A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, Nor will he go to the wise (Proverbs 15:12, NKJV). Who is a “scoffer”? One who, instructed or not, looks upon the counsel of sound wisdom and dismisses it without much of a thought. This is illustrated in 1 Kings 12:25-33, when Israel’s king (Jeroboam) looked upon his circumstances and became frightened about a potential that did not and could not exist if he followed the Lord (1 Kings 11:31-38)! After he made his damaging and consequential choice, that which he hoped would not happen, did indeed happen. Jeroboam made his decision because the problems and troubled he conjured up in his mind he made to come to pass! Think of the irony of that. Jeroboam was a scoffer, but it cost him dearly when he turned away from the Lord’s sound wisdom, establishing his own religious practices and protocol. Let us not turn away from the sound wisdom of the Lord; life is much easier that way!