{"id":844,"date":"2021-07-06T08:10:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T12:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=844"},"modified":"2021-07-06T08:10:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T12:10:01","slug":"three-blind-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/06\/three-blind-mice\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Blind Mice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout July we\u2019re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible\u2019s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom.<\/em>

Lots of notable things come in threes.

There are three primary colors, three Newtonian laws of motion, and three persons in the Trinity.  Baseball hitters get three strikes, basketball players shoot three-pointers, and hockey players in search of hat tricks dream of scoring three goals.

We wear three-piece suits, eat three-minute eggs, and occasionally experience life at home as a three-ring circus.  Hollywood has introduced us to Three Coins in a Fountain, Three Days of the Condor, <\/em>and Three Men and a Baby. <\/em>

Children learn about the three little pigs, Goldilocks and the three bears, and baa-baa black sheep\u2019s \u201cthree bags full.\u201d  Rock fans celebrate Three Dog Night and Three Doors Down, psychoanalysts appreciate Freud\u2019s three aspects of the personality, and anti-nuke activists lament Three-Mile Island.    

Teachers sigh deeply when they report that 59% of Americans can name the Three Stooges, while only 41% can identify the three branches of government. 

Early in the book of Proverbs we encounter another memorable triad.  We\u2019re introduced to three problem people.  They appear together in 1:22: \u201cHow long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?  How long will mockers delight in their mocking and fools hate knowledge?\u201d 

The simple person, the fool, and the mocker are living illustrations of what happens when people fail to be wise.  They’re the Three (Spiritually) Blind Mice of the book of Proverbs.

The speaker in verse 22 is Wisdom, a female personification of the book\u2019s primary spiritual virtue.  Later this week we\u2019ll tackle the controversial question of her identity.  Is it possible that Proverbs is suggesting that Wisdom is an actual Person \u2013 perhaps a foreshadowing of Jesus himself?

We read in 1:20-21: \u201cOut in the open Wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square.  At noisy street corners she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech.\u201d 

Notice the places where Wisdom is trying to get our attention: the public square, noisy street corners, and the city gate (the latter being the spot where life\u2019s big questions are discussed and economic wheeling and dealing goes down). 

The \u201cnoisy street corners\u201d of the digital age include the big screen TVs that serve as the wallpaper of so many American homes; the never-ending dings of our smartphones, notifying us that we\u2019ve received another must-see text or urgent sports update; and the social media rants that practically dare us to tell those speakers, who are complete strangers to us, that they are mindless idiots. 

In the midst of such never-ending noise, Wisdom is calling. 

Is anybody listening? <\/em>

The simple person, the fool, and the mocker represent a crescendo of unresponsiveness, going from bad to worse. 

According to Proverbs, the simple person<\/strong> isn\u2019t a bad person.  He or she is simply clueless (note 7:7 and 14:15).  When they receive an email that a Nigerian prince wants to make them very rich (in exchange for their bank account information), simple people can\u2019t believe their good luck.  This lack of basic common sense \u2013 what Proverbs calls \u201cprudence\u201d \u2013 is curable, if only the simple person is willing to enroll as a student in the school of wisdom. 

Being a fool<\/strong> is a different matter.  Fools have barreled through the intersections of wisdom and common sense and are quite certain they\u2019re on the high road to happiness.  They dismiss the advice of others (15:5) and trust their own brilliance (18:2).  In the end, life is all about taking care of Number One.

According to the Bible, fools are not dumb.  They are not lacking in formal education or IQ.  A fool is foolish<\/em> because he or she thinks their own moral compass is an infallible guide to the Good Life.  Unless they come to their senses, fools are going to be gravely disappointed \u2013 both in this world and the next.

Entering the realm of the mocker<\/strong> is to experience the spiritual Dark Side.  Proverbs describes this person in 21:24:  \u201c\u2019Proud,\u2019 \u2018Haughty,\u2019 \u2018Scoffer\u2019 are his names, who acts with insolent pride.\u201d  Mockers make fun of \u201cgood people.\u201d  They cynically dismiss even the notion that such things as Good and Evil exist.  \u201cDon\u2019t try to correct a mocker, or he will hate you.  Correct a wise man, though, and he will love you.\u201d (9:8)

Although Scripture makes it clear that no one is beyond the hope of God\u2019s grace, mockers come pretty close.  That\u2019s because grace must be received<\/em>.  And mockers would rather die than believe in such fairy tales.   

The slippery slope of ignorance leads us to conclude, \u201cHey, I can handle life by myself.\u201d  Before we know it, we\u2019re brushing off even the idea that there\u2019s a God worth thinking about. 

The simpleton, the fool, and the mocker. 

Proverbs tells us, \u201cKeep your eyes out for such people.\u201d 

Even more important:  \u201cNever forget that this could be you<\/em> one day.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout July we\u2019re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible\u2019s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. Lots of notable things come in threes. There are three primary colors, three Newtonian laws of motion, and three persons in the Trinity.  Baseball hitters get three strikes, basketball players shoot three-pointers, and hockey players in search of hat tricks dream… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[123,122],"class_list":["post-844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-proverbs","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}