At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
“The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: But the folly of fools is deceit” (Proverbs 14:8).
“The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, But the folly of fools is deceit” (Prov. 14:8, NKJV).
This is a proverb where the standard form of parallelism helps us to understand the full import of the proverb. The first half helps us grasp what is being said in the second portion.
A prudent man is wise, and why is he wise? It is in the very nature of his wisdom to “understand his way.” He sees and understands what is going on around him. He watches his step. He knows what his intentions actually are when it comes to the path he has chosen. To use the language that the apostle John uses in the New Testament, he is walking in the light.
But in the second half of the proverb, what does it mean when it says that the “folly of fools is deceit?” Deceit? Deceit for whom? I take it that the parallel structure leads us to believe that the principal problem here is one of self-deception. The wise and prudent man understands his way, and the foolish man does not. The reason why the foolish man does not comprehend is because of this thing called “deceit.”
The folly of fools is driven onward because a fool is one who lies to himself, and then there is a second fool who believes it. And when the story is over, we discover that the two fools are one and the same. A lying heart spins a yarn that he wants to hear, and having heard, decides that it is entirely plausible.
In certain respects, self-deception is a true mystery. But we know from Scripture that it is a real problem. A man who hears the Word without doing it deceives himself (Jas. 1:22). A man who puffs himself up in conceit deceives himself (Gal. 6:3). Someone who does not bridle is own tongue deceives himself (Jas. 1:26). The thing happens.
