Refusing to Listen

Proverbs 1:22-25

"How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
Because I have called and you refused to listen,
have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,

Why do fools fall? Because they love foolishness. The simple love playing the role. They find wisdom difficult to attain, and so they'd rather play the part of a simpleton than work at wisdom and fail. Scoffers delight in scoffing. They like to appear that they see through the surface of things and expose the falseness and silliness of others. But it is not truth they are after; they are in love with hearing themselves and being thought witty. Fools hate knowledge; or rather, they hate knowledge that is inconvenient, that would make them change the way they perceive reality and the way they live. Thus the truth about the simple, the scoffer, and the fool is not that they do not hear but that they refuse to listen.

They are like the fools of Paul Simon's song, "The Sound of Silence":

"Fools," said I, "you do not know.
"Silence like a cancer grows.
"Hear my words that I might teach you.
"Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the well
Of silence.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to change hearts so that ears may be willing to listen. Pray for your neighbors and family and colleagues. For they cannot, will not, hear the gospel without the work of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom can present truth; only the Spirit can make it heard.