Sunday, August 10, 2025 AM

Wisdom as True Treasure in Proverbs 1

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this opportunity to worship You and to agree with one another and hold fast the confession of our faith. And I pray this morning as we look at these words of Solomon to his son, that by Your Spirit, You would help us to see the words that You have to say to us about Your Son.

And that You would lead us to rejoice in Your grace and truth present here in this Word as You reach for us those made in Your image, those You have called to Yourself as Your children in Christ by Your Spirit.

That we would rejoice in Your wisdom, that we would seek it, that we would treasure it, that we would apply it, these great riches that You have bestowed to us in Your Son. And we pray all these things in His name.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Proverbs chapter 1. We'll be reading verses 8 through 19. Proverbs chapter 1, verses 10. I'm sorry, verses 8 through 19. We have this admonition from Solomon to his son three times in this passage.

He says, my son, my son, my son. He desires his son to hear, not simply recognize that his father is speaking, not even be able to think a little bit about the words that his father is using, but to actually agree with what his father is saying and to treasure what his father is saying.

That's what Solomon means when he says, hear my son, when he reaches for him throughout this passage. It is a passage that applies to all of us, even though some of us are not sons. It's a passage that applies to all of us, even though some of us are not fathers.

It's a passage that applies because it's about wisdom. The wisdom that the father seeks to instill in his son is the wisdom that matters to all of us because we are made in the image of God. It matters to all the saints because in Christ, by His Spirit, we look to God as our heavenly Father.

We are made in the image of God. Genesis 1 teaches us that the image of God is blessed unto glory, that we are to skillfully master. It's a good way of thinking of wisdom to skillfully master our relationships, our responsibilities, and our resources in righteousness to the glory of God.

That's why God made us. The image of God in proper motion, that's wisdom. When you see the image of God in proper motion, there you see wisdom. Wisdom is the style and the speed of godliness as we live out what it means to be made in the image of God.

When you see a horse gallop, you know why God made it. We love to watch horses gallop. In that moment, you know why God made horses. And when you see a man or a woman using wisdom, you know why God made them.

We were made by wisdom, in wisdom, for wisdom. Solomon tells his son in Proverbs 4, verse 3, that wisdom is the principal thing, that therefore in all of your getting, get wisdom. And so with these admonitions and thoughts in mind, I encourage you to stand with me if you're able as we read God's Word.

Rejecting Greed and Holding Fast to Instruction

Proverbs 1, beginning in verse 8. This is the word of the Lord. My son, hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law of your mother, for they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck.

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them alive like Sheol and whole like those who go down to the pit.

We shall find all kinds of precious possessions. We shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in your lot among us. Let us all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, but they lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. So we have a contrast given to us in this passage where the father reaches for the son, admonishes him to treasure the wisdom that has been bestowed to him from his mother and his father, to recognize that as true lasting treasure.

In contrast, there are these sinful ruffians, this gang, these violent men who would entice the son to come with them and seek treasure by violent means, by evil means. And so there is a admonition overall in this passage that essentially is this, avoid the folly of greed.

It's essentially what Solomon is saying to his son. I find it interesting that this is the first lesson that Solomon gives to his son here in the book of Proverbs. After outlining the purpose of Proverbs and the chief proverb there in verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

That's the premier proverb and it sets the tone for everything else that follows. But the very first lesson where Solomon gets very practical with his son is warning him against the folly of greed. We need to think about why that is.

In the process of warning his son and admonishing his son, Solomon tells him to avoid greed in three basic ways. First, to retain true treasure. That's hold on to the instruction and the teaching of your father and mother and say, that's true treasure.

I don't need these enticements. I don't need these false promises of sinners because I have true treasure in what's been given to me by my parents. But then he goes on to say, refuse ensnaring enrichment.

He tells his son likely what the temptation is going to be. He warns him, they're going to say things like this. Be ready for those enticements. Recognize them for what they are and reject them. And he goes further to say, reject deadly desires.

