The Open-Eyed and the Open-Mouthed: Text: Proverbs 27:12
Introduction: Two Ways to Walk
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It does not deal in ethereal abstractions or floaty platitudes. It is a book about how to walk, how to navigate the real world that God made. And in this world, there are fundamentally two kinds of people, two ways to walk through life. You can walk with your eyes open, or you can walk with them shut. You can be prudent, or you can be simple. You can be shrewd, or you can be a blockhead. One path leads to safety and flourishing; the other leads directly to a beating.
Our modern sensibilities don't much care for this kind of sharp distinction. We live in an age that celebrates a kind of thoughtless, "live in the moment" existence. We are encouraged to follow our hearts, to trust our gut, and to not worry too much about consequences. This is what the world calls being "simple," and it is presented as a virtue. But biblical simplicity, in this context, is no virtue at all. It is a culpable stupidity. It is the spiritual equivalent of walking toward a cliff edge while admiring the pretty clouds overhead.
This proverb sets before us a stark choice. It is a spiritual intelligence test. It is not about IQ points; there are plenty of high-IQ simpletons. This is about moral and spiritual discernment. It is about whether you have the sense God gave a goose, the sense to get in out of the rain. The prudent man sees the storm coming and takes shelter. The simple man walks on, gets soaked, and then complains about the weather. This is a fundamental spiritual discipline: the discipline of looking ahead.
The Christian life requires foresight. It demands that we not only read the Word but that we also read the world in light of the Word. We are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. We are not called to a naive, head-in-the-sand piety. We are called to see evil for what it is, to recognize the patterns of sin and judgment, and to take appropriate, godly action. This proverb is a divine commendation of godly street smarts.
The Text
A prudent man sees evil and hides,
The simple pass on and are punished.
(Proverbs 27:12 LSB)
The Prudent Man's Foresight
Let's break down the first half of this contrast.
"A prudent man sees evil and hides..." (Proverbs 27:12a)
The word for prudent here is arum. It means shrewd, crafty, or sensible. It is the same word used to describe the serpent in Genesis 3, before the fall made his craftiness malevolent. Prudence, then, is a form of sanctified cleverness. It is the ability to look at a situation, assess it accurately, and anticipate the likely outcomes. The prudent man is not reacting to the present moment; he is responding to the foreseeable future.
What does he see? He "sees evil." This is not just talking about seeing a mugger in a dark alley. The "evil" here is broader. It is calamity, trouble, danger, distress. It is the consequence of a fallen world and the outworking of sin. The prudent man sees the trajectory of a nation given over to profligacy and knows that economic judgment is coming. He sees the spiritual laxity in his own home and knows that familial trouble is on the horizon if he does not act. He sees the subtle compromises in his church and knows that apostasy is the destination of that path.
He sees it. He does not ignore it. He does not pretend it isn't there. He doesn't engage in wishful thinking. The first step of prudence is honest assessment. It is a form of spiritual eyesight. And what does he do when he sees the danger? He "hides." This is not cowardice. The Bible is full of commands to stand and fight. But there is a time for everything, and wisdom knows the difference. This hiding is a strategic retreat. It is taking cover. It is the wise virgins having oil for their lamps before the bridegroom arrives. It is Joseph storing up grain during the seven years of plenty in anticipation of the famine. It is checking the weather forecast and taking an umbrella.
This hiding is proactive. It is building your house on the rock before the storm comes, not while the floodwaters are rising. It is catechizing your children before the pagan hordes of the state school system get their claws into them. It is establishing habits of prayer and repentance before the great trial of your faith arrives. The prudent man lives his life with an eye on the horizon, preparing for what is to come.
The Simple Man's Folly
Now we come to the other side of the coin, the negative example.
"The simple pass on and are punished." (Proverbs 27:12b LSB)
The "simple" here are the naive, the gullible, the open-minded in the worst sense of the word. Their minds are so open their brains have fallen out. They "pass on." They just keep going. They see the "Bridge Out" sign, but they are committed to their course. They hear the tornado siren, but they want to finish their game of checkers. They are the epitome of "this is fine" while the room is on fire.
Why do they just "pass on?" It is a combination of ignorance, arrogance, and spiritual laziness. They don't believe the warnings. "That won't happen to me." They are too lazy to change course. "It's too much trouble to build a food pantry." They are too distracted to even notice the danger. They are consumed with the trivialities of the moment, scrolling through their phones while their culture collapses around them.
The simple believes every word (Prov. 14:15). He is an easy mark for the huckster, the false prophet, and the manipulative politician. He is the man who co-signs a loan for a friend he knows to be irresponsible. He is the woman who marries an unbeliever hoping to change him. He is the parent who thinks his child will be immune to the filth pumped out by Hollywood and the internet without any diligent training. He walks on, oblivious, right into the wood chipper.
And the result is inevitable. They "are punished." The Hebrew word means to be fined, to suffer loss, to pay the penalty. This is not arbitrary. It is the law of sowing and reaping. It is the natural, built-in consequence of folly. When you ignore the warning labels, you get hurt. When you ignore God's clear warnings about sin, judgment follows. The punishment is the logical conclusion of their simplicity. The man who doesn't take an umbrella gets wet. The businessman without a contingency fund goes bankrupt. The nation that abandons God is handed over to its enemies. This is not rocket science; it is the plain moral government of God.
Seeing Christ, Hiding in Christ
Like all of Proverbs, this verse ultimately points us to Christ. He is the truly Prudent One. He saw the ultimate evil, the righteous wrath of God against sin, from before the foundation of the world. And what did He do? He did not hide from it for His own sake. In an act of glorious, substitutionary prudence, He stood in the open and took the full force of that calamity on our behalf, so that we might have a place to hide.
The greatest evil any man faces is the coming judgment of God. The warnings are everywhere in Scripture. The sky is darkening. The storm of God's wrath against sin is gathering. And we are all, by nature, simpletons. We are all born walking blithely toward that judgment, passing on, heedless of the danger.
The gospel is the warning siren. It is the call to see the evil to come. And it is the revelation of the only hiding place. "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee." To be a Christian is to be a prudent man who has seen the coming judgment for sin and has taken refuge in the finished work of Jesus Christ. He is our shelter from the storm. He is the ark of safety from the flood of wrath. To run to Him in faith is the ultimate act of prudence.
But once we are hidden in Him, we are then called to live as prudent people. We are to see the lesser evils of this life, the temporal calamities and troubles, and act with wisdom. We are to be the ones who prepare, who build, who warn. We are to be the watchmen on the wall, who see the sword coming and blow the trumpet. To see the moral decay, the political corruption, the theological compromise, and to just "pass on" is to revert to the old life of the simpleton. But we have been given the mind of Christ. We have been given the Spirit of wisdom. Therefore, let us walk with our eyes wide open, seeing the world as it is, and taking refuge daily in the One who is our only true and lasting safety.