The Fool's Tuition Check Text: Proverbs 17:16
Introduction: The Marketplace of Folly
We live in an age that is drowning in information and starving for wisdom. We have more data at our fingertips than any generation in human history, and yet we seem to be producing fools at an industrial rate. Our universities are crammed to the rafters, with tuition costs that would make a king blush, and yet common sense is in exceedingly short supply. We have created a vast and expensive marketplace that claims to sell wisdom, but the customers, by and large, are not in a buying mood. They want the diploma, which is the appearance of wisdom. They want the career, which is the fruit of wisdom. But they do not want wisdom itself.
This is because our secular, materialist culture has fundamentally misunderstood the nature of wisdom. It thinks wisdom is a commodity, a product you can purchase, a line item on a budget. You pay the money, you sit in the chair for four years, you get the piece of paper, and presto, you are wise. But the Bible diagnoses the problem with a much sharper scalpel. The problem is not a lack of opportunity or a shortage of resources. The problem is a matter of the heart.
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It does not float in the ethereal realm of abstract philosophy; it walks on the ground of everyday life. It distinguishes between two kinds of people, the wise man and the fool. And the difference between them is not fundamentally a matter of IQ, or education, or wealth. The difference is found in the disposition of the soul, in the orientation of the heart. This proverb before us today puts the matter in the starkest possible terms. It presents us with a picture of absurdity, a fool standing in the marketplace of wisdom, holding the purchase price, but with no intention of buying. It is a tragicomedy, and one that is acted out on the world stage every single day.
We must therefore ask ourselves what this wisdom is, why the fool is incapable of acquiring it, and what it means to have a "heart" for it. Because if we get this wrong, we can spend our entire lives, and all our resources, chasing a phantom, only to end up with a worthless receipt in our hand and an empty soul.
The Text
Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to acquire wisdom,
When he has no heart of wisdom?
(Proverbs 17:16 LSB)
The Absurd Transaction (v. 16a)
We begin with the first half of the verse, which sets up a baffling scene:
"Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to acquire wisdom..." (Proverbs 17:16a)
The question is rhetorical. It is meant to expose a profound contradiction. The fool has the means, but he lacks the sense. Translated into our modern idiom, this proverb is asking, "Why on earth does that kid's father write a fifty-thousand-dollar tuition check so his son can go to college, when the boy has no intention of studying? He has the price in his hand, but he has no desire for the thing being sold." He wants the college experience, the parties, the prestige, the diploma to hang on the wall. But wisdom? Knowledge? That is not on his shopping list.
The "price" here can be understood in several ways. It can be money, as in the case of tuition. It can be opportunity, a chance to sit under wise instruction. It can be access to the Scriptures themselves, the very oracles of God. In our culture, we have Bibles in every hotel room and on every smartphone. We have sermons and lectures available at the click of a button. The price is, in many ways, in our hands. The opportunity is there. We have the resources to acquire wisdom in abundance.
But the central figure is "the fool." In Proverbs, a fool is not a person with a low IQ. A fool is a moral category. The fool is the one who says in his heart, "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). His problem is not a lack of brains, but a rebellious heart. He is wise in his own eyes, and he despises instruction and correction. He is committed to his own autonomy. Therefore, any "wisdom" he might seek is purely utilitarian. He wants a wisdom that will serve his own appetites and ambitions, not a wisdom to which he must submit.
So the scene is set. The fool has the opportunity. He has the resources. He is standing at the gates of wisdom's house. Everything is externally in place for a transaction to occur. But the deal never goes through. And the second half of the verse tells us why.
The Defective Heart (v. 16b)
The reason for the failed transaction is an internal one, a catastrophic heart condition.
"...When he has no heart of wisdom?" (Proverbs 17:16b LSB)
The King James Version says he has "no heart to it." The issue is one of desire, inclination, and will. In biblical language, the "heart" is not primarily the seat of emotion; it is the center of the person, the seat of the will, the core of one's being. To have "no heart for wisdom" means he has no genuine desire for it. He is constitutionally incapable of valuing it for what it is. He sees the price tag, but he cannot see the value of the jewel.
This reveals a crucial truth about how wisdom is acquired. Wisdom is not like buying a bag of groceries. It is not a one-time purchase. You cannot pay a fee, get your wisdom, and then be done with it. The price of wisdom is a lifelong pursuit. It requires daily discipline. It is the difference between paying a one-time fee for a gym membership and the actual discipline of getting up every morning to use the equipment. The fool is willing to pay the membership fee because it gives him the appearance of being healthy. But he has no heart for the daily grind, the sweat, the perseverance that actually produces health.
In the same way, the fool might pay his tithe, or buy a commentary, or enroll in a seminary. He pays the external price. But he has no heart for the daily submission to God's Word. He has no heart for repentance when the Word corrects him. He has no heart for the patient, diligent study that leads to understanding. He has no heart to "buy the truth, and sell it not" (Proverbs 23:23). His foolishness is not a surface-level problem; it goes all the way down. As another proverb says, "Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him" (Proverbs 27:22). It is part of his very nature.
Therefore, the opportunity in his hand is useless. It is like giving a priceless violin to a man who intends to use it for firewood. The potential is there, but the heart is all wrong. The problem is not with the violin, or the price, but with the man.
The Gospel for Fools
This proverb, like all of Proverbs, diagnoses our condition with brutal accuracy. We are all born fools. We are all born with "no heart for wisdom." Our natural inclination is to be wise in our own eyes. We love our sin, we love our autonomy, and we hate the authority of God. We stand in a world overflowing with the general revelation of God's power and wisdom, and we suppress that truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1). The price of wisdom is in our hands every day we draw breath in God's world, and yet we have no heart for it.
So what is the solution? If the problem is the heart, then the solution must be a new heart. This is precisely what the gospel promises. God says through the prophet Ezekiel, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26).
This is the miracle of regeneration. It is a spiritual heart transplant. God, by His sovereign grace, reaches into the chest of a fool, removes his rebellious, wisdom-hating heart of stone, and replaces it with a living, breathing, wisdom-loving heart of flesh. He gives us a heart that desires Him. He gives us a heart for wisdom.
And where is this wisdom found? The New Testament tells us plainly that Christ Himself "became for us wisdom from God" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Jesus is the ultimate treasure, the pearl of great price. He is the one for whom a wise man will sell everything he has to acquire (Matthew 13:44-46). The gospel is the invitation to come and buy this wisdom. And the glorious paradox is that we buy it "without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1). We bring nothing to the table but our foolishness and our sin. The price was paid in full by Christ on the cross.
When God gives you a new heart, He gives you a love for Christ, who is the embodiment of all wisdom. The Christian life then becomes the joyful, daily discipline of pursuing that wisdom. You begin to have a "heart for it." You delight in the law of the Lord. You welcome correction. You treasure instruction. You still have the price in your hand, the opportunities all around you, but now, for the first time, you have the heart to actually make the purchase. You are no longer the fool with a useless check in his hand. You are a child of God, being conformed to the image of the Son, who is Wisdom incarnate.