He recognizes and helps his son to recognize that the enticements are built on desires that lead unto death. And so by the end of this instruction, his son is well equipped to not only recognize the enticement, but also to be greatly opposed to those enticements, knowing the danger of them.

So these are two ways to live. They are clearly contrasted. And we should think of them not only in their creational significance, as fathers should teach their sons these types of wisdom, but also in their covenantal setting.

After all, if the children did not listen to the parents in the life of Israel, what would happen to the nation? What would happen to the nation as a whole? The nation as a whole, as God's son, would no longer listen to the wisdom and the words of their father and then curses and judgment would come on to them and disaster would be the result.

But these instructions ultimately lead us to commune with our Savior in whom we find our life and our victory. Because wisdom is true treasure, we should avoid the folly of greed. Now, let's be clear what greed is.

Greed is not simply covetousness. Covetousness is involved, of course, it's not simply covetousness. Greed is less about the object. Covetousness is about the object. You look at the thing that you don't have, somebody else has, and you shouldn't have, but you want it anyway.

It's less about the object and more about the subject, more about the what I want for me, the objective to attain self-elevation, self-aggrandizement. The words of the harlot are this, stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

Proverbs 9, 17, these are a foolish enticement. We read a little bit from Augustine's confessions last week. He goes on to talk about his reflection on his own sin and stealing the pears that, of course, were no good for eating and only good for stealing, for the fun of it, for the thrill of it, for the desire of rebelling.

He said, everyone knows there's a divine law which forbids theft. So if I can steal pears and get away with it, this will show that I am not subject to God or to any divine law. And if I am not subject to any law which defines what is good, then the good will simply be what I say it is.

Hence, I will be free and omnipotent. I can do what I want and what I want is the good. Wow, the 300s AD sound a whole lot like today. The moral condition of man has not so greatly changed. We still have this very same sentiment in our day and time.

So it's less about the sheen of silver and the glitter of gold. It's more about the attraction of autonomy, a law to yourself. It is the impulse of independence from God. As we've said before, we desire to gain what we should not from those we ought not in ways that will not profit.

But rather than greed, our devotion should be unto Christ, who is the epitome of wisdom. His glory alone is the fitting anchor for all of our ambition and acumen. It is the spread of His fame. It is the honor to His name.

Those are the stabilizing inspirations for all of our strategic planning. That's what parents should want to pass along to their children, the wisdom that we wish we already had in place from years past.

I commented to some of the brothers in Timothy School last week. There are a few emails that I would like to send to michael .dirham23yearsold .com. There are some things I really wish I would have known way back, and there's nothing I can do about that, except I turn my attention to those to whom God has committed me to help raise, to disciple, to invest in.

I look to my own children, and I try to instruct them in the ways that I wished that I had been, that I had known, because I want these words to be victory crowns and honor chains among them. Well, Solomon, he deals with wisdom that his son needs to hear.

Solomon's world was not different fundamentally than our own. It was not less corrupt, less dangerous, or less complicated. These words are relevant to us not only because of a similar condition of man, but they are even more important to us given the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is wisdom that applies not only to godly parenting, but also godly living across all cultures, generations, and millennia. We talked about retaining true treasure and refusing ensnaring enrichment, and we thought about verse 10, which is also a basic theme throughout all of Proverbs.

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. How much of Proverbs is that? My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Here's what they're going to say, but don't give in in the least. A very practical statement.

Furthermore, verses 11 through 14, Solomon gets specific. He gets practical. These are the kinds of things that they're going to say to you, son. The enticement is fiendish wealth. Wealth gained by evil.

Wealth gained by doing wicked, subversive things. Wealth that comes by perversion. Wealth that comes by the evil twisting of community and treasure and ethics. So, in verse 11, we see a perverted community.

And also in verse 14, notice how verse 11 begins, if they say, come with us. Now, the enticement has already begun. Those of you who have done a deep study of Genesis chapter 3, and you've thought a great deal about how the serpent tempted Eve, you can see how soon his deception and how quickly his enticements begin before you even really realize it.

