We learn in the Proverbs today that there are fewer more dangerous places in the world to be than in the presence of full blown fool. 

Pro 17:12  Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

The she-bear there refers to Mama Bear, and when something happens to Mama’s bear’s baby bears, it can be a very dangerous place to be, and that comparison of danger is made to that a fool in their folly.  

Folly is defined as foolishness, or the behavior of a fool.  There are modern terms used for this “wilding” is one or “going crazy”; basically a sinner in a full-on state of sin; think out-of-control.  

Most crimes happen when someone is “out of control” and that is where danger lurks; whether someone is drunk or on drugs, or in a jealous murderous rage, there are all situations where a fool is in their folly, and places to steer clear of!  

Thomas Boston, a puritan once talked about the duty of self denial, when we hear the term flesh and gratifying the flesh, that means letting our pleasures and passions govern us and make us do stupid things; be it adultery, fighting or stealing.  All of those things are borne out of lack of self denial.  Boston went on to say: “Self-denial is the first principle of Christianity. It is the life-blood which must run through the whole body of religion.” Christ calls us to deny our wills, our own righteousness, our appetites, our ease, our inordinate passions, our relations, our estates, and even our lives for Him. There is no alternative to a life of self-denial: “There may be going to heaven without comfort, but there is no going there without self-denial.”

The path of self denial is the path of the wise, while path to destruction points back to the fool we learned about today, who mires in his folly.