Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?
God, as it turns out, does have a sense of humor. Indeed, today’s verses is nearly a joke. The fool goes out on pretense of seeking wisdom- but the way in which he ‘seeks’ it demonstrates he has not the slightest idea of what it is. After all, much gold cannot buy wisdom for the fool; “It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire” (Job 28:15-16). With that in mind, how are we to find wisdom? Are we, who are if not outright fools at least a little foolish, doomed to eternal foolishness?
Let’s start with the bad news. Wisdom is impossible to get without wisdom; it can’t be generated from nothing. The fool in himself can get out of his foolishness the same way a hamster can get out of his cage via vigorous use of the hamster wheel. The ground slips away underneath, and the fool ends up back at the beginning. He may throw out one unclean spirit, but seven worse return to inhabit him (Matt. 12:43-45).
What’s the good news, then? It is this: that God looks with favor upon those who love His Wisdom (Prov. 8). God, of course, has all wisdom, is all Wisdom. He not only knows all facts but understands their relationship and meaning, what they should impel in us. He knows the way in which we come and go, the way in which we could be happy and the ways we make ourselves miserable (Is. 37:28). He knows the path of goodness, for it is obedience to Him, and of evil, for it is disobedience (1 Pet. 2:24). In Him is all wisdom, therefore, all certainty of how best to live.
The fool does not have this; it’s in the definition of being a fool that he doesn’t. We, who are fools in comparison to Him no matter our wisdom compared to each other, cannot learn wisdom except by coming to Him, therefore, because we do not have it. Perhaps we have fragments. You desire wisdom, which is wise; I know to think before I speak, which is wise; our neighbor knows that men and women have different bents, which is wise. Even the first of these, the desire for wisdom, is still futile to reach more, for….
“Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom?” The fool, see, may desire what he terms ‘wisdom.’ But how do we go about seeking this wisdom, in our foolishness? We pursue it with gold, as Job has already told us is futile; we plumb the depths of man’s heart in search, when “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9). We inquire within the machinations of man’s mind, all the logics and experience of men and women in the world, and we find still only these broken fragments of wisdom, temporary and ephemeral things which do not survive eternity. Worldly prudences mean nothing against the judgement of God, are more of a condemnation, when we have broken the whole of the law (James 2:10). Indeed, by raising us a little higher, they make the fall the greater, so that all man’s truest wisdom is thus more a curse to him.
So this good news seems mere mockery, that God has wisdom and loves him who seeks it, for all we see says that the search is futile entirely. The good news is truly good, though, for God does not stop at approving of a search for wisdom. No, to the one who will come to Him, who seeks true wisdom (for all who look elsewhere have chosen to pursue foolishness), God gives wisdom in truth and for eternity. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” Psalm 111:10 declares, for from proper reverence to Him, from proper apprehension of the basis of wisdom, from this alone rises a true search for Wisdom.
So, yes, we can find wisdom. We can find wisdom not by our gold or our half-truth understanding but by seeking the Wisdom of God. This is a wisdom which is not only useless when unused but impossible to reach, for only by the wisdom of repentance and faith can it be found. It is a wisdom learned and lived, a wisdom alive and yet written also in Proverbs, in the rest of Scripture, in the providence of God as the Holy Spirit ministers to the one with eyes to see. This is the wisdom of the law, of the prophets, and of the gospel of God, which is salvation forevermore.
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