Already, they're saying, come with us. There's an enticement there. Verse 14 says, cast your lot among us. Let us all have one purse. What's the enticement here? It's a community. It's a belonging. It's a coming together.

Don't you want to be a part of us? It's compelling to be included. It's compelling to be invited. It's compelling to be involved. Many claim today that the missing ingredient for so many folks is simply community.

If you lack the ingredient of community, your life's going to be worse off. God did make us relational to love others rightly, but community for the sake of community is self-destructive. The enticement he sees on the basic relational level, they're saying this, be one of us.

Find reinforcement for your desires among us as you reinforce our desires. We want you to think like us. We want you to be like us. Let's all tumble together and however the lot lands, however the dice turn out, we're going to share in that.

That's true camaraderie. But notice in this enticement for community, notice that it's necessary for the son to leave. Verse 11, they say, come with us. You see that? It's necessary for the son to leave the community God already gave to him that was full of treasure and wisdom and instruction and propriety.

To leave that to go to this other community, there is no alliance between the two. There's a departure from the father. Therefore, there's a departure from a future of victory and honor. There's a departure from righteous living, a departure from secure footing.

If it was true of the young man in the home, so also it was true of Israel in the covenant. How often they wanted to be like the nations around them. And Isaiah, we're studying about Ahaz, who was compelled to be like the Syrians.

He wanted to worship their gods. He was always running away from God who was through his prophet saying, my children, Judah, they don't even recognize that I'm their father anymore because they left him for others.

In this situation, wisdom is not merely lost. It is left behind. Those without wisdom, they're the ones who are lost. In this, there's a denial of the sovereignty and authority of God in these enticements.

Come with us, cast in your lot with us. They're saying, you don't need the authority of your parents. You don't need the authority of God. You come with us. And however it happens, and who knows how it'll happen?

It's just all by chance. It's all how the dice lands. Denial of the authority of God, denial of the sovereignty of God. And they say, come with us, a perverted community. There's a denial of the family.

There's even a denial of personal responsibility. You just come hang out with us. And however it turns out is how it turns out. No personal responsibility, no accountability, no authority over your life.

How attractive to a youth who is foolish. Now, this observation by Solomon of corrupted human nature is as accurate today as ever. The sentiment is the same we have today in pop culture, whether in music, movies, or mentality.

The idea is, if we're all in this together, how can it be wrong? If we're all in this together, how can we lose? Proverbs 16, verse 5 says, Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Listen to this part.

Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. Isn't this the way of perverted community? The more voices we can get together saying the same thing, the more righteous our cause is. The more that we can all say the same thing and echo one another, the more validated we will be in our beliefs, the bigger voice we're going to have.

And yet, though they join forces, do you know whose mind is not swayed by popular opinion? Do you know whose mind is not swayed by various causes? God is unchanged. He is not a man that he would change his mind or that he would lie.

Now, what about this promise that they make to him? We'll all have one purse. Now, can you believe him?

Right.

Solomon says, yeah, they're going to say that, but can you believe them? Can you count on their word? After all, their plan to make the money in the first place is to lie in wait for the innocent. They're lying in wait for the innocent.

Let that just matriculate a little bit in your mind. How do you know they're not lying in wait for you? This is the community that you are enticed by. Think about who you're joining with. So all manner of suspicion, you see, should be raised against those who would take this approach.

A son ought to build up a healthy, robust prejudice against those who celebrate this kind of community, who flaunt this kind of a culture. Holy prejudice is a distinct part of biblical wisdom. Notice also a perverted treasure, verse 13.

We shall find all kinds of precious possessions. We shall fill our houses with spoil. Now, the assumption is, of course, that the stuff we're going to find is going to be worthwhile. It's going to be worth killing people.

It's going to be worth being an outlaw and cut off from your family. And we're still going to have houses to live in at the end of the day. Right. We will fill our houses with spoil. Really, where are you going to live as an outlaw?

And they think they're going to have the capacity to continue to enjoy perverted treasure after they are a murderous band of outlaws. There's a whole lot of assumptions here that just don't pan out. A lot of promises here that are a great lie.

