“Wise in Their Own Eyes”

One of the proverbs warns us, “Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:7).

Isaiah included this same warning in a collection of six “woes” to the people of Judah:

Wo unto the wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight!

2 Nephi 15:21, Isaiah 5:21

God wants us to be wise. (See Jacob 6:12, Mormon 9:28.) But apparently it’s dangerous to think we’re wise. Maybe wisdom is a bit like humility: worthy of our best efforts, but impossible to detect without losing it!

One feature of people who think they’re wise is that they are unwilling to receive guidance:

O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

2 Nephi 9:28

In contrast, consider the following proverb: “Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not” (Proverbs 8:33). Apparently a characteristic of the wise is that they are willing to listen and learn. They recognize how little they know.

I love this observation by Neal A. Maxwell:

As the Lord communicates with the meek and submissive, fewer decibels are required, and more nuances are received. Even the most meek, like Moses (see Num. 12:3), learn overwhelming things they “never had supposed.” (Moses 1:10.) But it is only the meek mind which can be so shown and so stretched—not those, as Isaiah wrote, who “are wise in their own eyes.” (Isa. 5:21; see also 2 Ne. 9:29 and 2 Ne. 15:21.)

“Willing to Submit,” General Conference, April 1985

Today, I will listen more intently and more receptively to counsel and guidance from God. I will recognize the gaps in my knowledge and be willing to “hear instruction…and refuse it not.”