Proverb 1:26
“I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when terror strikes you.”
This seems a bit harsh, doesn’t it? Really? Wisdom, this God-inspired virtue will laugh in my face when terror strikes simply because I chose not to heed her advice? Ouch.
It sounds like she’s prepared to hand out a bunch of “I told you so’s”.
Her warning reminds me of the structure of my mother’s discipline when I learned to refute her rules and cross over predetermined boundaries. She would outline the consequences of my actions, prior to my committing them. There were a handful of times when she said, “Leah, if you (fill in the blank) then you’re getting a spanking when we get home.” And I did. And there were other times the same boundary was set and I heeded it.
There are two things I greatly respect about this approach as an adult, looking back.
- There were no surprises. Mom made it very clear to me what would happen if I chose to do something against her counsel. The consequence was no surprise. In addition, if I chose to cross the boundaries that she set, she consistently followed through. I was never surprised with statements like, “I changed my mind” or “I forgot” or any other number of bargains that could potentially withdrawal the punishment for my disobedience.
2. The consequence was set for my own protection and my own good. Not because mom looked forward to the event, rather she hoped I would be steered toward good and righteous decisions. I don’t remember a single spanking that she didn’t sit down and talk to me first, often with tear-filled eyes. She expressed the pain it caused her to follow through, and how the discipline was for my own good. Inevitably, I was confused about the latter. Really? My stinging hind side is a good thing?
Never, though, would she mock me or laugh at me in the act. She was pained by it.
My older brother, however, had another thing coming when I would come out of my room (after thinking about my actions, of course). My eyes would be red and partially dried from the tears. I would be a sniffling mess, and my breathing would be disrupted with abrupt and uncontrollable gasps of air, trying to adjust from the sobs.
And I could hear him snicker. My older brother (who loves me, by the way) sat mocking what I had coming to me.
The text is a bit harsh. As much as I would like to think “mock” and “laugh” must be something sweeter I can’t. It means what it says. However, I can’t take it to the extreme and assume Wisdom is sadistic in nature. Nowhere in the text does it say she is pleased with my introduction to terror. It merely says she mocks it.
The same can be said of my brother. I don’t think he enjoyed the fact that I was physically and emotionally hurting from the spanking, but he was laughing at my stupidity for choosing my own lashing. Because, after all, the choice was mine. And it is a stupid one, isn’t it?
Like an older sibling, I can totally see Wisdom snickering at my mistakes. I can hear her say, “Man, are you gonna get it! How dumb can you be? Why would you do that when you know that the Father said not to?” And like an older sibling, Wisdom has been around long enough to know that what the Father says, goes; that there are no surprises.