Proverbs 15, 27 says,. He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live. Those who get dishonest gain actually ruin their houses. Now, no thought is given in their enticement to the soul.

These senators are enticing Solomon's son, but they're giving no thought to the soul of his son. They're thinking only of the splendor. What foolishness, what folly to take bloodstained loot and fill your house with it.

How foolish is that? Well, it goes back to the harlot, doesn't it? Proverbs 9, 17,. Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. This is what the flattering harlot says to the simple young man.

But verse 18 follows,. But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell. You see, with all the focus of this enticement on the prize, no attention is spared for the consequences.

The whole endeavor is about liberating oneself from the strictures and the structures of a creator who owns you. And if there's no one who owns you, and if there's no one who's going to judge you, then the consequences of judgment simply disappear in your equation.

You have to ask the question, what propels individuals and indeed whole cultures to dedicate themselves to depravity? It's not that they have eaten simply, eaten from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They've gone and fermented its fruit and are drunk on the elevation of the self, which, of course, brings a perverted ethic. Verse 11 says,. Let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

Verse 12,.

Let us swallow them alive like sheol and whole, like those who go down to the pit. And they're saying this is an easy path to wealth. Highway banditry is the idea. You would lie in wait. You'd be somewhere where nobody else was around, but you were sure to see people from time to time.

That would be the various roads and paths between cities. They're always concerned about bandits and robbers in between towns. Well, they think this is going to be real easy. We're going to find a good place right in the middle of two distant cities, and there's going to be people coming past, and we're going to lie out and wait, and the innocent are going to come by, and we'll lurk secretly for them without cause.

Now, this idea of without cause is not that... Well, they know what they're doing. They're wanting to kill these people to grab their riches. That's the cause, if you prefer, of the thieves. However, what they're saying by this no cause is no connection.

We're not killing them because we know them, because they've done something to us. We're not trying to gain some sort of political, social advantage over them. We're just trying to grab their stuff. And so what they're saying is, it's untraceable.

We're going to kill these people that we have no connection to at all, and no one will have any reason to suspect that it's us. And so they're saying this is going to be secret, and there'll be no evidence.

We're going to swaddle them alive like sheol, and hold like those who go down to the pit. We'll leave no evidence behind. It'll be like nothing ever really happened. And so what they're saying is, this is a quick...

This is a get-rich-quick scheme that is going to work very well, and no one can trace back to us. And, you know, lying around for most of the day, and a little bit of work, and we're going to have a lot of wealth, and no one will ever be able to pin it on us.

What do they do in this moment? What's the real attraction here is that they take life and death into their own hands. They watch over the road with power and knowledge. They determine what happens next.

They consider themselves sovereign over sheol and the pit. They're the ones who are in charge of who goes there. They're playing God, aren't they? This is the real attraction. They play God. That's the root of greed.

Displacing God, they destroy others for the sake of gathering to themselves as much as they can. In their pride, they seek to overthrow God and replace Him in their arrogance. They don't need God. There are God unto themselves.

Their power, and their knowledge, and their skill have liberated them from their Creator so that they are accountable to no one, and all are accountable to them. They have determined themselves as the arbiters of good and evil.

Since they are so glorious, they would make themselves weighty, plundering all they can from the weak and unsuspecting additionally as members of the old covenant. Isn't their livelihood and prosperity dependent on how well they reverence the Lord?

How will their crops do? How will their flocks do? How will their household fare unless they are faithful to the covenant that God gave to them? But here, they can make their own way through the world and bring wealth to themselves, and they don't have to give a second thought to the covenant.

They don't have to appease the Lord. They can make their own way in life. However, as they play God, it's important to remember that the creature is never greater than the Creator. Remember that the image can never displace the Maker.

This is the fundamental folly of idolatry, which is why Israel was so foolish. What the idolater crafts is always less than himself, and thus, he diminishes himself in worshiping it because we become like that which we worship, which is why the idolaters have ears that do not hear and eyes that do not see, so on.

