Wisdom's Guide to Folly (Proverbs 1:20-33)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. We're walking through entire books of the Bible verse by verse. Proverbs is arranged differently, so we're going to approach it a little bit differently. Last week and this week are going to kind of set the series up for us, and then we'll go topic by topic because the Proverbs may say 30 sayings about wealth, but they're not going to be together, or 30 sayings about relationships, but they won't be together, but we're going to kind of approach them topic by topic as we continue. But this morning, we're going to do our best to listen to the Proverbs, listen to Lady Wisdom as she's personified in chapter 1, and get out of our own way to change our attitude so that the book of Proverbs might actually be helpful to us.
If you'll look in Proverbs chapter 1, we're going to pick up in verse 20, and we're going to see that Lady Wisdom's calling out to us, and we're approaching these Proverbs where we're getting godly insight in how to live and how to pursue what is ultimately good, but this part in chapter 1, verse 20, begins as a warning. So we read the first seven verses last week, and we looked at the general theme of Proverbs, that we would fear the Lord, that we would submit to Him, that we would humble ourselves, and this kind of idea continues in chapter 1, and so let's pray, and then we'll pick up in verse 20 together. God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Christ, who is the ultimate wisdom of God who came to pursue us, so that as we're invited to pursue wisdom in the Proverbs, we know that ultimately in Your wisdom You pursued us, and so we pray that we would walk in those two truths well together as we study the book of Proverbs, that we needed You to pursue us, but You call us to grow in wisdom as we follow You.
We love You, and we praise You in Jesus' name. Amen. So verse 20 says, Wisdom cries aloud in the street. In the markets, she raises her voice. At the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. At the entrance of the city gates, she speaks.
I find this extremely encouraging because Lady Wisdom goes out in public and yells. We need that. It doesn't say wisdom is in a mountain cave. Best of luck to you. Go hide from society and find it. No, she's come out into the world, and she's calling to anyone who will listen.
She's seeking us. It's very helpful. Verse 22, How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge? This, again, is encouraging. She comes out, and she begins to yell it for the simple ones and the scoffers and the fools to listen.
What's encouraging about this is that in the next verse, and we're going to spend most of our time in verse 22, but in the next verse, she says, If you'll just turn, if you'll just listen to me, that wisdom and our rejection of wisdom is based off of our attitude and our outlook rather than our mental ability. Amen. Praise the Lord. That's good news. Because you have control over your attitude. You have control over your outlook.
We don't have control over our mental ability. We said this last week, that there are people who are brilliant, and the Proverbs would call them foolish. And there are people who are uneducated, but they're wise. And it's not about our mental ability, but our approach, because those who are simple, those who are scoffers, and those who are fools are invited to change. They're invited to turn. And so that's good news for us.
Much of the Proverbs work like this. This is just, says, that's bad. That's good. Here's a picture. That's a lot of the way the Proverbs work. This is what a fool does.
This is what a wise person does. Pick one. Fools wake up with their backs hurting in the morning. Wise people look goofy, but walk fine. That's the way the Proverbs work. There's much of the Proverbs that are just going to say, this is what a fool does.
This is what a wise person does. And it invites us to learn that and to act accordingly. There was a groundbreaking documentary that was done some years back on the American workplace. It was called The Office. If you're not familiar, that's a sitcom. But in The Office, there's a character named Dwight, and he loves his boss.
And one of the earliest interactions with him in the show is his boss looks at him and says, what's the best piece of advice I ever gave you? And Dwight, in all earnestness, looks at him and says, don't be an idiot. Changed my life. And then it shows him talking to the camera, and he goes, whenever I'm about to do something, I ask myself, would an idiot do that? And if they would, I do not do that thing. That's how the Proverbs work.
They say, idiots do this. Wise people do this. And they're giving us a gauge. Rather than us trying to figure that out on our own, using our own wisdom to discern what's wise and good, the Proverbs help us. They coach us up. And then we get to know when you're about to respond to someone.
Would a fool do that? Would a wise person do that? How would a wise person handle the situation? And you get to change and model after it. It's very encouraging and helpful. And so we're going to look at these three people, the simple, the scoffer, and the fool, and try to understand how we can get in our way.
