Proverbs 24.7-9
“Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth. Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind.”
As we saw last week, verse 7 tells us that foolish people cannot be wise because it is beyond them, and as a result they are quiet in a key places of community leadership, such as “the gate.”
The passage goes on to issue a serious warning: Scoffers might be publicly quiet, but behind the scenes they are planning to do harm. They secretly plot and scheme, and their goal is to gain power for themselves at the expense of others. Verse 8 describes these dangerous fools as “schemers” who “plan to do evil.”
Some people are bad out of weakness. They do wrong things because they occasionally give in to temptation and impulse. Indeed, this describes all of us.
Other people are bad because of a lack of knowledge. They have been deceived by some form of false teaching, and they don’t really understand what they are doing.
Then there are the “scoffers” described in this passage. These are not people who are occasionally bad because of weakness. These are not people who are simply irritating or disagreeable or misinformed. These are genuinely bad people who intentionally plot and plan evil things. Verse 9 describes them as “an abomination to mankind.”
Every generation in history has suffered from scoffers and schemers, and our generation is no exception.
When Proverbs uses the term “scoffer,” it is describing the most extreme form of foolishness. Scoffers are dark, evil people who are deeply self-absorbed and hungry for power. They pose a great danger to society because they disguise themselves behind a mask of benevolence. They work hard to give the appearance of doing good, when in fact they are secretly planning to do evil. They hide their evil intentions until they get what they want.
Needless to say, recognizing these evil people requires wisdom and discernment. A society that allows these people to gain popularity and power will suffer greatly.
