The Time for Listening (9/27/2026)

“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

29  Because they hated knowledge

And did not choose the fear of the Lord,

30  They would have none of my counsel

And despised my every rebuke” (Proverbs 01:28-30).

A study of the Old Testament is profitable because it provides insight into God—His

nature, His expectations, His attitudes toward sin. Such insight opens the door for

our understanding the commands and expectations we find laid before us in the

New Testament.

Solomon here personifies wisdom, thus giving us a picture of God’s attitude as he

addresses those he labels as “fools” in verse seven. They are those who are enticed

to give in to the calls of sinners to participate with them in their evil deeds and to

ignore the calls of wisdom appealing to them to abstain.

They are those to whom God has made numerous appeals to listen to the “words” he

has made known to them—there will come a time, the preacher says, when God’s

“listening and appealing” will cease, implying at judgment. God’s grace having been

exhausted, those who have ignored God will suffer the consequences laid out in

these verses.

If ever we have a universal message about the necessity of listening seriously to

God’s instructions, this verse is it. And, for us, those instructions are found in the

New Testament where we find “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter

3:1).