It's in verse 22. How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and the fools hate knowledge? We're going to spend our time looking at those three this morning and trying to see pictures of what do simple people look like, what do scoffers look like, and what do fools look like. And this does not mean if you fit into one of these categories, it doesn't mean that you're unintelligent. But any one of us at any time can join the ranks of the simple.
Any one of us at any time can join the ranks of the scoffer. And we can only do it in certain areas. You might be brilliant when it comes to work. And a complete fool when it comes to parenting. You might be brilliant when it comes to handling your personal finances, but you're a fool in relationships. And so we want to understand what the simple, what the fool, and what the scoffer look like so that we might change our behavior.
We might turn. Because that's the invitation that Lady Wisdom is giving. Okay. The simple. We'll start there. How long?
Meaning, when will you stop this? How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? The simple, chapter 14, verse 15, says this. The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thoughts to his steps. So the simple and the prudent are held up against each other.
The primary distinction is thoughtfulness or thoughtlessness. Do you give consideration? Do you give thought to what you're doing? Or do you just roll along, believing whatever you're told, believing whatever you see? The simple love being simple. Because being simple is easy.
It's not difficult to be simple. It's actually kind of nice. You don't have to labor over things. We can hear something and say, well, that sounds good. Okay. And we listen to something else and go, well, that sounds good.
Okay. And some of us change positions all the time based off of the last thing we heard, but we never take the time to really consider what's in front of us. Recently, we had the COVID vaccine. We still have the COVID vaccine. And there's a lot of things that people had to say about the COVID vaccine. Was it good?
Was it bad? Was it helpful? Was it a government conspiracy? I saw a thing that said, you know, COVID vaccine is how the government's going to track you. Now, somebody said, don't say that with a straight face if you have a cell phone in your pocket. But there was a lot to be said about it.
And then there was a lot to be said about each one. And I postponed even considering it. I just was too tired. I didn't want to think about it. I had other things to think about. So I just didn't think about it and didn't get one.
I just waited because I didn't want to think. And that's simple. To just say, I don't want to think. Another way to be simple would just be, well, what does this person say? Hey, cool, I'll go with what they said. This person's kind of thoughtful.
They thought through something for me. I'll go with what they said. Now, it's foolish, and we'll get there later, to never listen to the thoughts of others and never listen to the correction of others. But to just go with whatever you hear, to believe whatever you hear, is simple. That idea rolls into this next verse. It says, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets.
Therefore, do not associate with a simple babbler. Just talking. Just saying whatever's in your head. Just saying whatever you've heard. In the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, one of the pirates looks at Johnny Depp's character and says, that ship's the Black Pearl, and it's piloted by ghosts, and they come into places and they kill everyone. They always leave no survivors.
And Johnny Depp looks back at him and says, no survivors. I wonder where the stories come from. I love that part of that movie because I had flashbacks about me in middle school and high school repeating something to my dad and him immediately just poking a hole in it because I had given it no consideration. That he would just say something. It was like, oh, I hadn't thought about that at all. I'm just repeating what I've heard.
And guys, this matters. Because how tempted are we to do this when it comes to political things that we hear about the other party? How tempted are we to do this on Facebook where you see something and it enrages you? And rather than looking into it to see whether or not it's true, you just repost it. How often are we to just be a simple, slanderous babbler because we're just repeating what is said? And this matters for Christians.
Because I don't know if you know this, but much of the world already thinks we're simple. Let's not promote that idea further by not considering the things that we repeat and looking into whether or not things are true. Truth matters to us. It should matter to us. And so we should learn to not just repeat what we hear, but to consider our ways. And it says this, the prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.
So the simple don't think ahead. They don't like to think. The prudent thinks ahead. The prudent gives thought to what's going on. But the simple in general is just an avoidance of thought.
Going along with the crowd. Truth is, if you're simple and you're in a good crowd, that'll work out okay for you. If you're simple and you're in a bad crowd, that won't work out very well for you. But the invitation from Lady Wisdom is to stop being simple and begin giving consideration and thought to what you are doing. The next one that we'll look at is the scoffer. It says, how long will scoffers delight in their scoffing?
