30.5.18

Daily Bible Study - Proverbs 10:14

Wise people store up knowledge,
But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

Proverbs 10:14 (NKJV).

You should change "gurus" when they have no longer provide a path to truth. Whether this is a pastor at your church, or someone who shares the same hobby or interests, you should humble yourself and learn as much as you can from their greater experience, but then you must move on.

Wisdom is not itself an action, it's the guidance behind action, and to grow in wisdom you must grow in knowledge so that you can see the patterns in your circumstance and align it to the wisdom and knowledge you've already gained.

Take the earlier portions of Proverbs, for example. If you were to take the information too literally, you'd think that all you need to do to avoid adultery is not walk down particular streets. While "red light" districts are an exception, the true knowledge isn't in the specifics of how the ignorant fool was ensnared, but that he could be ensnared at all and what behaviors would be used by the immoral woman to ensnare him.

Compare this to the old adage about "teaching a man to fish" versus "giving a man a fish". Wisdom is not about giving someone a fish, a single correct answer which, outside that specific problem showing back up again, is essentially useless. Wisdom is about teaching how to fish, teaching the underlying dynamics, the patterns, and growing in knowledge about how all these things can interact with each other to produce unique circumstances where universal truths are still applicable.

In this short passage, the contrast between the wise and foolish is in how they spend time, what it is that could define them. In our lives, we've been around people who talk too much, folks who run at the mouth and don't ever listen. That's the kind of fool being described, because if you persist in speaking, eventually you'll say something that will ensnare you somehow, and the probability of that happening increases the more ignorant you are.

We know this colloquially under the label "inappropriate". Talking about disbursement of inheritance at the memorial service, for example, might be seen as lacking tact. A fool would run off at the mouth and offend their family and generate antagonism out of their ignorance as to the appropriate time to discuss such matters.

It's in this fashion that the words a person uses cannot, by themselves, tell you everything. You need context, and that's where the "wise" who are gathering knowledge will be quick to listen and slow to speak, wisdom which shows up later in scripture.

The fool doesn't know about or doesn't care about the consequences of destruction that their tongue will bring upon them, but the wise will speak, and act, with prudence and intention.

Solomon is drawing attention to this dynamic in the contrast between the wise who could share the knowledge they've gained versus the foolish whose lips will bring destruction.

Any one "guru" will have some sample of truth, a finite collection of useful knowledge, and you will eventually hit their limit and need to continue your journey. With God there is no limit, but we are not really interacting directly with God, but with people who have interacted with God, and whose knowledge is filtered through their own life experiences and ponders.

To continue gathering knowledge, then, you need to learn from people who have had different experiences and combine that with what you've already learned to synthesize your understanding of the universal truths behind the specific occurrences, to find the patterns, to see them play out, and to practice identifying where you are in any one pattern.

You can't do that by talking all the time.You need to listen, to gather knowledge.

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” - Mark Twain

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