Message/Application: Proverbs 9 gives a comparative picture of wisdom and foolishness. Wisdom is prepared and has built a house with 7 pillars. I’m pretty sure those 7 pillars have significant meaning and represent the strength of her character, but the scripture doesn’t go into that specifically. The pillars represent the strength of the house wisdom has built. She has prepared meat, mixed wine and set her table. She has sent out her servants to call out from the highest points of the city and bring in anyone who is lacking wisdom and experience to come and sit at the banquet she has prepared and eat what she has prepared. She cautions them to “leave inexperience behind” and turn from it. She also cautions those who teach not to try to teach or correct a mocker because they will not receive it, but to teach those who are teachable because they will become wiser for it. On the contrary side, Proverbs 9 also depicts “Folly” who is loud and arrogantly seats herself on a seat in the highest point of the city and calls out to those who are going straight ahead on their paths. She calls out the same words that wisdom calls out “whoever is inexperienced or lacks sense, enter here”. But Folly has not prepared anything. She has no prepared banquet and nothing of substance to offer. Instead, she calls out “stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten secretly is tasty.” This is a trap that leads to death. To me this is a reminder of the importance of spending the time preparing my heart in the word of God. We can’t ever stop learning and growing and a banquet prepared today will not continue to feed ourselves or others in the days ahead. When we stop preparing but continue to try to teach others we become just like the woman called “folly” who is trying to entice people to learn from her, but her words are a trap leading to death because they are our own.