Chapter 21, verse 24 and 29.8 tell us this about scoffers. Scoffer is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who Acts with arrogant pride. And scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away from wrath. That word scoffer, another word for that is mocker. It's to be derisive. It's a false form of wisdom.
Because it makes you seem smart. By just poking holes in things. This is a current... You see this all over the place right now. The internet promotes this. We have whole fields of study now that are basically just scoffing.
If they're not handled correctly. We have deconstructionism, which is just taking things apart. Tearing things down. We have critical theory. And I'm not just being critical race theory. Critical theory, they have critical theory in all kinds of things.
But critical theory is just poking holes in things. And the reality is, some things need to be deconstructed. Some things need to be criticized. But if all we do is that, we just destroy, we never build back. There's a quote from Tim Keller. He says, we live in a post-modern age that encourages deconstruction.
And in an internet age that makes mocking and scoffing easy. And reasoned discourse difficult. Isn't that the truth? How often do we watch a news program and they just yell at each other? I watched a debate from the 1960s. It was delightful.
One person had a microphone at a time. The other person didn't have a microphone. The one person stood up and said, this is the point I'm going to prove. This is what I'm not trying to prove. And sat down. The other person walked up and said, this is the point I want to prove.
This is what I'm not trying to prove. And sat down. Then they went back and forth with arguments. And they attacked each other's arguments. Not each other's character. Or faces.
Or relations. Or whatever. They talked about the ideas. And it was not good television. But it was helpful if you wanted to understand what they were talking about.
But we don't promote that. If you'll scroll through your news feed. How many articles do you see that are 25 tweets that show how mad everybody's at Disney? This politician blasts that politician. Did you know that blasting someone is not an official thing that you can do in Congress? It just means said mean words about.
Well, neat. Did they do anything? Did they put forth any legislature? Are they moving forward with anything? We have these arguments all the time that we see things where it's this person puts this person in place with three scathing words. What are the words?
I love scoffing. Let me read this article. But isn't this the truth? It's easier to tear things down. It's easier to poke a hole in a person rather than an argument. And it's more enjoyable to participate in.
It says this in chapter 22, verse 10, 11, 12. It says, Drive out a scoffer and strife will go out. Quarreling and abuse will cease. Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent. Scoffing is like when you learned in middle school that one of the best ways to be cool was just to say that everything else was lame. Super easy.
Didn't have to take any positions. Didn't have to own anything. Didn't have to have any risk. Just say everything was dorky and lame and you became cool. Scoffing is the adult version of that. No real ideas.
Just mocking. It's a good way to seem smart. It's a false sense of pride. It's a shortcut to looking wise. Sorry, false sense of wisdom, not a false sense of pride. It's a straight up good sense of pride.
Shortcuts to looking wise. The cynical air. The inside joke. The size and feigned sadness about how stupid everyone is. This is Tim Keller again talking about this idea of being a scoffer. So here's the thing.
They delight in scoffing. Scoffing feels good. It does. It feels better than just having a position, than saying something positive. Announcing that you like vanilla ice cream. It's my favorite.
I don't have, Baskin Robbins doesn't need however many flavors. I walk in, I get vanilla. Vanilla in a cone. Sugar is my favorite. Any cone will work. They don't have cones, they have cups.
I'm fine. I just want vanilla. I don't even, I look at the stuff sometimes. Sometimes I don't. I just am like vanilla. I know what I want.
Beans, no beans. It's fine. Vanilla is good. Now, I don't feel particularly great saying that. But if you responded to me with vanilla, I bet you look so good in your pleated khakis eating your vanilla ice cream.
You would feel wonderful. There's some sense of just tearing something down that makes you feel better than just holding a position. Announcing what kind of music you like doesn't feel as good as looking at someone going, really? Well, there's some cats that fight each other in my neighborhood. I'll record that for you since that's the kind of music you like. There's something about delighting and scoffing that makes things more interesting or more heated or more whatever.
And it's foolishness. It does not help. We lack sense when we just tear people down and tear arguments down. I tear people down rather than engaging with actual arguments. It's also easier. It's easier to just shoot darts at something than to try to hold a position.
