Proverbs 17:16
No Heart for Wisdom
1. Solomon is asking a question here.
a. His question is based upon an observation.
b. This proverb pictures a man with money in hand, able to make a purchase.
c. He possesses the price necessary to obtain wisdom.
d. He is ABLE to make the purchase… but he doesn’t.
e. The question is, “Why?” (wherefore)
2. Price
a. Price, wages, cost. It refers to the value of a transaction, a market price, or the equivalent value in goods.
b. Job 28:12-15 – Of course, we know that wisdom CANNOT be purchased with money…
• It’s WORTH spending all one’s gold and rubies to buy it if you could… but one cannot BUY wisdom.
• If so—all rich people would be wise… and all poor people would be foolish.
• BUT—that is certainly not the case in reality!
c. Solomon is using the concept of making a purchase in a figurative sense to illustrate making another kind of transaction.
d. The concept of making a purchase was used in a figurative sense elsewhere in the Old Testament.
• Isa. 55:1-3 – Come and buy… only with this purchase you can buy without money! All you need is the DESIRE for it… come and receive… knock and it shall be opened unto you…
• The purchase represents another kind of transaction… coming to God for salvation.
• Anyone who comes can buy it… obtain it… even without money.
• This is a figurative way of saying that salvation is offered and available to all… equally…
• In this sense, it is like the wisdom spoken of in Proverbs 17:16.
e. Like salvation, wisdom is also offered in the Old Testament to all… freely… just come and get it! Nobody who comes will be refused.
• Prov. 8:1-5 – Lady Wisdom offers wisdom to all.
• Prov. 8:10-11 – She tries to demonstrate how valuable wisdom is… in hopes of luring “customers.”
• Prov. 8:17 – Seek and ye shall find! It’s available!
• Prov. 8:33 – Don’t refuse it!
• Just come and receive it—make the transaction.
3. The fool in this picture:
a. He HAS the price to make the purchase in his hand…
b. In other words, he has everything necessary to complete this transaction… for him to BECOME wise…
c. He COULD make the purchase if he chose to do so… the money is in his hand…
d. In other words, the fool has at his fingertips the opportunity to become wise…
e. There is no good reason why he COULDN’T gain wisdom… for he has the price in his hand to make the transaction.
4. Fools HAVE in their possession all the “coins” needed to gain wisdom:
a. A sound mind… a capacity to think rationally… reason…
b. The capacity of will – to make decisions…
c. Access to God’s Word…
d. Contact with believers…
e. The ministry of the Holy Spirit… who convicts the whole world…
f. Lady Wisdom is CRYING out to be heard…
g. Parents whose heart desire it is for their children to become wise…
h. Good role models… godly examples…
i. Teachers…
j. The local church…
k. People praying for him or her…
l. The gospel message…
m. Access to God… available to whosoever will call…
n. Time and countless opportunities…
5. The average fool has MOST of these coins in his hand… in his possession.
a. That’s the point of this proverb…
b. He has the price—all he needs to do is make the transaction.
c. Fools have every asset necessary to obtain wisdom… but one.
d. The concept of a purchase here is an illustration…
e. It illustrates this one fact: even a fool could be wise if he wanted to be.
f. Fools are not fools because they lacked the opportunity to become wise… or because they lacked advantage…
g. The fool has everything he needs to “make that purchase”… IF he wants to.
h. He has every advantage, every opportunity, every asset, but one…
1. When you have the price for an item in your hand, you can get it if you want.
2. The fool has everything he needs to (figuratively) make the purchase… the only thing he lacks is HEART.
a. He has NO HEART for wisdom… he doesn’t want it!
b. He COULD have it… just like others, but he has no heart… no interest… no inward desire for… no will.
c. He has set his heart on other things…
d. Thus, he turns away from Lady Wisdom… seeking other voices…
3. Prov. 1:22-23 – Lady Wisdom is continually crying out to these fools…
a. There is no need for them to remain as fools…
b. All they need to do is respond to the call… come… it is something every last one of them COULD do… IF he had the heart for it.
c. But fools REJECT counsel…
d. Fools won’t listen to the words of wisdom…
e. Fools turn away from the right way for the way of folly…
f. Fools DESPISE wisdom… (Prov. 1:7)
g. Fools HATE knowledge… (Prov. 1:22)
h. Fools DELIGHT in their folly…
4. Deut. 5:29 – God lamented the same “lack of heart” in the Israelites with respect to coming to Him for salvation… and for a walk of wisdom and obedience… they just didn’t have the heart for it.
a. Vs. 27 – on the surface, they SAID, “all that the Lord our God shall speak to you we will hear and do.”
b. They had good intentions… good words…
c. Vs. 29 – But God knew their heart. He knew that they had no heart for Him really. They were but words.
d. There was no good reason WHY Israel could not walk humbly with God in obedience to His Word… a walk of faith.
e. The only real reason was that they had no heart for it.
f. That was the sad truth.
5. This is true when it comes to the wisdom necessary to function in this world… AND it is also true for the kind of wisdom that relates to spiritual things.
a. A man, woman, or child needs to have a HEART for wisdom… or they will never obtain it.
b. Solomon noted, sadly, that MANY fools have had every opportunity to become wise… just like others… but just did not have the heart for it.
c. It is not that they lacked intelligence. It is not a matter of IQ. It’s not a matter of the head, but of the heart. It’s a matter of the heart… will… desire…
d. And giving these folks MORE opportunity isn’t going to resolve the problem.
e. Bailing them out of the hole they have dug for themselves won’t resolve the problem. They will dig themselves another hole.
6. Solomon’s question:
a. The question is really sad and discouraging…
b. Solomon observed this event occurring often and it saddened him…
c. But perhaps even more so, it puzzled him… especially since there was no good reason WHY the fool should remain a fool!
d. WHY? Why would this ever occur, even once, not to mention millions of times?
• Why would God GIVE such people so many advantages?
• Why should such a person be given so many “coins” if they fail to use them?
• Why is it that some persons with MANY coins fail to make the purchase, and someone with only a few coins, who DOES have a heart for wisdom, is able to make the purchase? WHY? (Heart!!!!)
• Solomon’s question is: Why does God even bother with such people?
• Why does God bother to give them so many advantages… privileges… only to see them squander them?
• Solomon is not complaining to God here… he is simply puzzled and perplexed by human nature.
• It does not make sense to him… and he laments the irrational nature of it all…
• And we too have lamented this in folks we have known
• Every one of us has met this kind of fool… with EVERY advantage… yet he/she fails to take advantage of it.
• We all know godly Christian families—with several children—each one possesses the same coins… the same advantages… and yet there may be one of four who has no heart for wisdom—and goes out and makes a big mess of his life… spiritually… or otherwise.
• WHY? Why would a person who has so many coins and advantages at his fingertips NOT make the purchase…?
• The simple, but heartbreaking answer is, he has no heart for it! He doesn’t want it. His heart is set on foolish things.
• Prov. 26:11 – As irrational as it sounds, fools delight in their folly—no matter how disgusting it may seem to those who seek to lead them to something better!
• WHY would they do such a thing? They have no heart for something better.