Ah … it’s a familiar story. Eve is strolling through the beautiful Garden of Eden when she is surprised by a talking snake.
“Hey, how ya doing?”
“Fine.”
“What ya doin?”
“Oh, Adam and I are just walking around … taking in the beauty of God’s creation.”
“Oh, yeah? Lovely. Say, what about that tree over there?”
“What tree? You mean that tree over there? The ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’?”
“Yeah. Look at the fruit on that tree. Gorgeous. Looks absolutely delicious, doesn’t it? Ever been tempted to take a bite?”
“Oh, no. God said that if we eat from that tree, we will die.”
“Nah … did He really say that? Look, I’m telling you that you won’t die. Who ya gonna believe? Me or God? Listen, the only reason that God said that is that He doesn’t want you to know the truth. He’s afraid that if you eat of its fruit, you’ll be like Him, knowing good and evil and you won’t need to blindly follow His orders. You’ll be able to think for yourself. Doesn’t that sound just heavenly?”
“Okay … just one bite. How about you, Adam? Care to take a bite?”
And so, death did enter the creation … and so did something else: free will. God gave us the ability to think for ourselves and make our own choices … but He also gave us the consequences that come with it … such as our never-ending struggle with … ‘temptation.’ Temptation is always a struggle between what I want to do and what I know I should do. If I do something I know I should be doing, then there’s no struggle, right? I struggle when I know, when I try to justify, doing something that I know is something I either should be doing or not doing. The Apostle Paul captured the struggle beautifully:
“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me… For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:19, 22-24).
This is the struggle that Solomon has so brilliantly analyzed in Proverbs 9. In verses 1 through 6, he describes the house built by Wisdom. Listen carefully to how Solomon describes it: “… she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table” (Proverbs 9:1b-2).
The first thing to note is that she built her house and established it on a firm foundation … just as God built this cosmos, this creation, this incredible, beautiful universe that we live in … and He established it on the firm foundation of His wisdom. “Let there be light … let there be heaven and earth … let there be land and sea … let there be plants … let there be animals” … and then … when all was ready … “let there be man and woman.” The very order of creation was based on God’s wisdom. In order for humanity to survive, they needed food. In order for the animals to survive they, too, needed food, so God created plants. In order for the plants to survive, they needed land to grow in and they needed food … which came from the water and the sunlight. Without water, without sunlight, the plants would die and without plants the animals would die … and without all of these things, we would die.
This [creation], this universe that we live in … is God’s house built by His wisdom … supported by seven pillars … the pillar hewn out of the darkness … the pillar hewn out of the water … the pillar hewn out of the land … the pillar of life … six pillars hewn by God in six days. Whew! And the seventh pillar was the Sabbath … the day when God called us to sit with Him and enjoy His creation. Doesn’t that just give you God bumps?
Let’s look at Wisdom’s house again. Who built her house? She did. Wisdom’s house, like God’s creation, was built in an orderly fashion. First she built the foundation, supporting her house with seven pillars. She then slaughtered whose animals? Her animals. Why did she slaughter them? To feed her guests … just as God made plants and animals to feed us. She has set her table … provided her guests with a feast … just as God, in this Garden of Eden, in His house, has set a table for us. As Solomon’s father, David, proclaimed:
“O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures… These all look to You to give them their food in due season; when You give to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are filled with good things. When You hide Your face, they are dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When You send forth Your spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104:24, 27-30).
We are to enjoy, to feast, on the fruits of God’s wisdom just as Wisdom’s guests are called to enjoy the fruits of her labor. Her house is filled with good things and she sends out her servant-girls, her maids, to invite people to come and fill her house and enjoy the good things that she has prepared.
“You that are simple, turn here!” her servants cry (Proverbs 9:4). “To those without sense, she says, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight’” (Proverbs 9:4b-6). In other words, she invites us to come into her house. She doesn’t force us. She doesn’t compel us. She simply invites us to come into her house, but we have to be the ones who make the choice.
Remember what happened in the Garden of Eden. Eve, and then Adam, made the choice to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Their “choice” to eat the fruit was, in fact, a choice, was it not? They had already decided before they ever took a bite of the forbidden fruit to reach out and pick it … to listen to the serpent and disobey God so that they could, from that point on, decide what was good and what wasn’t good for themselves. We decided that we wanted to rely on ourselves rather than rely on God and so God granted our request and gave us free will … the ability or desire, if you will, to make our own decisions … including, even today, whether we are going to listen to the serpent or listen to God. The choice to accept Wisdom’s invitation would see obvious, amen? But hold on. Folly, like the serpent, suddenly appears and makes her own offer:
“The foolish woman is loud; she is ignorant and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the high places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, ‘You who are simple, turn in here!’ And to those without sense she says, ‘Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant’” (Proverbs 9:13-17).
