“Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous never changes. Every sensible person acts knowledgeably, but a fool displays his stupidity.” (Proverbs‬ ‭13‬:‭15‬-‭16 ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Men are famously bad about asking for directions. It’s a common enough flaw in our programing that it has become its own trope. And when we don’t ask for directions, while we sometimes get where we intend to go, we more likely wind up somewhere we don’t want to be. I remember arriving back at the airport coming home from a long trip late one night with the whole family in tow. We got to the satellite lot to get the car, but I hadn’t written down our stop and got us off at the wrong one…on the complete opposite side of the lot. We had to wait for another bus to come by, dealing our arrival at home by a lot. I still rightly pay for that one. It’s always better to seek counsel than look foolish. Solomon agrees. Let’s talk about it.

The standard form of pretty much all of the proverbs we have in this collection is called the doublet. There are two lines that are set in either contrast or comparison with each other. The first one offers one picture of reality, and the second one either contradicts it or affirms it. Occasionally things deviate from that pattern, but not very often.

Typically, understanding the proverbs isn’t so hard at first glance. But while they are intended to be statements that are self-evidently true, they are also invitations into deeper reflection. And indeed, when we take time to allow the ideas to marinate in our hearts and minds, the Holy Spirit who inspired these words will help us understand them in new and deeper ways over time. It won’t be an instant thing. God doesn’t do much that is instant. But when we just sit with Him, we will gradually come to a richer and fuller understanding of how He designed the world to work.

In order to get ot that, one of the things we have to pay close attention to is the nature of the comparison being offered. Consider the first proverb of this next set. “Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous never changes.” Both parts of that are fairly understandable on their own. People who exercise good, common sense typically win the respect of those around them. They gradually develop a reputation for honesty and hard work and integrity. That makes sense. It is definitely something we should strive for in our own lives.

Then comes the contrast. This one is interesting because there isn’t an immediate or obvious connection between the two statements. Okay, good sense wins favor, but what does that have to do with refusing to make changes to our thinking or doing? This is where we are invited into deeper reflection. A treacherous person is one who cannot be trusted to do the right thing. Being around them is dangerous. Putting any kind of weight on them is foolish because they are likely to collapse underneath you. As necessary as this is to understand, it doesn’t explain the nature of the contrast here.

Let’s try this on for size. Someone with good sense not only tends to make good decisions, but they also are quick to recognize when they are not making a good decision when someone else offers them advice. They are willing to admit when they don’t know the best thing to do and they seek out wise counsel from trusted mentors. Then, when they receive this advice, if it points in a direction other than the one they were going, they quickly change directions because they recognize good sense when they see it. Game recognizes game, as the saying goes. But someone whose character is unreliable refuses to heed the wise counsel they receive. They just keep charging forward down the wrong path toward whatever misfortune is waiting to befall them at its end. And anyone who happens to be relying on them is going to go down with them. They are treacherous precisely because they never change.

If you want to be a person of good sense who earns the respect and admiration of others, you need to be the kind of person who is willing to listen to good advice when you receive it. You need to be the kind of person who actively seeks out counsel before making a big decision. And if the counsel points in a direction other than where you are currently facing, have the humility to acknowledge when someone knows better than you and listen to them carefully.

Doing this will put you in line with v. 16. “Every sensible person acts knowledgeably, but a fool displays his stupidity.” Sensible people act knowledgeably because they have sought out good advice from wise counselors and heeded it. On our own, we don’t have enough knowledge for all the situations we will face in this life. Not even close. Life brings more than we can handle. It doesn’t happen every day. It doesn’t always happen all at once. But when it comes, it drops into our laps like a lead weight, and suddenly we find ourselves in a situation in which we don’t have any idea what we should be doing.

If we simply charge forward based on what little we do know in those situations, we will set ourselves up for failure, and we will broadcast our foolishness to the world. Solomon’s language isn’t even that gentle. He calls this person stupid. And stupid people display their stupidity for everyone to see. It’s okay not to know everything. We live in a world in which there is more information at our fingertips to make up those knowledge gaps than we could possibly take in even if we tried. But whether we search online for information (carefully because…well…you know why), or ask another person, there are always answers to our questions. You don’t have to broadcast your stupidity for the world to witness. You can seek and take sound advice and act knowledgeably instead.

I think that’s about it for this election day. And, that’s a pretty good word for an election day. If you haven’t voted yet, go vote today. And before you go vote, make sure you have at least some sort of an idea as to what and who you are voting for. That’ll take some work, but probably not a lot. If you use something sort of a voter guide other than a candidate’s website to learn about them, make sure you check their partisan leanings. They won’t always make those obvious, but when they only tell you bad things about one candidate and good things about the other, that should be a clue for you. Get a balanced diet of information if you can. And don’t worry about voting for the lesser of two evils as we are often told to do. Focus instead on voting to advance the most good. That’s a better mindset to bring, especially as a follower of Jesus.

And remember this above all else: whoever wins today, God is still on His throne. He won’t be surprised. And as His followers, we will still have the job of working to advance His kingdom by proclaiming His Gospel to those who haven’t heard it. We generally have a pretty easy time of that in this culture. An election outcome could make that more challenging, but we’ll still be ahead of most of the rest of the world even then. So trust Him, love people, and keep proclaiming the kingdom of the risen King.