But it's unhelpful and it doesn't build up. Chapter 13, verse 1 and 15, 12 says, A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. A scoffer does not like to be reproved. He will not go to the wise. I love that. We'll look a little more at that when we look at the fools.
But I want to point out two things about scoffers. A scoffer does not listen to rebuke. A wise son hears his father's instruction. You ever been corrected or someone's arguing with you and you don't even listen to their argument? You just come up with your scathing retort? You don't even respond to their argument.
Someone points something out about you and you say, Yeah, well, I bet you handle everything in your life perfectly. I saw how you and you just bring up something completely unrelated. That's scoffing. Rather than listening to the point they made and considering, Is this true? Should I take this? The other thing is they don't like to be reproved, So they will not go to the wise.
Have you ever said, I would talk to them, But I already know what they're going to say? I bring this up in my group, But I know what they're going to say. Probably some really helpful things. That you probably need to hear. And just knowing what they're going to say versus hearing what they're going to say is very different. And it's a scoffing position to reject potential help and guidance.
Rather than to receive it. And it's unwise. And Lady Wisdom invites us to turn. All right. Let's look at fools.
Verse 22. And fools hate knowledge. Okay. So the simple enjoy being simple. The scoffers delight in scoffing. Fools just hate knowledge.
They just don't want to hear it. That's the primary thing that sets them apart. Is that they just, They don't want to participate in knowledge. That's foolish. And the fool gets a lot more treatment in the Proverbs. It's a broader category.
That kind of encompasses these others. But again, It's further down the line than being just simple. It's a position against learning. It's a position against growing. But the Proverbs give us kind of a full picture of the fool.
One of my favorite types of cartoons growing up was the Goofy cartoons. The Goofy cartoons, Goofy would teach you something. He'd teach you how to play baseball. He'd teach you how to ski. And there was always a voiceover, A very good soothing voice, Explaining it. And then Goofy was messing it up.
So the voice would be like, How to fish. The angler or fisherman chooses his bait and tackle wisely. And then you'd watch Goofy just, I mean, Destroying it. And it was excellent. I love those. That's a lot of the way the Proverbs work.
When it talks about the fool, It says, Here's what it should look like, But here's what a fool does with that. And it gives you those pictures. And it gives us this full profile of a fool. But fools cause trouble for themselves. They cause trouble for everyone near them. They cause trouble for their families, Their moms, Their dads, Their friends.
They choose sin. But one of the primary marks of a fool in the Proverbs Is that they trust themselves rather than others. This is chapter 28, 26, and 12, 15. Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, But he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man listens to advice. One of the misconceptions we have about wisdom Was if I was wise, I would know what to do right now.
Wise people talk to other people And listen to them. Fools know what to do right now. It's a fool who knows everything, How to handle every situation, Who is perfectly equipped for all things. It's a wise person who understands, I have limitations, I have things that I'm good at, And things I'm not good at, And I need some help. It's a wise person who goes and asks counsel From four or five different people, And considers it, And weighs it, And then makes a decision. It's a fool who, Even while people are trying to give them counsel, You can almost watch it bounce off their forehead.
And I know I've been that before. Someone's talking to me, And I'm like, And then I'm choosing to do something That is absolutely foolish. But the wise listen, They accept rebuke. The wise change and seek guidance. And I want you to know how encouraging that is. I think this is encouraging for everybody, But I see it specifically in young men, Who think one of the ways to be a man, And a real man is just to know what to do, And how to handle every situation.
That's foolish. Seek guidance. Ask for help. Get counsel. Find some people who you've seen in life, They've made wise decisions. Ask them questions.
That's the other thing. Ask people questions who are ahead of you. If you're 18, Don't ask all your 18 year old friends, How to do things. Ask someone who has already been 18, And done some good things, And some bad things. That's one of the reasons why we have community groups, That are mixed ages, And mixed genders, And all across the spectrum. So that we have some life, And some youth, And some wisdom, All packed in together, And we can grow together.
It says this, The wise of heart will receive commandments, But a babbling fool will come to ruin. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, But only in expressing his opinion. You ever had someone come ask you for advice, And then they talk to the whole time? Have you ever done that? Hey, I really need your help with this situation. And then you just run your mouth for 30 minutes.