They forget that God is the one who is sovereign over all things. God is the arbiter of true and false, of good and evil. And there is one who holds the keys of death and Hades, who was dead but is alive forevermore, who is the judge of all mankind.

Now, thinking about these words from Solomon to his son to resist, to reject these enticements, it is to be remembered that these thieves could not actually do this without ramifications. They say, we're going to kill these people and take their stuff, and we're going to swallow them whole like Sheol, like the pit, and there's going to be no evidence left behind.

But you know the problem with that? Is that innocent blood cries out from the ground. And there is going to be a reckoning in Israel for all of this innocent blood shed upon their ground. There are specific instructions throughout the Old Testament about what to do if you find a murdered person between two cities, because innocent blood shed upon the ground is going to bring judgment upon the covenant people if they don't take care of that.

And they're going to need to follow through with justice and show no pity when it comes to dealing with these issues. Many, many, many instructions throughout the Old Covenant are all concerned with what to do about the shedding of innocent blood.

In Jeremiah chapter 7, near the end of the time of Solomon's temple and Jerusalem there before 586 BC, Jeremiah is preaching to the people, and all they can chant is, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

And they say, as long as we have this temple, we're invincible. Oh, we can do whatever we want. We have the temple, it'll never fail. God will never let this city fall. And Jeremiah says, you know what that is?

You're using the temple to give yourself cover for all these awful things that you're doing because you're killing people and taking their wealth and calling yourself just and you're not going to suffer any consequences.

Do you know what this temple is?

It's a den of thieves,.

Which is what Jesus called it in his day. And just like in Jeremiah's day, the temple was destroyed. So also within a generation after Jesus' sermon, the temple was destroyed. God does not forget the shedding of innocent blood in this covenant.

2 Kings 21 and 24 tells us that Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that even good King Josiah could not turn aside the wrath of God, but God's wrath fell upon Israel because of the innocent blood shed by Manasseh generations prior.

There is no future for a covenant son who acts like this. Solomon is saying, do not follow their enticements. There's no future for you. Sinners entice others to go along with them in their perverted way of life.

Solomon says, don't follow. It's difficult to kick against the goads of the Creator. We're not given life and God's image to make for ourselves a name. It's what they did in the plains of Shinar to build the Tower of Babel.

They were going to make for ourselves a name. We were not made for that. We were made to make a name for God. When we keep trying to make a name for ourselves in selfish pride, things go hard for us. So deeply difficult.

Do you notice that even the most prosperous on our world today feel entirely oppressed? The richest 1 of the world are the ones who yell the loudest about feeling oppressed.

Why is that?

They kick against the goads. They go against the grain. They're trying to swim upstream. They are feeling oppressed because they're opposed to God Himself. But, have you noticed, the most lowly saint feels entirely liberated?

Aren't the words of Christ true? Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Such is the yoke of Christ. Such is the yoke of the image of the invisible God who is the last Adam when we are joined to Him.

This is important because jealous misuse of one's stewardship unto greed, unto making yourself a name, jealous misuse of one's stewardship is present in the first murder, in Cain murdering Abel. It underlies even the practice of polygamy, many wives, much wealth.

It was seen in Genesis 4 and onward as a practical and perverted way of rapidly expanding one's household, which, of course, the kings did to increase their wealth. They married many wives, which, of course, led to more murder.

The correlation between greed, sexual immorality, and violence is not just the Grammy Awards,.

It's biblical.

Now, think about God's instructions to us and our conscience before God. Solomon's warning is not against enrichment. He's not warning against enrichment. He's warning against ensnaring enrichment. Wealth is not evil.

All wealth is ultimately Christ's by his own merits. Planning shrewdly and carefully in your finances is not wicked. God would be so pleased to have legions of sons and daughters in Christ who would maximize their wealth for kingdom advancement.

The issue Solomon warns about is the desire to gain what we should not, to gain in ways from those who we should not, in ways that will not profit. So the questions we have to ask are, are we perverting something in order to get what we want?