The serpent in the Garden wasn’t loud but he was right there in Eve’s face, whispering in Eve’s ear and Eve was right there waving the fruit in Adam’s face. The foolish woman was loud, ignorant, knows nothing. The serpent spoke as though he knew what he was talking about but he was wrong when he said that we would not die. He was right that our eyes would be open and we would know right from wrong, good from evil but he played on our ignorance and we listened to the lie of the serpent rather than the wisdom of God who told us not to eat of the tree for our own good.
Wisdom built her house. She craved out the seven pillars of its foundation. She slaughtered the animals and mixed the wine and set the table herself. What is Folly doing? She is “sitting.” She is sitting in front of a house that she didn’t build. She is inviting people to come to her feast which she didn’t prepare … she stole it. She is seated at the high places of the town … meaning prominent places … places above the people that she’s attempting to lure into her house. Some commentaries have held that she is sitting in front of the Temple but the word for “high places” is plural … which, suggest to me, that she is sitting in places of power … she has placed herself where she can influence or tempt the most people … just as people of power continue to do today, amen?
Notice that Folly makes the exact same invitation that Wisdom does: “You who are simple, turn in here” (Proverbs 9:16a). The effect, I believe, is designed to deceive or to sew confusion. People are deceived because she appears to be an imitation of Wisdom … just as people are deceived into buying Gucci shoes or Rolex watches that are really knock offs. On-line scammers have gotten really, really good at creating messages and web-pages that look and sound like the real thing. What Folly has to offer … what the world has offer … is either a cheap imitation or, in this case, stolen. Wisdom slaughtered her animals and mixed her wine … Folly serves her guest stolen water and stolen bread … water and bread stolen from whom? Everything that the world offers us … everything that the powers that be use to tempt us … came from the universe that God created. God may not have made the car but He made the metal that the automakers use to build the car. The farmer may plant our fruits and vegetables but God created the fruit and vegetables they raise on the third day. Ranchers may raise the cattle that we eat but they didn’t make the cattle, God did on the sixth day … and He made seafood on the fifth day. Everything that we buy in the store, everything that we pay money for, was made out materials that came from God … and they, like Folly, use what the wisdom of God has given to us for our survival for power and profit.
In both cases … the case of Wisdom and the case of Folly … they don’t force people to come into their houses and partake in their feasts. God could compel us but He doesn’t. Satan can’t compel us … he can only tempt us but ultimately we have to make that choice. When Satan challenged Job’s loyalty to God, God said Satan could tempt Job but he couldn’t lay a hand on him. Unfortunately, what happened in the Garden still happens today. Like the serpent, Satan is hanging around … crouching at the door … prowling like a hungry lion. Or, if you don’t believe in the Devil, there is the allure of sin … crouching at the door … roaring like a hungry lion … or calling to us loudly like Folly.
What is it about sin that is so tempting, amen? In his book, “Confessions,” Augustine recounts an event that highlighted his propensity for sin. He and some of his friends climbed the wall to his neighbor’s orchard and stripped all of his pear trees of their fruit … not, in Augustine’s words, “to eat the fruit ourselves, but simply to destroy it” … and the part that really bothered him was that he went along with it … and that he enjoyed doing it. He realized that had he been alone, the thought of breaking into his neighbor’s orchard and destroying his fruit would have never crossed his mind. He had lived next door to his neighbor for years and never thought about destroying his neighbor’s fruit. It wasn’t until one of his friends came up with the idea that he even considered the thought … much like the people who were going about their lives … people who, in Solomon’s words, were “going straight on their way” … were being tempted by Folly’s offer to come into her house and sit down to her stolen feast. The idea wasn’t to shift blame to his friends or to shift blame to Folly but that his friends or that Folly’s invitation appeal to and expose something within us.
Folly makes an interesting claim: “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Proverbs 9:17). Why is that so eerily true? Remember watching Disney on Sunday night? Those were the days, eh? I remember this one show where a boy from the city was visiting his cousin in the country. There was a farmer who had a huge watermelon growing in the middle of his patch and he knew that it was a temptation to the local boys … who were obsessed with sneaking in to the patch and stealing that watermelon … which they eventually do. I always remember what one of the boys said as they gorged themselves on the stolen watermelon: “Taint nuthin’ sweeter than a stolen watermelon.” It is the “sweetness” of sin that makes it so tempting. If stolen water were not so sweet, no one would be tempted to steal it. If bread eaten in secret wasn’t so pleasant, then no one would be tempted to hide while they ate it, amen?
