Proverbs 16:22 Commentary and Bible Study

The comparison within this proverb picks out another fascinating contrast: the great value of wisdom to the one who has it, contrasted with the enormous difficulty or even impossibility of attempting to impart it to those who do not have it. How can someone who has wisdom value it so highly and yet someone who does not have it can run a million miles from it? How can the two assessments of understanding be so different? Are they even thinking about the same thing when they react so differently? Well yes, they are. But there is something deeper at work here; something powerful which is erecting a barrier in the mind of the fool. It is obvious from the structure of the proverb that the assessment of the possessor of understanding is the right one. He finds it to be a well of life, and proves to himself again and again that it is worth any amount of effort and inconvenience to obtain. Why then does the fool see it so differently? Because there is a spiritual battle; because there are spiritual enemies; because those enemies are able to fight unfairly and poison the mind of the fool so that he embraces folly instead of understanding. Does he not learn by experience that folly is of no profit to him? Yes, but he still clings onto it with desperate energy because he has been bewitched by the forces of darkness. They work in the mind, in the most intimate place, and they are able to foster the most irrational convictions in the mind. Can these false conviction be shaken by any amount of reasoning, however sincere, however true, however tenderly imparted? No, prejudice is proof against all of these approaches. Any attempt to instruction is folly to the fool because he cannot bear such a process, and to the instructor because he is wasting his time.Certainly the proverb teaches that the possession of understanding makes us appreciate it more. The one who has it is like someone who has a private well in his garden. This well always contains fresh pure water because it is fed by a spring. This resident wellspring is always bubbling up fresh insight into all that we encounter in life. The owner reaches down and draws from it again and again and is never disappointed. What he draws out corrects him when he is in danger of foolishness. Understanding is such a thing that it can only be known by experience. That experience brings with it anticipation of more, for it opens our eyes to a great landscape of truth that was previously hidden from us. It places within our grasp treasures that we never dared hope that we might possess but which now become a reality and not simply a hopeless dream. It arranges truth in our minds in a way that is self-authenticating and brings immense satisfaction to the mind, for we sense that this is truth, precisely because it is all-encompassing and leaves nothing out of the reckoning. God’s truth does not have any untidy corners, but explains everything, has a place for everything, and draws all things into a perfect conclusion to the glory of Christ.