Are we twisting something? Are we resorting to deception? Are we resorting to destruction to satisfy the self, to make a name for ourselves? If you are manipulating other people, taking advantage of their mercy or generosity, if you use your authority and influence others to push you into, pushing others into benefiting yourself, in all these ways, we're not too far off from the highway bandit.

This behavior indicates that we have made ourselves the highest authority in life, that we are only interested in what will benefit us, which was the essence of the temptation that Satan whispered to Adam and Eve and the same temptation that Satan offered the last Adam.

In Matthew 4 verse 8, again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, away with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve, offering Christ glory without the suffering, the kingdoms without the cross.

And Christ prefers to honor his father than to play games with the devil, because that's a deadly game. The end of this is death. The wages of sin are death. And Solomon reaches for his son, verses 15 through 19.

Notice his command in verse 15. My son, do not walk in the way with him. Keep your foot from their path. He wants his son not only to resist those enticements that are unto sin and unto folly, but also to reject every aspect of the lives of these sinners, because it's going to bring his son into death.

Do not walk in the way with him. Do not keep your foot from their path.

Don't even take the tour.

Don't go with them to see.

What they're up to.

Don't go along on what they call a milk run. Don't even try it out just a little bit. Don't even go with them. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path. It's been said that good southern girls don't drink, don't chew, don't run with those who do.

Solomon's maxim is similar. Don't steal, don't kill, don't die to get your fill. Much of Proverbs is going to be a running contrast between the wise man and the fool. It's a running contrast between Lady Wisdom and Miss Folly.

And Solomon is teaching his son very early on, I want you to fall in love.

With Lady Wisdom.

I want you to find Lady Wisdom so attractive. I want her to be your first crush. I want you to be so impressed with her, so about her, that when Miss Folly comes along, you reject her completely out of hand.

Because Miss Folly is unto death and Lady Wisdom is unto life. Solomon's son should refuse the enticements, keep himself far away from the paths of these sinners. As joining them would separate Solomon's son from his father, so hearing his father's instruction means separating himself from the sinners.

Proverbs 21 verse 16 says, a man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead. Now notice the culmination of these fools, verses 16 through 19. Their character, the character of their folly is in verse 16, their feet run to evil, they make haste to shed blood.

And that sounds familiar. Isaiah takes up this expression in Isaiah 59, 7 to talk about God's point of view on faithless Judah. Why are you under judgment,.

Oh Judah?

Why are you facing the covenantal curses, Judah? Why are things going so poorly for you? Because of this, because their feet run to evil. And they make haste to shed blood. That was characteristic of the kings and leaders and the people of Judah during Isaiah's day.

Paul takes up that very same expression in Romans chapter 3 verse 15 to describe the depravity of mankind. Their feet run to evil. They are swift to shed blood. What is Solomon saying? In their folly, they're heading straight to evil.

Their way is a way of blood. There's no good end to their folly. There's no picking out the meat and leaving the bones.

It's all bad.

It's all poison.

Matthew Henry looks at this verse and said, he said, the way of sin is downhill. Men not only cannot stop themselves, but the longer they continue in it,.

The faster they run.

And make haste in it as if they were afraid they should not do mischief enough and resolve to lose no time. So enamored with their folly, these experts in laying traps trap themselves. This is the depth of their folly in verses 17 through 19.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, but they lie and wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

Solomon's point about the depth of folly is stunning. Any trapper knows you can't trap even a bird if you go about your business right in front of the prey. Much care and subtlety should be applied in order to trap a flighty creature like a bird.

Yet the folly of these sinners is such they are setting traps for themselves. They know the danger. They know the end result is destruction, but the fool commits himself to this path. And in the end, his blood will be spilt on the highway.

His life will be ambushed and lost forever. When you know that the only outcome of your folly is destruction, but you continue in it, you are a fool through and through. That is the biblical definition of a fool.

Job 35, 11 asks a rhetorical question. Who teaches us more than the beast of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven? But these fools are dumber than birds. Even the birds know to avoid a snare that is set in front of them.