Thanks, that was really helpful. Was it? I think you left with the information you already had. That's not a problem I have. I've never talked too much in a situation. But I'm sure it's caused some of you problems.
Honestly, one of the good first steps towards wisdom, Is to shut your mouth. Proverbs are going to say that over and over again. Just close your mouth. Just listen. Ask a question. Listen.
Ask more questions. Listen. Chapter 12, verse 15, verse 5. It says, Whoever loves discipline, Loves knowledge. But he who hates reproof is stupid.
A fool despises his father's instruction. But whoever heeds reproof is prudent. Again, Stupidity is not a state. You're not a victim of it. You choose it. So you can choose to be stupid, Or you can choose to be wise.
But you're the one who gets to pull that lever. But read that. Whoever loves discipline, Loves knowledge. Do we love discipline? Someone corrects us. Do you leave like, That was wonderful.
You have to train your soul to appreciate. That. We're inclined to hate reproof. That's correction or rebuke. That's someone calling us out. That's someone pointing us out.
That we did something poorly. Or that we failed. So the question here, For us to grow in wisdom, Is how do we handle critique, And correction, And rebuke? Do we grow from it? Or do we defend ourselves against it? Some of you will say, Well, They went about that all wrong.
You know, I don't mind taking correction, But the way they came at me, They attacked me. They were just mean about it. Maybe, Maybe, I would invite you to consider, Have you ever considered someone's correction, Done really, really well? They corrected me on a thing I was wrong about, And it just felt so good. Usually, Even if done well, It stings a little bit. It's just good for us.
The reality is, Many of you, Have people who have tried to coach you, Or people in life who are trying to coach you, And you treat them like critics, And dismiss them. But someone who is wise, Can take even a critic, And turn them into a coach. If you're going to grow, If your purpose is to grow in wisdom, And to change, And to be more healthy, And someone critiques you, Even if they go about it wrong, What does that matter? Are they right? Here's a good chance to grow. What does their tone matter?
Yeah, Maybe it made it a little worse, Maybe a little harder to heal, But sit and consider. Do you love correction? That's one of the, Proverbs says that, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, And profuse are the kisses of an enemy. But some of us, Our gauge is just, Are they, Are these wounds or kisses? Not who's it coming from? And what's their intent?
An enemy that kisses you, Is not kissing you for your own good. And a friend that is wounding you, Is not wounding you for your harm. But if your only gauge is, Did this hurt? Or did this feel nice? You are on your way towards foolishness. We have this idea that, Any criticism is bad.
If we disagree, You're toxic. You're bad for me. I need people who are going to uplift me. I need people who are going to, Co-sign whatever I do. I need people who are going to, Appreciate me and accept me. Yeah.
You need people who are going to love you. You need people who will celebrate, Things that are worth celebrating. You also need people who will grab you, And say that is wrong and bad. Stop it. Who love you enough to do that. Some of you, Have fought critique and criticism, And coaching so much, The people who love you won't do it anymore.
Oh bless your soul. If the people around you, Who care about you, Are not willing to risk anymore, Correcting you, Because you handle it so poorly, That is bad for you. Some of us today, The way we respond, Is we go back to the last few people, Who corrected us and coached us up, And say, I didn't listen and I am sorry. I just fought you. I just personally attacked you. That was foolish.
I need people around me, Who care enough about me, To tell me I am wrong. And if you have no one who will do that, You are not with people who love you. And if you are with friends, And you think that your only position, Is just to clap for whatever they do, You can clap, But you can't call that love. Because just supporting foolish things, Is not loving. But wisdom, Helps us learn from rebuke, And appreciate it.
And this is very important, As we start a series on Proverbs, Because it is going to say some things, You don't like. You know how much you like it, When someone comes and corrects you, On how you handle your money. You know how much you like it, When someone comes and says, I think you are parenting wrong. You know how good that is felt. Someone comes over to you, Your parents, A friend, And says, Hey, I want to talk to you about your children, I think you are bad at this. Do you know how much you thought, I was hoping someone would say this.
Thank you. Do you know how immediately defensive we get? Do you know how much we want to guard ourselves, Justify ourselves, Protect ourselves. And what we are protecting ourselves, Is our pride, Not our growth. But see, The Proverbs are going to come along, And say, You are bad at relationships.
