Proverbs 14:33 Commentary and Bible Study

It is a beautiful picture – wisdom resting quietly in the heart, but why is wisdom in such calm repose? Not because it does not know its own worth and so does not trouble to show itself. Nor because it has no desire to communicate with others, for, in one respect, wisdom is eager to teach others and to instruct the simple, but wisdom is not anxious in the way it goes about this task. It does not boast about itself and does not need the praise of men in order to know its own worth. It can lie quietly even though it is a great jewel, because it is certain that God will use it in due season. Thus the Son of God lived for thirty years on earth in relative obscurity until the time determined by his Father for his ministry to begin. Though he had unsearchable riches of wisdom in his heart which the world greatly needed to hear, he trusted his Father’s timetable and did not run ahead. Wisdom is content to lie quietly under the eye of God, knowing that he has a great work in store for it in the future. Flowers of great beauty lie concealed in the bud ready to open in the spring. Wisdom is God’s servant not man’s servant. Furthermore, wisdom does not hurry to show itself to the world because it knows the world cannot appreciate it. Why should it devalue itself by thrusting itself prematurely on an unappreciative world, for wisdom comes from heaven and we must not cheapen it. We do not bring the wisdom of the gospel to a lost world in order for them to approve its worth. We already know what it is worth, and we bring it because they are lost in darkness and ignorance. They are quite incapable of setting a value on it, but whether they appreciate it or not, this is what they need.But what is in the heart of the fool is made known. It does not stay hidden within his heart for long, for he cannot help but bring it out. If he gains knowledge, his heart is such a small place, that he must immediately relieve himself by showing all around him what he has learnt. He lacks the modesty of the truly wise, and so feels compelled to give mankind the benefit of what he knows. In other areas his foolishness inadvertently betrays itself by wickedness, by perversity, by a compulsion to sin. The tree must bear fruit and the wicked must commit sin, for there is an impatience within the heart of the fool to express what he is. Since he does not know the conduct of true wisdom, he is unable to reproduce it, for wisdom has a skill that evades him, since when wisdom is truly in the heart it governs the behaviour very closely and intervenes at the first movement of the soul. But the fool must tag along far behind attempting to ape the gestures and postures of wisdom. It is like the difference between a skilled ballet dancer and a novice who clumsily attempts to copy him.