Two Ways to Walk: Fear or Folly Text: Proverbs 14:16
Introduction: The Great Divide
The book of Proverbs is not a collection of disconnected, folksy sayings for your grandmother's needlepoint. It is a book of sharp antitheses, of stark contrasts. It relentlessly divides humanity into two camps, and only two. There is no middle ground, no third way. There is the wise man and the fool. There is the righteous and the wicked. There is the path of life and the way of death. Every verse, every couplet, forces a choice. It puts a divine T-intersection in front of you and demands that you turn one way or the other.
Our text today is a perfect example of this great divide. It sets before us two men, walking in two completely different directions, motivated by two completely different principles. One walks in holy fear, and the other struts in arrogant folly. One sees the world as it is, a place fraught with moral peril and overseen by a holy God. The other sees the world as a playground for his own appetites, a place where he is the ultimate authority.
We live in an age that despises this kind of clarity. Our culture celebrates the blur. It wants to erase all the lines that God has drawn. It wants to call evil good and good evil. It wants to pretend that the fool is just a different kind of wise man, that his path is just as valid. But Scripture will not have it. God does not grade on a curve. This verse is a diagnostic tool. It shows us not only what these two men do, but why they do it. It reveals the internal operating system of both wisdom and folly. And as we examine it, we must ask ourselves which man we are.
The Text
A wise man fears and turns away from evil,
But a fool gets angry and feels secure.
(Proverbs 14:16 LSB)
The Wise Man's Prudence (v. 16a)
The first half of the verse describes the character and conduct of the wise man.
"A wise man fears and turns away from evil..." (Proverbs 14:16a)
The first thing to note is the foundation of wisdom: fear. This is not a cowering, servile terror. This is the "fear of the Lord," which is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Prov. 1:7, 9:10). It is a profound, trembling awe and reverence for the living God. It is the settled conviction that He is holy, He is just, He is watching, and He will hold every man accountable. The wise man lives his life coram Deo, before the face of God. This fear is the central governor on his soul. It regulates his choices, his words, and his steps.
Because he fears God, he has a right and proper fear of sin. He understands that evil is not just a mistake or a social blunder; it is high treason against the King of the universe. It is a destructive force that ruins lives, families, and nations. So what does he do? He "turns away from evil." This is not a passive avoidance. The Hebrew implies an active, decisive swerve. He sees the danger ahead and gets off the road. He is the prudent man who sees danger and takes refuge (Prov. 22:3). He doesn't flirt with temptation. He doesn't see how close he can get to the line without crossing it. He doesn't rationalize or make excuses. He turns. He repents. His fear produces caution, and his caution produces obedience.
This is a picture of sanctification. The wise man is not sinless, but he is sensitive to sin. His fear of God acts like a spiritual nervous system. When he touches the hot stove of temptation, he feels the pain and pulls his hand back. He is teachable. He learns from his mistakes and from the mistakes of others. He pays attention to the warnings of Scripture, the counsel of the godly, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. His fear makes him careful, and his carefulness keeps him safe.
The Fool's Rage and Arrogance (v. 16b)
The second half of the verse presents us with the polar opposite: the fool.
"...But a fool gets angry and feels secure." (Proverbs 14:16b)
Where the wise man has fear, the fool has rage. The Hebrew word here means to fly into a passion, to be hot-headed and arrogant. The fool despises correction. When confronted with his evil, he does not turn away in repentance; he turns on you in anger. His rage is a defense mechanism. It is the violent reaction of a proud heart that cannot bear to be told it is wrong. Think of Cain, who grew angry when his unacceptable sacrifice was rejected. Think of King Saul, who flew into a rage when Samuel confronted his disobedience. Anger is the native language of the fool who has been exposed.
And notice the insane paradox. At the very moment he is raging, at the very moment he is standing on the precipice of destruction, he "feels secure." He is confident. He trusts in himself (Prov. 28:26). He is blind to the danger he is in. He mistakes his arrogance for strength. He thinks his rage is righteous indignation. He is like a man standing in the middle of a highway, shaking his fist at the oncoming truck, absolutely confident in his own invincibility. This is the essence of folly: a profound and willful detachment from reality.
He feels secure because he does not fear God. Because he has no fear of God, he has no fear of sin. He sees evil not as a mortal danger, but as an entitlement. Any attempt to restrict his "freedom" to sin is met with explosive anger. He is not cautious; he is careless. He is not prudent; he is presumptuous. He plunges ahead, full of self-confidence, right into the snares of death.
The Great Contrast
So the contrast is laid bare. The wise man's fear of God leads to a healthy fear of sin, which results in cautious living and deliverance. The fool's lack of fear for God leads to a brazen arrogance toward sin, which results in rage at any correction and a false security that leads to destruction.
The wise man says, "I might be wrong. Let me check what God's Word says." The fool says, "How dare you question me? I know what I'm doing."
The wise man's conscience is tender. The fool's conscience is seared. He has silenced it with his rage so many times that it no longer speaks to him.
The wise man is humble enough to receive a rebuke. The fool is too proud to hear anything but praise. "If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet" (Prov. 29:9).
This is why our secular culture is so full of rage. It is a culture of fools. Having rejected the fear of the Lord, it has no category for sin, only for "offense." And when you offend a fool by speaking the truth, all he has left is rage and a desperate, manufactured self-confidence. He is angry and feels secure.
The Gospel Resolution
As with every proverb, the ultimate fulfillment and the only solution is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfectly wise man. He lived in perfect fear of the Lord. Isaiah prophesied of Him, "And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him... the Spirit of the fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:2). His whole life was one of turning away from evil, culminating in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He turned away from the ultimate evil of bearing our sin, saying "not my will, but yours, be done."
We, on the other hand, are all born fools. We are born raging against God's authority and feeling perfectly secure in our rebellion. We are the ones who shake our fists at heaven and trust in our own hearts. And the wage for that folly is death.
But the gospel is the good news that God, in His mercy, has provided a way for fools to become wise. On the cross, Jesus Christ took the fool's penalty. He absorbed the righteous rage of God against our sin. He endured the ultimate insecurity of being forsaken by the Father, so that we, in Him, could be made secure.
When we, by faith, are united to Christ, His wisdom is imputed to us. The Holy Spirit is given to us, and one of His primary ministries is to cultivate in us the fear of the Lord. He makes our hearts tender again. He teaches us to see sin as the danger it is. He gives us the grace to turn away from it. He replaces our foolish rage with humble repentance, and our false security with a true and strong confidence in Christ alone. "In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: And his children shall have a place of refuge" (Prov. 14:26).
The Christian life, then, is a process of unlearning our folly and learning the wisdom of Christ. It is a daily choice to walk in the fear of the Lord, to be cautious, to turn from evil, and to put to death the raging, self-confident fool that still resides within us. Thanks be to God, He who began this good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.