# 424 The Proverbs – ‘A manual for living’ (MSG). Proverbs 9 (# 1). A matter of life and death.

Before we move away from the ‘Instructions’ section of Proverbs (1-9), and move into the ‘Single Sentence’ proverbs (10 onwards), we have this very important chapter (9) which leads us to an extremely vital question: “Have you really grasped that having biblical wisdom is a matter of life or death?” (# 51)

In this chapter we meet again two very different ‘women.’ Again, it seems, using the poetic device known as ‘personification,’ we are re-introduced to ‘Wisdom’ (vv. 1-6) and ‘Folly’ (vv. 13-18), and it is as if the author of Proverbs is giving us one last chance to choose the way of wisdom and life, in contrast to choosing the way of folly and death.

Ther are some similarities though. Read the following and pick them out, then notice the contrasts.

Wisdom has built her house;
    she has set up its seven pillars.
² She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;
    she has also set her table.
³ She has sent out her servants, and she calls
    from the highest point of the city,
⁴     “Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says,
⁵     “Come, eat my food
    and drink the wine I have mixed.
⁶ Leave your simple ways and you will live;
    walk in the way of insight” …

¹³ Folly is an unruly woman;
    she is simple and knows nothing.
¹⁴ She sits at the door of her house,
    on a seat at the highest point of the city,
¹⁵ calling out to those who pass by,
    who go straight on their way,
¹⁶     “Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says,
¹⁷     “Stolen water is sweet;
    food eaten in secret is delicious!”
¹⁸ But little do they know that the dead are there,
    that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.

Both are making their appeal from their own houses. Both are offering a meal. Both are appealing to the ‘simple,’ twice described as those who ‘have no sense’ (vv. 4, 16). The similarities finish there!

Then the contrasts. Note the description of Wisdom in verses 1-6.

Note her diligence and commitment to excellence. She is the one who has built her house. She is the one who personally has prepared the meal and drinks and set the table. Then she is the one who has commissioned her servants to go and spread abroad her invitation to all to come and eat and drink and to live!

Now note the description of Folly in verses 13-18.

It is said of her that she is unruly, simple and knows nothing. Then we note that all she offers is counterfeit, a sham, in fact, stolen goods!

Keller (quoting Van Leeuwen, ‘Book of Proverbs’ p. 104) commenting on the fact that Folly’s food is stolen says, “’Folly and sin are always parasitic of the good that God by Wisdom has made. Folly takes the goods and destroys their goodness by ripping them from their proper place in the coherence of things… Folly has not built her house, she has stolen it’ … [in contrast], In Wisdom’s banquet you have all the goods a human being wants – meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, and hope. But they are not stolen. They flow naturally out of a relationship with the Lord.”  (# 51)

Then comes, what is the most important message anyone of us will ever hear – it concerns life or death.

Wisdom proclaims: ⁶ Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”

In contrast, the author tells us that if we accept Folly’s invitation, we need to realize the consequences: ¹⁸ But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.

Keller explains the latter: “Many of the [positive] behaviors promoted in Proverbs … are associated with longer life spans … (4:10). However, usually ‘life’ and ‘death’ refer not to length but to quality of life… To miss out on true life, then, is to enter the realm of death before your physical life on earth is ended. To live a life cut off from God, with ever-increasing spiritual blindness, brittleness, and hardness, is to become a spiritual corpse.” (# 51)

So, let me repeat the question: “Have you really grasped that having biblical wisdom is a matter of life or death?” (# 51)

If you have, then your next step needs to be towards Jesus, who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6)