Wisdom Can’t Be Bought

It is senseless to pay to educate a fool,

since he has no heart for learning. Proverbs 17:16

AT FIRST BLUSH this proverb could appear to be about the senselessness of investing good money in educating a foolish child. But that’s only because we bring our modern ideas of school tuition costs to the ancient text. The practice of paying a teacher was unknown until the Middle Ages.

What Proverbs 17:16 presents is the picture of a person who has no inclination to engage in a patient process of becoming wise and assumes instead that wisdom can be bought with money. This fool has heard the proverb writer’s instruction to “get wisdom,” which is “better than gold,” but rather than submitting to God in holy fear, rather than experiencing slow growth through patient study of God’s Word, and rather than being willing to be transformed from the inside, he digs in his pockets to pay for the quick fix. It’s like a person who has no interest in investing in a marriage relationship and offers money to a prostitute, thinking that he or she can buy love. Just as love cannot be bought, neither can wisdom be purchased.

We’ve been told since the first chapter of Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is given freely to anyone who recognizes his or her need for it and asks God for it. James writes, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking” (James 1:5).

Generous God who gives wisdom, you save foolish people from an empty life so that we can be filled with the wisdom of Christ. Save me, Lord, and give me a heart that longs to learn your ways. And, Lord, save ________ from the foolishness of thinking there are shortcuts to becoming a wise person. Give ________ a desire for the wisdom that comes only from you.