Hum … a bowl of triple chocolate ice cream … or a banana? Work out at the gym or watch a movie? Like the Apostle Paul or Solomon, I know that going to the gym or eating a banana is healthier but, boy, what a struggle, amen? Folly says stay home today, don’t go to church. It’s too cold outside. Why don’t you just stay home in your nice warm jammies and your cup of coffee and just watch it on TV. It may not be stolen bread and water but it is, in my opinion, a pale imitation, a poor substitute for the real thing. I know that I’m not as good as those TV preachers, but can they hug you? Do they know your name? Can you call them any time, day or night? Can they give the whole experience? Getting ready … thinking about the day … wondering who’s gonna be at the church, who’s not … walking into the sanctuary and having that feeling of being at home in Wisdom’s house … God’s house … seeing friends … singing together … praying together … praying for each other … may be going out to eat together after the service.
How can watching it on TV in our jammies even come close to that? Why is it even a struggle, amen? Why is there a struggle between choosing Wisdom’s offer and Folly’s offer? Sure, both call out to the simple, but one offers abundant life and the other offers death. Those who accept Wisdom’s offer “lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight” (Proverbs 9:6). Those who enter Folly’s house “do not know the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol” (Proverbs 9:18). Over time, we either grow in wisdom or folly. What we love determines where we are headed, where we end up, and who we become. “For by me,” says Wisdom, “your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life” (Proverbs 9:11) while the “scoffer,” says Wisdom, is on their own and doomed to failure. “Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning” but the “scoffer who is rebuked will only hate you” (Proverbs 9:8a) for trying to help them.
Eve was tempted by the forbidden fruit and when she reached out and plucked it from the tree, her action revealed what her heart desired even before she took a bite. The same could be said here in Proverbs 9. In choosing to go to Wisdom’s house or in choosing to go to Folly’s house, they had already started receiving the fruits of their decision. The lovers of Wisdom are on the way to Wisdom’s banquet house and they are already experiencing the benefits of it. You cannot choose both wisdom and folly. It has to be one or the other. Every sinner must turn his or her back upon either their Savior or their sin. As Augustine pointed out: “Thus, though Wisdom was himself our home, he made himself also the way by which we should reach our home” (Augustine. De Doctrina Christiana. Cited in D.L. Jeffrey, Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; 1982; p. 883).
Satan never created anything … including himself. God created the House of Wisdom through His wisdom and all Satan or Folly can do is take what God has created, what God has built and distort it and use it to tempt us and ultimately destroy us. Folly takes what is good and destroys our goodness. She tears down the ordered world that Wisdom has made and uses it to tempt us away from Wisdom, away from God, away from what was created to multiply our days and add years to our lives. Folly gives us bread instead of meat. She gives us water instead of wine.
“Does not wisdom call,” says Solomon in Proverbs 8, “and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; besides the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: ‘To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live. O simple ones, learn prudence; acquire intelligence, you who lack it. Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right; for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. They are all straight to one who understands and right to those who find knowledge.’ … Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there was no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth – when He had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bit of soil. When He established the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He made firm the skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep, when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him, like a master worker; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race” (Proverbs 8:1-9, 23-31). Compared that to what Folly has to offer … ignorance and confusion, a house that she didn’t build, stolen bread and water, and a path that leads to the depths of Sheol.
Over and over again, Wisdom calls out: “Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10). The one who doesn’t listen, say Bible commentator David Hubbard, “who makes the wrong choice or answers the wrong call has only himself [or herself] to blame. The teacher’s hands” … in other words the hands of Wisdom or the hands of God … “are clean” (Hubbard, D. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Volume 15: Proverbs. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.; 1989; p. 138). And so, today, we have been warned, amen? While Wisdom cannot compel us to come into her house and sit at her table, she does her best to warn us and help us to make the right choice … but ultimately, the choice is ours.
In his epic poem, The Odyssey, the Greek poet Homer described the poem’s hero, Ulysses’, encounter with a group of women called “sirens.” The sound of the sirens’ singing was beautiful and so enchanting that it would lure sailors to their death on the jagged and dangerous rocks that surrounded their island. As they were about to pass the island where the sirens lived, Ulysses order his men to plug their ears with wax. Now, Ulysses had been warned about the beauty and danger of the sirens’ song but he still wanted to hear their song for himself. He ordered that his men tie him to the mast of their ship and not let him go no matter how much he begged. He, of course, begged to be untied when he heard their singing but his men obediently followed his orders and wouldn’t let him go until they were safely out of danger.
In his poem, Argonautica IV, the Greek poet Apollonius came up with a different way of handling the temptation of the sirens’ call. His hero, Orpheus, countered the song of the sirens by playing his own song on a flute. His song was so beautiful and so enchanting that the sailors paid no attention to the song of the sirens.
Jesus Christ is our Orpheus. “Therefore, we don’t have to bind ourselves or others with rules and regulations. The fear of the Lord is to love Him, to hear His song so clearly that the siren song of sin is drowned out completely” (Courson, J. Jon Courson’s Applicaation Commentary: Volume 2. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 2006; p. 201).
Wisdom is calling you right now, my friend, but take my word for it, her voice will not be the only voice that you will hear today, amen?
