The Simple

"The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps."

Proverbs 14:15

Solomon spoke of "the simple" many times in his proverbs, and the use of antithetical parallelism reveals the simple to be the opposite of prudent and wise.  It is a person who lacks discernment, is gullible and easily influenced.  Being simple is more indicative of a lack of godly character than intelligence.  Very learned and intelligent people can be simple from a biblical point of view, lacking firm grounding found only in the fear of God and in heeding His word.

A passage I read this morning in the KJV provoked thought concerning the simple in Proverbs 9:13-18:  "A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. ¹⁴ For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, ¹⁵ to call passengers who go right on their ways: ¹⁶ Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, ¹⁷ Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. ¹⁸ But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell."  After personifying Wisdom as a woman who cries aloud, Solomon contrasted Wisdom with a foolish, simple and ignorant woman who sat at the door of her house and also called out to people passing by.  She stationed herself on a seat "in the high places of the city."  Generally, references to "high places" speaks of shrines and altars built for the worship of false deities, which is ironic seeing Solomon built many of them in Israel in his latter years.

What intrigued me is how those who passed by were called "passengers" in the KJV, those who went right on in their way.  The simple woman appealed to the simple to turn aside and sample her wares, and it seems many yielded at her voice.  To connect the simple with "passengers" is interesting, as the common use of the term today is the description of one who rides along in a aeroplane, ship, train, or taxi with others driving and navigating.  People these days pay money to be transported as a passenger to an agreed upon destination.  It occurred to me there are people whose lives on earth who resemble passengers, content to be carried along by their own desires, ambitions and feelings wherever they may lead.  In the case of the foolish woman seated at the high place, she called out to the simple to lead them to transgress God's righteous commands.  The simple passenger had no clue those who turned aside to her were spiritually dead and figuratively in hell.

One difference between the simple passenger in life and the wise is the realisation of where we are and where our lives are heading.  The wise make decisions with our ultimate destination in mind.  The prodigal son in the parable showed wisdom when, after being reduced to poverty and feeding pigs to survive, he realised how low he had sunk.  He considered how his father's servants had plenty to eat while he was starving.  Rather than being a passenger in a life driven by lust and the pursuit of pleasure, as God's people we are to be guided by God's word and the Holy Spirit.  We are not to be simple passengers in life easily turned aside to sin but to be faithful to walk with Jesus today.  The worldly aspire to be the captains of their own ship when without Christ the simple can only be passengers on a voyage to ruin.  Jesus does not call us to be passengers but participants, contributing to the health and vitality of the body of Christ by His love and wisdom.  Walking with Jesus and His people is eternally more sweet and pleasant than going right on in our ways.