PROVERBS 9: 1-6
WISDOM'S INVITATION
[Matthew 22:1-4 / Luke 14:15-24]
In chapter 8, wisdom appears when the world formed and populated. Wisdom anticipated the needs of man and provided a remedy. There wisdom stood and spoke from the high stage of the heaven. In chapter 9 we get a view from earth. The Word has come nigh. His habitation is among men.
The sets for the scene are taken from things that we know. Wisdom becomes the head of his own family, sovereign of his own realm, builds his own house, provide his feast, sends out the invitation, and presses the invited guests to come. Wisdom's invitation is not given without costly preparation so let those who hear come & enjoy life at God's table (CIM).
I. A PREPARED INVITATION, 1-3.
II. A GRACIOUS INVITATION, 4-6.
The first three verses enumerate some of what wisdom (plural) has done for those she is going to invite to her house. Verse one indicates that wisdom has built an inviting and spacious house. "Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars;
The house that wisdom built is supported by hewn out pillars. The hewn out pillars suggest the industriousness that accompanies wisdom. Pillars are an emblem of strength. Wisdom's strength comes from the truth of it's precepts and instructions. Seven is the symbol of perfection or completion and indicates that its supports and ornaments are perfect in strength and beauty. Wisdom's perfection and beauty will never be tarnished by time and its structure will never crumble nor be touched with decay (see Isa. 11:2).
[The seven pillars seem to suggest that the house was large and spacious. Though the symbolic number seven could indicate the seven days of Creation or the Temple which had seven columns (1 Kings 7:17). If it is an invitation for people to come and enroll in the school of wisdom then the inference could be an invitation to study God's creation or God's work and/or God's word.]
By the term her house the church is possibly intended. Jesus, Wisdom Incarnate, has founded and is building the church of the Living God (Mk. 11:17). It is a spacious house needing seven pillars for our Father's house has many rooms (Jn. 14:2).
The frame was conceived before time, well planned and set upon a permanent foundation. The tried and true foundation of the house of God is the Lord Jesus Christ who is our righteousness. The tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple of Solomon are but shadows and emblems of this house eternal.
Verse 2 indicates that a delightfully sumptuous meal has been wonderfully readied for her invited students. "She has prepared her food (meats), she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table."
The items specified here were the staple commodities of life among easterners. [Diluted wine was served since one could not often drink the water, because cities had no water filtration system and boiled water tastes poorly. The mixing of wine may refer to diluting it, a custom in ancient Israel (2 Maccabees 15:39). Undiluted wine was considered distasteful by the Jews and the wine for the Passover consisted of three parts water and one part wine. Or perhaps the custom of mixing spices with wine to enhance its flavor is what is intended, (Ps. 75:8, Isa. 5:22) or possibly both. Whatever the case] the thought is that the provisions filling the table are wholesome, various, and plentiful. [Walvoord, John & Zuck, Roy; The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983, S. 924]
The idea that may be suggested is that Christian truths sustain a relation to the soul analogous to the relations that the necessities of physical life do to the body. As the body cannot live without the appropriate nourishment, so the soul cannot be sustained without Christian truth (Mt. 4:3-4). The church must set before the people the Bread of life through worship, preaching, teaching, prayer, the ordinances, fellowship, service, witness for these are the provisions of the Lord's table.
As the human body needs variety in its diet so spiritual man needs a variety of truth. Intellectual truth, religious truth, moral truth, redemptive truth, truth for the past, truth for the future. The soul can no more be fed upon one doctrine than the body upon one food.
Wisdom has provided man with two schools-nature and Christianity. The first is a magnificent one. All true sciences of the world are but a few of it lessons which people have learned in the school of nature. The latter, Christianity, is prepared to meet man's spiritual condition as a fallen creature. In nature God is revealed as the Creator, in Christianity as the Redeemer. Christianity enables man to properly study & appreciate nature.
As a small flower requires sun, air, soil, rain and all the various gases of the atmosphere so our soul needs to feed upon many teachings. A healthy Christian needs, and has been provided with, a bountiful variety of truth. [David Thomas. Proverbs. Kregel. Grand Rapids, MI 1982. 101.]
