There is nothing more troublesome than to get two invitations to a specular dinner but they are on the same night! Now we have to choose. If we go to the house of people we know is preparing great food for us and other guests; we might lose the friends who invited us to their house. They are also preparing a great feast but included is a lot of questionable party games with lively music that sometimes makes us uncomfortable for some reason. Both look like fun; but at the party house, you never know what might happen. Two invitations. Two Choices.
We could “make an appearance” at both homes, dividing our time between the two homes but we also know that is exhausting. We have tried that before and it didn’t go well for our physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual health. We just didn’t feel right about going here then going there. We need to make one choice and stick with it! We can’t play in the middle of the road—that’s dangerous!
In our next proverb, Wisdom and Folly invite the simple to their houses for a feast. The invitations are identical, but the consequences are distinct: those who accept Wisdom’s invitation live; those who accept Folly’s invitation die. The writer of Proverbs presents the choices with consequences so clearly; that is easy to see the wiser choice to be made. But many do not.
Proverbs 9, The Message
Lady Wisdom Gives a Dinner Party
1-6 Lady Wisdom has built and furnished her home;
it’s supported by seven hewn timbers.
The banquet meal is ready to be served: lamb roasted,
wine poured out, table set with silver and flowers.
Having dismissed her serving maids,
Lady Wisdom goes to town, stands in a prominent place,
and invites everyone within sound of her voice:
“Are you confused about life, don’t know what’s going on?
Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me!
I’ve prepared a wonderful spread—fresh-baked bread,
roast lamb, carefully selected wines.
Leave your impoverished confusion and live!
Walk up the street to a life with meaning.”
* * *
7-12 If you reason with an arrogant cynic, you’ll get slapped in the face;
confront bad behavior and get a kick in the shins.
So don’t waste your time on a scoffer;
all you’ll get for your pains is abuse.
But if you correct those who care about life,
that’s different—they’ll love you for it!
Save your breath for the wise—they’ll be wiser for it;
tell good people what you know—they’ll profit from it.
Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God,
insight into life from knowing a Holy God.
It’s through me, Lady Wisdom, that your life deepens,
and the years of your life ripen.
Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life;
mock life and life will mock you.
Madame Prostitute Calls Out, Too
13-18 Then there’s this other woman, Madame Prostitute—
brazen, empty-headed, frivolous.
She sits on the front porch
of her house on Main Street,
And as people walk by minding
their own business, calls out,
“Are you confused about life, don’t know what’s going on?
Steal off with me, I’ll show you a good time!
No one will ever know—I’ll give you the time of your life.”
But they don’t know about all the skeletons in her closet,
that all her guests end up in hell.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
We cannot have one foot in the Kingdom and the other shackled to evil. First of all, it’s hard to walk that way! But many try daily to appease foolhardy, dead-walking friends who want to play people rather than walk humbly with God. One foot here and one foot there makes it impossible to walk humbly WITH God. Decide.
Making the choice between God or evil demands that we are all in for one or the other. Jesus tells thousands listening and deciding; “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” –Jesus’s Sermon of the Mount, Matthew 6:24, ESV
Jesus wasn’t just talking about money. Anything that blocks our view of God and His pleasing perfect Will, masters us. We must seek God’s wisdom in the way we steward all He has given to us to manage! Materialism, along with the time spent on acquiring all we think we want, may be God’s greatest rival competing for the allegiance of human hearts. Anxiety and worry are produced in the striving as by products! Striving to secure one’s life via possessions, pensions, and self-help products produces this anxiety. Yet nowhere are riches condemned in and of themselves. What Jesus condemns here is greed and the hoarding of material possessions. Likewise, “worry” means undue anxiety, not a legitimate concern to provide for one’s daily needs.
The takeaway is simple: Seek first his kingdom, and everything else will fall into line.
Since God owns it all, why wouldn’t we seek God’s wisdom to manage His generosity to us? The Lord is My Shepherd; I have everything I need. (Psalm 23:1)
God’s character is displayed in this proverb; character traits God would have us imitate as His children “made in His image”. Wisdom is portrayed as hardworking and generous; Folly is loud and boisterous. Folly calls out to the simple with invitations to come to party where she simply sits and holds court. Folly is unorganized, prepared no meat, but has wines of all kinds. Folly didn’t set a healthy table nor sent messengers to announce what she has in store for those who come. Folly is undisciplined in all her ways. She doesn’t have to be industrious, just seductive, because it doesn’t take much to turn the heads of the simpleminded who depend on others to make choices for them—which is a choice in itself. Folly’s lifestyle tempts, distracts, deceives, with no moral accountability.
Both call from the highest point of the city, where a temple would stand. Thus, the choice between Wisdom and Folly is, among other things, a choice between true and false religion. As we know and read in God’s Word, temples of evil where in place right alongside The Temple of God with manmade idols to be worshiped, firmly secured to their temples or erected as statues in the middle of the square.
Proverbs brings our minds front and center to this profound and often quoted statement of truth: “Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God.” (v.10) In another more familiar translation we all grew up with it states: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (NIV) explains the different outcomes of each. Wisdom’s final words summarize the heart of the message along with the heart of God as we conclude our study of Proverbs 1-9.
What is our response? What choice have you made? Wisdom or Folly. There are only two paths to choose from God’s point of view. God’s Word demands that the son choose a woman, a house, and a banquet, and in so doing choose a way of life.
I am reminded just now of my favorite verse from Micah 6:8;
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
A healthy fear that leads us to wisdom, is a humbled, reverent awe of God, our Father in Heaven who knows us and loved us before we were born. He knows us from the inside out and chose to mold and shape us into His Masterpiece—A work of His Heart! God knows all we are tempted with and provides help to overcome with power in the shaping of our lives to be more like Him. Lean into what God is doing and embrace Wisdom. Come to His Table for all are welcomed, blessed, and will be given Life Eternal!
Lord,
Thank you for this daily manna that nourished my soul today. I needed to hear this message. Cleanse my heart, renew my mind, refresh and reset my soul, and restore the joy of you working in me and me listening, trusting, and obeying you.
In Jesus Name, Amen
