Chapter 12

Chapter 12 has even less of a theme than previous chapters. It’s all good stuff, but . . it’s hard to put into a box.

One more time I have to say READ THIS! It’s a great chapter, and because it’s so wide ranging, there has to be something here that can speak to your current situation, no matter what it is!

Anyway, whilst there’s no main theme, there IS a theme which returns a couple of times. It’s how one reacts to learning.

We are shown in several situations how the wise and the fool react when faced with new knowledge. Whilst there are many different variations, the ongoing theme is that the wise embrace it, whereas the fools ignore it. A wise man is one who would take advice, but the fool is headstrong (v15).

This is interesting. You’d think the fool, having more to learn, would be more willing to take new learning on board. But most of us know this isn’t the case. Just like rich people are generally rich because they understand how to manage money, so people who are wise are those who have learned to manage their wisdom, and to increase it.

We will come face to face with new information every day. More than that, we’ll face learning situations (some of them painful). Whether we are wise or not will be showed in our reactions – do we take the lesson on board? Or do we try to go our own way?

It’s our choice. Be warned, though – when we don’t learn the lesson, God has a tendency of repeating the lesson, be it ever so uncomfortable, until we get it right!