’, this is how I spell it.’ We may find the young child amuzing, but sad to say, we as adult d have a tendency to act this way. This proud attitude may be bad enough in the academic field, but it becomes a tragedy in the realm of religion. It is easy to convince someone they do not as know as much as we do about the details of a particular trade or academic field, but when it comes to hermeneutics, it feels sometimes that everyone wants to be their own rule book. Every one wants to feel free to interpret and define doctrine according to their own limited knowledge and experience.
Mathematics, physics and astronomy for examples have foundation rules that do not, and cannot change. Two and two always make four; what goes up always comes down and the constellations always show the same story. But when it comes to Bible hermeneutics, it seems to be a free for all. Even though the text it self tells us that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, we have myriads of interpretations. Even though the apostle tells us that there is one faith, one baptism and one doctrine, we are plagued by deep differences. The answer can only be that we, instead of thoroughly searching for The Answers, have allowed ourselves to be taught by other men who did not know the answers either but pulled answers out of their magic hat and called it divine inspiration or even worse ‘new revelation’. My personal motto is: let the Book answer the Book within its own cultural and historical context, and that without any stretch of personal interpretation. No man has the right to come between us and the defined interpretation of Scripture. We need to make sure that our understanding is Scripturally inspired and divinely downloaded, not interpreted.
Let us now ask ourselves: are we a generation of fools? Are we a generation who prides itself in the number of teachers we can hire for ourselves? Teachers who become blind guides of the blind? Are we blinded by our arrogant lack of desire and appreciation for true knowledge? The apostle described our generation in these sobering words: Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7
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