Verse 3 issues an invitation for people to come and enroll in the school of wisdom. "She has sent out her maidens, she calls from the tops of the heights of the city,"
Having prepared the meal the hostess sent out her maidens to announce the banquet. The inviting messengers are called maidens for the church is the bride of Christ. They are ambassadors whom Christ employs in carrying the message of His mercy and grace to the world. They are sent far and wide to the heights or the best heralding spots so that the message and the invitation might be called out to all.
The church is well pictured as maidens or a "weaker vessel" for we are not to subdue by force. For all the power we need is given by the Spirit as we herald the invitation. Meekness and purity are the qualifications for those who go forth with the message of divine wisdom to a lost and dying world.
His messengers have been commanded to go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that His house might be filled (Lk. 14:23). The invitation is open to all. Whosoever accepts and comes can dine at this banquet. "The Spirit and the bride say come."
II. A GRACIOUS INVITATION, 4-6.
Verses 4-6 provide us with Wisdom's invitation. Verse 4 calls our attention to two types of people who are given special invitation. "Whoever is naive, let him turn in here! To him who lacks understanding she says,"
The message is specially addressed to those most needing Wisdom's attention. The simple, those who are conscious of their ignorance, are the most needful of learning the wisdom from above. Vessels that are the most empty can be the most filled with the precious fountain of wisdom. Those who are filled already, with their marrying and giving in marriage, too busy buying and building, send their excuses for absence and do not themselves come to wisdom's feast (See Luke 23:18ff).
The one who lacks understanding are those usually opposed to God's wisdom. For these there is not much hope (10:13, 21), for they lean on their own understanding (3:5-6).
From these hedges and highways of conscious nakedness and need the marriage festival is furnished with guests. To the poor the gospel is preached and the poor in spirit gladly listen whether they be clothed in silk or rags. [Arnot, William. Studies in Proverbs. Kregel. Grand Rapids, MI 1978. 154.]
Those who hunger and thirsty for God's wisdom, for spiritual substance, are invited to acquire it and benefit from it in verse 5. "Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed,"
The bread of the Word of God and the wine of the Spirit of God are the provisions that our Father offers to those who will come to His House and partake. We must mix the two together in order to sustain ourselves. The Word without the Spirit is dead legalism (2 Cor. 3:6). Spirit without God's Word leads to lawlessness.
The nourishment of God's house is edifying and inviting to the spirit, mind and body. The Gospel is food [doing will of Father- Jn. 4: ] and the Holy Spirit is the wine which the world knoweth not of (Mt. 26:26-28).
The Father offers room, board and wisdom to a world of fallen outcasts. Those who will acknowledge they are without God's wisdom are called to acquire it and benefit from it.
Verse 6 calls on all who would be discipled by God's wisdom to repent of their foolish lifestyle and follow God's path of discipline. "Forsake folly and live. And proceed in the way of understanding."
All three verbs are plural imperatives. Forsake foolishness. Abandon foolish tendencies. Forsake the ill-advised place. Forsake ill-chosen company. Forsake imprudent past-times. Foolishness deadens the love of learning and inquiry and moral sensibilities.
The invitation [and pronouncement] is to live. ["Live" means "accept the gift of life." The truly wise will repent, accept God's free gift, and live.] Life and death hang in the balance of this decision. The prophets of old uttered the command, "Why will you die? Turn to the Lord and live!" (Jer. 31:19; Ezek. 19:26-32). Repentance is the necessary prerequisite of gospel salvation.
So God invites to the feast those that are headed on their way to Hell. Have you too heard the heavenly call of hope? Have you left the way of foolishness and are you proceeding in the way of understanding? Look to Christ and place your affections on Him and He will direct your beliefs, your thoughts, and your actions. Consecrate your heart on God's wisdom that eclipse the fading glories of this world.
CONCLUSION
Line upon line throughout the Bible the message from God is clear. You must accept His invitation and leave the way of folly. The Lord Jesus Christ breaths forth the invitation. Will you not come to Him that you might have life and have it more abundantly (Jn. 10: 10)? From His own lips you have the command to come and receive the eternal life He offers.
If you have already consciously accepted the invitation, are you letting the wisdom of God propose her eternal offering through you... so that His house might be filled? When was the last time God's wisdom gave its invitation to Christ, the wisdom of God (Col 2:3) through you?
