Foolishness' Call and How to Discern it, Part 1 - Proverbs 9:13

The woman of folly is boisterous, She is naive and knows nothing. Proverbs 9:13

For the next several days we will look at the call of the foolish.  Solomon, inspired by God, gives us a fascinating look as he personifies the way that fools are called to the stupidity of following after their own lusts and the ways of this present evil time.  He does this by making the call of the foolish into a person.  Let's take a look at this portrait of the fool's call and seek to learn from it so that we will not be caught by her siren sounds and find our faith shipwreck on the rocks of flesh and the worldliness that it embraces.

We see that our nemisis here is described as "the woman of folly."  This term is less than flattering because the word folly here is the Hebrew word "kesiylut" which means foolishness or stupidity.  Thus we have here a stupid, foolish woman who is going to call to us.  The word kesiylut coes fro the adjective kesiyl which means "a fool."  Kesiyl is a very descriptive word in that is speaks of soeont who is unable to deal with life in a successful or practical way.  It is used in Proverbs 1:22,32 to describe soeone who lacks any spiritual understanding.  The fool here hates knowledge - loves waywardness (in regard to God's commandments) and is utterly complacent when it comes to spiritual things and any sense of accountability to God.  Ecclesiastes 2:14 speaks of one like this as being someone who walks in spiritual darkness with a haze preventing the from seeing truth or righteousness.  Therefore, when we read that this woman of folly is boisterous, naive, and knows nothing, it is easy for us to agree with this assessment.

Folly is boisterous.  The word used here is "hamah" and it means to murmur, growl, roar, and howl.  In this context we get several pictures of the one who will call us to a foolish lifestyle.  They roar and howl as they live it up in their lifestyle.  They see no consequences to their actions so they howl in their pleasures.  I will probably sound too much like a puritan when I say this (but since I have great respect for the puritans, I would consider this a compliment) but they love their loud, rambunctious parties and revel in their wickedness.  The one who loves his or her sin to the point of bathing themselves in it - is someone we should ignore.  We see another picture with this word of how this one will react to righteousness and a call to a holy lifestyle.  They murmur and growl at such things.  We hear them complain and snarl at one who has the audacity to say that there is absolute truth - and that truth is God's Word.  They hate it when the standards of God are lifted up - and even despise it more when those standards speak out against their chosen lifestyle of rebellion.  We would be wise to recognize such things and keep our ears closed to the call of such people to "live it up" when the truth of their words is that they want us to "death it up" instead.

Folly is naive.  The word used here is "petayyut" which means to be simple or naive.  It has the idea of one who really is not aware of that their actions have true implications and do impact their future.  The reason for this is as was stated at the beginning of this post - they are foolish and stupid.  They really don't want to be bothered with the facts of where their lifestyle is taking them.  They are the proverbial ostrich with its head stuck in the sand.  The problem is that as they naively pursue their ungodly, unscriptural choices, the consequences of their actions are piling up for them.  They cannot escape the judgments of God - because He has set it up so that rebellion has consequences. 

Folly knows nothing.  The statement here is about as plain as any made anywhere in Scripture.  The word for know is "yada" and it is pretty much the basic word for knowledge in the Hebrew language.  Folly is unable to learn, perceive, or discern.  The call that is going to be issued to us - the call of the foolish - is one that is unable to discriminate between good and evil - between right and wrong.  It is a deadly call because it is a spiritually ignorant call.  Worse than that, it is a spiritually darkened and rebellious call.  When we embrace the call of the foolish - we are embracing what is diametrically opposed to what God desires in our lives.  Oh that we would learn to discern and recognize this call in all its various forms as it comes to us.  This is what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 5 verses 13-14.  We read there that there are those ". . . who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.  If we turn from folly's call and turn instead to wisdom's call, we will be able to grow in such discernment.  That should be our worthy goal.