Proverbs 8:13 Commentary and Bible Study

But here are some more impediments to wisdom as a warning for us, impediments to the acquisition of wisdom. What he is saying is that if we really fear the Lord we will inevitably hate evil. If we have respect for him, we know he sees us so we will avoid evil. It is the proof of the fact that we really fear the Lord. We do not want to offend him, because we so respect him and hold him in awe. We know that evil is his enemy and we do not want to side with his enemy, but rather we are ready to enrol in his army, in the spiritual warfare. We will avoid pride and arrogancy. Arrogance is different from pride. Arrogancy is to do with the pomp of majesty in the Hebrew. We want to avoid pride, and we certainly do not want that even greater form of pride: wanting to seen as special or superior, so we are very careful to avoid those things, otherwise our supply of wisdom will wither and be cut off.Here is another impediment: ‘the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate,’ says wisdom. I cannot co-exist with it. If you are a person who is devious, even as a Christian, when you say one thing and you mean another, or you have little secret habits or pursuits you do not want people to know about. Maybe you pass as an earnest believing Christian to all your friends, but there are other things going on. I hate that, says wisdom. Wisdom is personified here and speaks to us as if it was very sensitive to these things. The froward mouth utters perverse and deceitful speech. I have got to be a straightforward person, not with secret plans and sins and devious ways.