There Is a Way That Seems Right to a Man

 Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that seems right to a man,

but in the end it leads to death.

Worldly wisdom is no wisdom at all.  That's why it is so sad to see "great" scholars and scientists dedicate their entire life to trying to disprove the existence of God.  They concoct foolish schemes and theories to try to explain the world we live in, but without God.  As if God's creation could exist independent of him.  They close their eyes to the fact that we live in a complex, systematic world.  Our world could not exist for a single second if it was governed by random chance.  That kind of chaos would have torn it apart the very second after it came into existence.  Random chance and change leads to total chaos.  That is not what we see in our world.  We see order, logic, complexity, and systematization.  These things are in antithesis to randomness and chance.  It is the foolishness of human "wisdom" that led the Apostle Paul to write to the church in Corinth the following:

        

        Where is the wise man?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  Has not 

        God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through 

        its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached 

        to save those who believe.- 1 Corinthians 1:20-21

That's a pretty good explanation of what Solomon was saying in Proverbs 14:12 nine hundred years earlier.  

The bottom line, that most people don't want to accept, is that because of sin, we just aren't that smart.  We like to think we are.  We try to convince everybody else that we are.  But we aren't.  Sin has made us fools.  Faith in Jesus makes us fools to the world.  It is only through the gift of faith that we can see the foolishness of the world. 

It's kind of like living in The Matrix.  Most people walk around thinking they have life all figured out, relying on their own wisdom and understanding.  Then we come along- sharing our perspective and worldview, and the world doesn't even understand what we are talking about.  They look at us like we're speaking a completely different language.  Faith inspired wisdom is foolishness to the world.  It is just as foolish to unbelievers, as their worldly "wisdom" is to us.

If that's the case, why does the way that seems right to men lead to death?

God gave us the answer to this question way back around 1500 B.C. when he instructed Moses to write:

        The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every 

        inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.- Genesis 6:5

It's also in the explanation from Paul in 1 Corinthians above.  Because of sin, man left to himself does not know and believe in God despite all the evidence God has given to everyone through his creation and our consciences.  But even when people do understand that there has to be a God through the natural things God has used to reveal himself to people, no one can ever come to a knowledge of Jesus on their own.  Jesus doesn't make sense to worldly minds.  He is counterintuitive to worldly wisdom.  That is why a man's own way only leads to death.  His own ideas and wisdom will never lead him to Jesus.  Notice in the 1 Corinthians passage above Paul talks about "the foolishness that was preached".

There are only two ways people can learn and know about Jesus: reading the Bible themselves, or having someone share God's Word with them.  It all comes down to God's Word.  The Bible is where Jesus has revealed himself to us.  It is only through that revelation in the Bible that we can know and believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world.  It is only through God's Word that the Holy Spirit works faith in hearts.  This is why Solomon's wisdom is just as true today as it was the day he wrote it.  A man's own way leads him away from God and his Word.  And that is why it leads to death.  Spiritual death is eternal separation from God, and left to our own "wisdom" we will always go our own way.

That is why Paul continued on in this passage from 1 Corinthians:

        Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified:

        a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both 

        Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God

        is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

        -1 Corinthians 1:22-25

God bless.

Jason Fredrick