Wisdom 101: Simple, but Neglected
By Anthony Casperson
5-30-26

“Help! I’m stuck in a barnacle!”

To most of you reading this, that sentence is utter nonsense. But for me, that sentence could be from one of hundreds of YouTube videos where a group of people play a version of the video game called Gary’s Mod.

A general conceit of the videos is that eight players are randomly assigned either a good role or an evil role. Typically with six Innocents and two Traitors. (Other specialized roles exist within that dynamic, but aren’t important to this blog.) And the idea is for one team to eliminate the other side.

To aid the Traitors in this lopsided endeavor, a list of special weapons is available for them to purchase. Although, there’s only a limited number of items they can purchase per round of the game.

And one of the Traitor items this group of players uses is—you guessed it—the barnacle.

This is a trap weapon invisibly placed on the ceiling, meant to catch unawares anyone who walks under it. Players trapped in it slowly lose health until the barnacle completely devours and eliminates them from the round.

Generally, the weapon sounds like a good idea. Unless someone notices you putting it up, nobody knows who it was that placed it. You can be an anonymous Traitor. And you can even look like a hero by “accidentally” coming along to free the trapped player from the barnacle by shooting it dead, and thus releasing the character from certain death.

However, in practice, the barnacle is among the most detrimental weapons to the Traitors. More often than not, the person calling out for help isn’t an Innocent who fell into the trap, but rather one of the Traitors. Sometimes, it’s the teammate of the Traitor who placed the barnacle to begin with. However—and this happens far too often to be coincidence—it’s the very Traitor who placed the barnacle but got to close to their own trap that’s been caught.

After Traitors have been foisted by their own barnacle for literally hundreds of times, you’d think that they’d quit buying this item from their limited options. But repeatedly the players refuse to learn the truth that barnacles are terrible for Traitors to buy.

It’s a simple piece of wisdom, so rarely heeded. But always regretted after neglecting.

For this first lesson from our summer blog series through Proverbs 1-9, we see this same idea of simple, but neglected wisdom. Proverbs 1:10-19 is the first of the father-son lessons. And it follows the sense of foundational lesson for wisdom. As a matter of fact, the very first of these verses flat out explains the idea.

“If sinners entice you, do not consent.”

Whenever it happens that those who refuse to pay the humble cost of wisdom beckon you to join them, refuse the offer. Essentially, it’s the age-old idea of, “You become the type of person you hang around with.”

It sounds simple. Too simple. Some might even be rolling their eyes right now asking why this even needs to be brought up. “Of course, that’s true,” you might be saying. “Anybody can see that.”

Yes, but how often do we neglect that piece of “obvious” wisdom? How many times have we excused the fact that we still hang out with this group of people who always seem to get us into some sort of trouble? How often do we sit in a certain echo chamber allowing its rhetoric to define who we become?

And I want us to stop thinking about other people doing this. We’re talking about ourselves right now.

How often do we buy the barnacle anyway?

The fact that we still do tells us that we need the reminder of this lesson. We need to pay the cost of being humble before our God. And then actually listen to the lesson. Those who call you to join them in anything that doesn’t lead to the fear of the Lord should be refused.

What they want you to join them doing might seem fun. And they might even say, “Just be open to new experiences.” But that word for “entice” reveals the truth of their offer. It literally carries with it the connotation of “being open.” Specifically, it’s being open to all sorts of things, without discernment about what’s right and wrong.

People calling us to be open to anything without any sort of discernment is the very definition of enticement here. That lack of discernment goes against the fear of the Lord that seeks his ways and methods, even if we’d prefer something else.

And it’s the supposed benefits that make us want to buy in with the group. Verses 13-14 show us what it is that such sinners might claim to be the “benefits” of joining them. “It’ll be easy and make us rich.” “You just gotta join us in a simple thing and you’ll be set for life. A mansion filled with every one of your dreams.”

If possessions and a whole bunch of stuff doesn’t entice you, they might even talk about how the group can still offer you a sense of belonging. “We’re family. If you join us, we’ll share everything. You want people who care about you, don’t you?”

A number of other enticements might come as well, but the point is the same. They’re all meant to get you to join without discerning the wrongness of the terrible task they seek to perform. One that always ends with harming others in some way. Verses 11-12 unveil the truth of the sinners’ task. The benefit of wealth comes at the expense of innocent lives. The companionship that sinners offer comes at a cost of families grieving over their dead loved ones.

The reason for all of the blood was for meaningless stuff. Vanity because the unscrupulous wanted just a little bit more.

Whether it’s actual theft, or corporate extortion, or personal gain without considering how it affects others, the trap is the same. Sinners entice us to selfishly think about getting more, without considering what it means to those whose blood we spill. They call us to what they claim is good, despite the fact that what we’re being open to destroys lives.

But the wise aren’t parasites. We don’t slowly suck the life out of the innocent.

We who fear the Lord should consider mutual benefit rather than only selfish gain. As Jesus says in Mark 8:36, what good is it for a person to gain the whole world, but lose their own soul?

The trap will cost the sinner greatly. A Traitor caught in the barnacle set for others.

Verses 17-18 speak of this self-entrapment. Solomon says that, even if a bird sees the trap set, they are still likely to take the bait and get trapped by it. The trap that the sinner makes will spill their own blood, eventually. Consequences will, one day, catch up to the sinner.

Even if it takes until the day that we all stand in front of the God who created the universe, when he decides our eternal fate, the consequence will happen. Any refusal to humbly follow the ways of Yahweh will be shown for the foolishness that it always is.

And by that point, it’ll be too late. There will be no one to help you because you’ve been caught by the trap of your own making.

The blood will be spilled. The losses unretrievable. And that little bit of hope for being open to new experiences will show that it has always been an open grave.

Simple though it might be, the first lesson of wisdom is necessary to say. After all, can you really walk in wisdom if you travel the path of fools? So, let’s refuse the enticing calls of sinners. Let’s seek mutual benefit of the people around us, rather than set traps that supposedly benefit us, but only costs others.

Because if we don’t, our cries for help might just prove to others than we set the barnacle ourselves.