At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.
Proverbs 26:12
Folly is often bred in the bone. Conceit is something that frequently comes from a flattering education followed by a couple of years of graduate school. The folly is a severe deficiency, and as the book of Proverbs tells us in multiple places, it really is bad. But here we are told of something that is akin to folly, and belongs in the same general family, but it is somehow far worse.
Notice how it is described. He is wise in his own conceit. The ESV has “wise in his own eyes.” The NASB and NKJV have the same. What we see here is some kind of mental construct. He has woven a framework of cognitive assumptions together, at the end of which is his glorious conclusion that he is the intellectual hero of the day. He is wise in his own eyes, meaning that he occupies a seat that he was appointed to, and the one who appointed him was his very own self.
Who can remove him from that place? Who can challenge the chancellor who appointed this coxcomb a regius professor? This is difficult to do when the chancellor and the regius professor are all the same person. That same person is also the chairman of the tenure review committee.
Even so, what is impossible for men remains possible for God. If God can make sons of Abraham out of blocks of stone, then He can certainly do it if the block of stone is sitting on top of a fool’s neck.
