The Wise and Foolish: What We Can Learn from Ants
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” Proverbs 6: 6-8.
In Our Best Interest
The essence of these verses is that the ant is wise because it does what’s in its best interest without being told or compelled. This is exactly what wisdom or maturity is.
The Proverbs are full of illustrations of the wise and the foolish. They are also stand-alone, pithy sayings that don’t require context, but if you’d like to read the chapter anyway, click here.
A small child doesn’t know what’s good for him. He has to be told to brush his teeth, stay out of the road and eat his veggies. This is because he doesn’t have the maturity or wisdom to do what’s in his best interest if left to himself.
But his obedience will eventually lead to maturity and his respect or fear of his parents to wisdom (Proverbs 9: 10). A child who does these things because he’s told respects or fears his parents and is obedient.
When he grows up, he’ll do these same things without being told because he will have internalized his parents’ values. He won’t have to be told to brush his teeth and stay out of the road because he’ll know these things are in his best interest.
He has gained the maturity brought about by obedience and the wisdom afforded by fear. Said another way, he’s come to know the truth about the value of these things. And he is therefore set free to do them voluntarily.
Obedience Produces Maturity
He now does them, not because he has to, but because he chooses to.
A fool doesn’t know what’s best for him. But if he’s lucky, he has someone around to tell him. If the fool listens to the wise person- fears or is obedient to them- he will eventually become mature and wise.
He will no longer need to be told what’s best for him because he will know. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is also called the tree of wisdom because to be wise is to know the right course to take or what’s best.
An adult who as a child feared (respected) and obeyed his parents (we’ll assume they were wise) will grow up to be just like this ant in our passage.
The Wise have Autonomy and the Foolish Become Slaves
He will know what will promote his well-being and what’s good for him even though he no longer has a “chief, officer or ruler” telling him what to do.
Children often chaff under the authority of their parents. They resist being “bossed around” and told what to do all the time. But if they submit to their authority, they will one day be free from it. They will do what will promote their well-being willingly, without a word being spoken.
Hebrews 5: 14 tells us “but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil”.
A mature or wise person can distinguish that staying out of the road, brushing their teeth and eating their veggies is good. And not doing these things is evil (not good for them). And they learned this from “constant practice”.
They continued to obey and fear their parents. And they often didn’t want to or feel like it because they didn’t know any better. To distinguish between good and evil is the same as the knowledge of good and evil. This is also the tree of wisdom.
The Truth will Set You Free
I believe this can apply to John 8: 32 “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Our parents tell us the truth: stay out of the road so you don’t get hit by a car. Brush your teeth or they’ll rot out of your mouth. Eat your veggies to stay healthy. When we’re young and foolish we chafe and are irritated by such admonitions.
But as we continue to fear and obey, we begin to know the truth. These things become engrained in us until ultimately when we grow up, we do them voluntarily, without being told.
In other words, we no longer do it because someone is making us do it. We’ve come to know the truth and are set free to do it of our own accord. We’re free.
Once we’re convinced of the truth and know it’s true, we’ll yield to it freely. The problem we have as children is that we have not yet attained the wisdom to know the truth when we hear it.
To be mature or wise then is to know the truth. It’s to be so convinced and confident that it’s true that we act upon it as a matter of course.
King David expressed this idea is Psalm 51: 6. “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart”.
Everything we do is a consequence of what we believe. We sit in a chair because we believe it will hold us. We won’t sit in it if we don’t believe that. In the same way, if we believe or know any truth, we’ll act upon it freely and willingly.
Faith Comes by Hearing
You don’t have to be told to believe something you’re convinced is true.
An important exception though, is when someone is controlled by an addiction or a compulsion. They often do know the truth about it. They know it’s destroying their lives. And for that reason, want more than anything to be set free.
But they are a slave to their addiction and cannot act upon the truth that they know.
Another scripture we can apply to this principle is Romans 10: 17 “So faith comes from hearing. . . “ We’ve heard our parents say those same things over and over. And that’s how we come to believe it.
A child, or any person who’s told they can’t do anything right often enough will eventually believe it. So, we finally believe the things our parents have harped on for years. And once we believe them, we’ll act upon them because we know they’re true.
These ants did what was best without being told because they knew the truth. The truth they knew is if they didn’t prepare food is summer and gather food in harvest, they would starve in winter.
The fact that they somehow knew this caused them to act in accordance with it willingly and freely, even though they had no chief, officer or ruler to tell them.
To be wise is to know the truth and therefore, to be free (John 8: 32).
An Illustration of the Wise and Foolish
I heard something Joyce Meyer said once that serves as an illustration of this principle. She mentioned that she’s a giver and that it’s one of her gifts.
I was surprised to hear this because in older messages she mentioned on several occasions how God would ask her to give away some prized possession, and how difficult and even painful this was for her.
Those stories certainly didn’t make her out to be a “giver”. And definitely not someone with a gift to give. Sorry Joyce, but it seemed more like pulling teeth.
But she did it as an act of obedience, or out of fear of God. This is a perfect example of how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
At first, she gave because she feared God, even though she didn’t really want to. But as she continued to obey and fear, a transformation took place. The more she did it, the easier it became until now it sounds like she does it without being told or compelled.
It’s no longer something she does out of obedience against her will. Through diligent and painful submission, she has discovered the joy of giving. Because, after all, you can’t outgive God and it’s more blessed (happy) to give than receive.
The Wise Act Freely and the Foolish Against their Will
So, now, as a “giver” with a “gift” for giving, she does it freely and voluntarily. No longer against her will. She has come to know the truth about giving and is therefore free to do it willingly.
This is the definition of wisdom since to be wise is the knowledge of good and evil.
Fearing God is often not easy. In fact, it can be difficult, painful, or in a word- death. But the reward of fearing God is wisdom (Proverbs 9: 10). Wisdom is a sweet reward for all our pain of obedience.
Because to be wise is to know the truth. And to know the truth is to act upon it willingly, freely, without any constraint.
Another way to say John 8: 32 could be “Then you shall be wise, and your wisdom will set you free”. So now, instead of experiencing pain and death when God asks us to act wisely, we experience eagerness and joy. Because we know the truth behind it.
So, to be wise is to be set free.
To read another post related to The Wise and Foolish: What We Can Lean from Ants, see How to Actually Trust In God.