Fellow-Redeemed
in Christ,
In our Proverbs Bible study, we have heard
Solomon contrast wisdom and folly. Wisdom is what God says and does that is
good and right. Folly is what man says and does that oppose God. One of the
literary tools this wise king employed in his writing is personification. Solomon
writes about wisdom and folly as total opposites.
Chapter 9 is the summary of that comparison
Solomon made in the first eight chapters. Here again, there is that comparison between
wisdom and folly but we will look only at the first part of the chapter.
Solomon personifies Wisdom as the wise woman who builds her house well then
invites the world to come and enjoy the meal she prepares.
The invitation Wisdom and her servant girls
cry out from the highest point of the city, and carry out into the streets is
for us. Wisdom Invites Us to Her House
for a Meal. She builds her house well. She prepares her meal for the
simple.
Wisdom builds her house well. Wisdom is a
plural noun here. This might well be for emphasis as we think about all the
qualities true wisdom entails. True wisdom is everything God does. Wisdom is
the perfect way God does them. There is nothing imperfect, or incomplete, or
misdirected, or morally wrong in God’s wisdom. The crown of God’s wisdom is his
Son, Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from sin, death and hell. The gospel is the
wisdom of God that makes us wise for salvation.
Think of the wise woman who builds her house,
her home. She does not use tools like a hammer and saw. She builds with
patience and love. She builds her home by kindness and generosity. These
qualities build a home where husband and wife live in peace, and the children
feel secure. She cares for her family and teaches her sons and daughters God’s
Word. These fruits of “the fear of the
Lord” are the strong pillars under her household.
The seven pillars Solomon depicts in his poem
signify strength. God’s Word gives the strength. The support of true Wisdom,
the legs Wisdom stands on we might say, are the revelations
God gives of his qualities and his gracious salvation plan. This includes every
Word of God. Solomon’s picture here is similar to Paul’s words in his first
epistle to the Ephesians, 2:19, 20, “Consequently,
you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people
and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles’ and
prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
Wisdom has built her house well. She has built her
house on the pillars of the saving and guiding truths of God’s holy Word. She
is ready for company and will provide a delicious meal for them. She prepares a
meal for the simple.
Wisdom “has
prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table.” This is
no meal thoughtlessly thrown together. She has made special preparations. She
literally “slaughtered” the meat. The
hostess often would mix in spices with wine to give it something special. It is
not a grab and run. She got out her best china and cutlery and set the table.
These activities depict a feast. Wisdom has
taken the time and effort to prepare something nourishing and satisfying.
Wisdom’s meal makes you healthy in the long run. This stands in stark contrast
to Folly who offers a meal that is half-baked. Folly offers a fast food meal that
is filling and tastes good now but has little health benefit. and can even be
harmful if eaten in large amounts.
Wisdom invites the world, “Come, eat my food and drink my wine I have
mixed.” This is the gospel invitation God’s messengers carry out into the
world. Wisdom sends out here maids. She calls out from “the highest point of the city.” Wisdom goes to a prominent place
so others can see her and hear her invitation. Jesus used a similar picture in
his parables, didn’t he? The master of the banquet sent his servants out into
the highways and byways calling and inviting.
Wisdom’s invitation goes out to “the simple,”
to those who “lack judgment.” A word we might associate with that today is
gullible. Wisdom calls out to the world to stop being so gullible to the
foolishness and the lies of Folly. How often we lack judgment and don’t use the
wisdom God gives when evaluating or adopting some idea or philosophy. For
example, this is happening more and more among God’s people when it comes to
the Folly of sexual relations apart from marriage, or the folly of accepting
perversion and immorality just because we have friends who live in such sins.
It is folly to accept things because we feel they are all right, or others say
they are ok, or we really don’t know what God says about that nor do we
particularly care. It is the folly Solomon describes later in chapter 9, “Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret,
we might say forbidden fruit, is
delicious.”
All of us are simpletons and lack judgment
according to our sinful flesh. There is not one person here who is not gullible
or easily swayed to an argument especially when we do not know or care to know
the Wisdom of God that puts such Folly in its place. Wisdom calls us through
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the wisdom and the power of God, “Leave your simple ways and you will live;
walk in the way of understanding.” This is a call to repentance. It is as
James wrote in chapter 1, verse 22, “Do
not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
When we humbly listen to Wisdom’s invitation, we come
to enjoy the meal that gives us life. That is what Jesus meant in John 6. As I
mentioned, our Savior is not referring to the Lord’s Supper here. Eating his
flesh and drinking his blood is believing in him as Redeemer. That faith leads
us to eternal life.
Wisdom comes through humility. Folly comes
with pride. Wisdom is the feast of what is right and eternal. Folly is the junk
food that offers the empty and the earthly. Wisdom turns the simple into the
wise. Folly turns the foolish into bigger fools.
Wisdom has built her house well and invites
us to come and enjoy her life giving meal. There is no better place to go and
fed. Amen. <SDG>