He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.
God seizes the worldly-wise and the wicked in their own craftiness, turning their schemes back upon themselves and driving the counsel of the perverse headlong to ruin. Their shrewdness cannot make their plans secure, for their counsel is brought to nothing and cannot prevail against His cause. Any wisdom that boasts itself above and beyond the teaching of God's word is foolishness with God. The verse is therefore a warning against self-conceit and against exalting human judgment as supreme.
Those who possess only this worldly wisdom are deceived and ignorant, even while they pride themselves on being wise. They need to drink more deeply from the fountain of true knowledge, to see their real ignorance, and to become fools in their own estimation in order that they may become truly wise. The greatest form of this ignorance is ignorance of the binding claims of the law of God. That ignorance comes from neglecting the study of the word of God, a neglect that Satan deliberately encourages by keeping minds absorbed with other things so that sinners are not led from transgression to obedience.
God seizes the worldly-wise and the wicked in their own craftiness, turning their schemes back upon themselves and driving the counsel of the perverse headlong to ruin. Their shrewdness cannot make their plans secure, for their counsel is brought to nothing and cannot prevail against His cause. Any wisdom that boasts itself above and beyond the teaching of God's word is foolishness with God. The verse is therefore a warning against self-conceit and against exalting human judgment as supreme.
Those who possess only this worldly wisdom are deceived and ignorant, even while they pride themselves on being wise. They need to drink more deeply from the fountain of true knowledge, to see their real ignorance, and to become fools in their own estimation in order that they may become truly wise. The greatest form of this ignorance is ignorance of the binding claims of the law of God. That ignorance comes from neglecting the study of the word of God, a neglect that Satan deliberately encourages by keeping minds absorbed with other things so that sinners are not led from transgression to obedience.