The Naive, The Scoffer, The Wise

Introduction

Imagine going to a game night with some friends. They set up one of those intricate strategy games, one that you’ve never played before. Then, they start reading the rules to you. After a long and confusing series of instructions, you are informed enough to play the game. But imagine if instead of rolling the dice, drawing your cards and moving your pieces to capture your opponents territory, you use your turn to grab the instruction manual and dissect the etymology of each word. You forfeit your turn each time, but with each round you become more convinced that you have a greater mastery of the rules than the rest of your friends. At the end of the game, when tallying the scores, you insist that you have the victory not because you scored the most points, but because you have memorized the instructions. 

Your mistake is quite obvious. The instructions are not meant to lead you away from the game, but to enable you to play it. This is a common way that people treat the wisdom of Scripture. The Word of God is not meant to help you escape from this life, but to enable to live this life rightly. Solomon, in the book of Proverbs introduces several characters, players in the game, we might say. I want to look at three of those characters. The first is what we might call the Naive. The second is the Scoffer. The third is the Wise.

The Naive

In the book of Proverbs, the naive man is described in a number of places as being a man void of understanding. He hasn’t figured out how the world works. He goes along with every suggestion of his body, or just flows along with wherever the crowd is going.  

We all start, essentially, as simpletons. You can’t help that as a young child, you don’t know much. That’s why good parents discipline and train their children. What Solomon warns you about is being a simpleton who loves being a simpleton. A childish adult is cringe. It gives the ick. “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge (Pro. 1:22)?”

Growth in wisdom is accepting that you don’t know everything, and you shouldn’t pretend like you do. However, when you find out that you don’t know something, humility teaches you the wisdom of admitting you don’t know and then set about understanding. This doesn’t mean that you’ll ever know everything about everything because then you’d have a headache.

Think about the character of Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. “He jumped in and shut the door, forgetting what a very foolish thing this is to do.” He then wanders around and when he meets the witch, he doesn’t have the faintest idea that he’s being manipulated, deceived, and enticed. He’s offered a box of Turkish Delight and without even reflecting on what’s happening, he gobbles it up. Of course, this leads him to the witch’s dungeon and to a whole series of miserable episodes. Thankfully, he is rescued, but his rescue cost Aslan’s life. Edmund is the man void of understanding.

With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. [Pro 7:21-27 KJV]

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. [Pro 24:30-31 KJV]

To return to my earlier illustration, the Naive man, the man void of understanding is trying to play the game without ever consulting the instructions, and thus his efforts in the game are all haphazard and will lead to his great loss.

The Scoffer

While the Naive man is in danger due to his ignorance, the Scoffer is in danger because of his arrogance. He is shown the truth, and opts to not only reject it but to also make fun of it. Here are a few verses addressing the Scoffer:

A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke. [Pro 13:1 KJV]

A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise. [Pro 15:12 KJV]

If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. [Pro 9:12 KJV]

He is the sort of character who insists on doing things his own way, and deriding the way of righteousness. Such mockery is a grave danger. To know the truth and to reject it with mockery is like a starving man being offered a loaf of bread and mocking the baker’s recipe as incompetent. 

Returning to Narnia, the scoffer is like Eustace Clarence Scrubb. His arrogance is seen in every encounter. He knows more about sea-faring than the captain of the Dawn Treader. He deserves extra rations of water. He understands geopolitics better than Caspian. He wanders off on dragon island while everyone else is hard at work repairing the ship. He glories in a pile of treasure, ignoring the fact that this is a magical dragon horde. He becomes a dragon, because he is a dragon. He has scoffed at the common sense truth that is all around him, and eventually it brings him to the very edge of destruction. It is only Aslan’s mercy that delivers him.

Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools. [Pro 3:34-35 KJV]

The Wise

Lastly, we should turn Jesus’s teaching, for he tells us a parable about two men. One wise, the other foolish. Both men pick a foundation. Both men build a house. Both men face a storm. The wise man’s house stands firm, but the foolish man’s house falls. Why? Because the foundation they chose were absolute opposites. Jesus prefaced his parable with a code for who is who in the story.  “Whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does/doesn’t do them…”

God speaks to you in creation and through His Word. He holds forth understanding to you. You don’t need to be a naive simpleton. You ought not to scoff at the understanding which God holds out to you. You simply need to receive it. The truth is not far off. It isn’t really complex. Life is found by trusting in the Lord with all your heart and not leaning on your own understanding. It is found by acknowledging God in all your ways, and beholding as He guides you into straight paths.

Conclusion

Remember, just learning about the sorts of characters that are in this world is not enough. You have to determine which character you will be and then live accordingly. It does no good to know about the instructions for life, but to not live this life according to God’s wisdom and instruction.

Discussion Questions:

1. What does it mean to be void of understanding?
2. In what ways is it dangerous to become a scoffer of the truth?
3. What did Jesus say distinguished the wise man from the foolish man in His parable?
4. What are some of the attributes that describe the wise man and set him apart from the naive and the scoffer?