Passage Read: Psalm 148 - Proverbs 1
Meditation Verses: Proverbs 1:23-26
Thought
It is not good to ignore wisdom when she calls out fools for their folly, when she raises her reproof, when she offers correction and instruction. She desires to help and will gladly pour out her wisdom and give guidance. But if she is spurned, if she is rejected, if she is ignored, she will in turn laugh at the calamity that befalls such fools. She will ignore those who cry out to her for help when they realize the price of their foolishness is too high. She will leave them to suffer the consequences of their choices and their own "wisdom." Apparently even that is not enough to bring them to true repentance and humility, but just to a plea for rescue from their trouble rather than rescue from their foolishness.
Application
Fools get themselves in all kinds of trouble, and they often look to others to rescue them, but unless they come to true repentance, there's no real good that comes from rescuing them. I may be willing and eager to exercise compassion to help them, but if they're not ready to receive instruction and direction to change their ways, it's wasted effort. They'll just carry on in their foolishness and get themselves caught in a new trap or fall into a new calamity. "If you rescue them, you'll have to do it again." Until they're willing to repent and humble themselves and come under the direction of the wise, there's no point in rescuing them. Helping someone out of a tight spot is one thing, helping someone out of trouble that they've created by their own choices and insistence on their own understanding is pointless. A plea for help that is worth answering must come with a confession of folly and plea for instruction, otherwise I'll waste my rescue and whatever means I use to deliver them. If someone comes to me for help and they're not willing to explain how they got into their trouble and they're not willing to receive instruction for changing their ways, with accountability, there's no point in helping them.