You don't know how to close your mouth. You don't know how to handle your money. You don't know how to handle parenting. We are going to read that, Then we are going to get in groups, And we are going to try to walk together, And growing for this. And if we don't learn how to love discipline, We are going to come out more foolish, On the other end of this series. You will actually be better, At practicing foolishness, If you just reject all the correction that is coming.
You will have better bone density, And muscle mass, When it comes to swatting off people, Trying to correct you. And it will be bad for you. Rather than growing in humility, And learning how to take corrections, So that we might move towards life. That is the invitation. So it says this, Verse 23, If you turn at my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit to you, And I will make my words known to you.
That is a promise from wisdom. Wisdom will fill you with wisdom, And make words of wisdom known to you. This is also a promise, That is fulfilled ultimately in Christ. That if we will turn to him, And turn to his rebuke, And see our sin, Not just our foolishness, But our foolishness that leads to destruction. That Jesus will give us his spirit, And his words will be with us, And that we will actually move out of eternal foolishness. As he is the perfect picture of true wisdom.
True wisdom. But we see this invitation made both by wisdom, And by Christ. He says, Verse 24, Because I have called, And you have refused to listen, And have stretched out my hand, And no one has heeded. Because you have ignored all my counsel, And would have none of my reproof. Just so you know, Wisdom has tried with you already. Has already hollered at you, Stood out in front of you, People in your life have stood out in front of you, And done this.
And some of us have heeded, And some of us haven't. And sometimes you heeded, And sometimes you didn't. But this is already taking place. Because you ignored all my counsel, And would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity, And I will mock when terror strikes you. I told you there was an appropriate time to mock, Wisdom knows when.
There are times that it's okay for us to have satire, And for us to poke fun at things, And for us to deconstruct things. And like I said, It's just, Is it a pattern of life, Where it's used to defend ourselves, Is it a pattern of life, Where it's used to promote our pride, Is it a pattern of life, That is just, In contrary to wisdom, But wisdom at times, Knows when to do this. We don't always, But wisdom does. And it's when you, Get what you asked for. 27, When terror strikes you like a storm, And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you, Then will you call upon me, But I will not answer.
Then, They will seek me diligently, But I will not find, But will not find me. And if we reject wisdom all along, There's going to come a time when we really need it, And at that moment it will be too late. We will need people around us, Who will counsel us, And we will have already run all of them off. We will need to know how to make tough decisions, And think through things, And we will not know how. And wisdom will laugh at us. Because they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of the Lord.
That's humility and submission, To someone who is wiser than us. Would have none of my counsel, And despised all my reproof. Therefore, They shall eat the fruit of their way, And have their fill of their own devices. One of the ways that God puts judgment on us, And shows his wrath to us, Is by letting us have what we want. God in his grace, Stands between us in trouble. God in his grace, Stands between us in sin.
God in his grace, Stands between us in foolishness. And eventually God says, Fine. That's what Romans 1 says. That God gave them over, To their desires. He handed them over to their lusts. He handed them over to their wickedness.
He got out of their way, So that they might have the full extent, Of their foolishness. C.S. Lewis puts it this way. He says, There are only two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God, Thy will be done. And those to whom God says in the end, Thy will be done.
You can choose foolishness. You can choose sin. You can choose destruction. God in his grace, In the book of Proverbs, Is standing in the way, Crying out in the streets, Hollering at us to stop. God in his grace, Even more so in the person and work of Christ, Has come literally into the streets, To cry out, That we might have hope, That we might have life, To take our place. He doesn't just correct fools, But he takes the place of fools, So that we might have hope in him, But we can eventually get what we want.
Proverbs 19.3 says, When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, His heart rages against the Lord. How often is that true? We choose a path, We fight the Lord off, We get what we deserve, And then we say, Look at how unjust, And unfair, And uncaring, And unloving he is, That he would let this happen. When all along the way, He called us to repentance, He called us to wisdom, He called us to stop, Had people around us, Who stood in the way, We jumped every hurdle in the way, And then we got to eat, The full measure, Of what we had prepared for ourselves, And then we act as if God is unjust. Do you want to know what's beautiful, In this?