Proverbs 9:1-18 – Wise Up

This is Proverbs Nine.

Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars, she has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table, she has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in town.

Whoever is simple, let them turn in here.

To him who lacks sense, she says, Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight.

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you.

Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser.

Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.

If you are wise, you are wise for yourself.

If you scoff, you alone will bear it.

The woman folly is loud, she is seductive and knows nothing.

She sits at the door of her house, she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way.

Whoever is simple, let them turn in here.

And to him who lacks sense, she says, Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But he does not know that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

This is the word of the Lord.

Welcome to you.

Uh, if you joined us uh while we're singing, my name's Mark.

Uh I'm one of the leaders, one of the pastors here at City.

You're very welcome if you're new visiting with us.

Um let me get a quick show of hands.

There are two types of people uh in the world.

Uh there are uh there are food as pleasure people and food as fuel people.

Uh or people say, well, I uh I live to eat, that's food is pleasure.

Uh or I uh I eat to live, that's food is fuel.

Uh who are the food as pleasure people?

Excellent.

Who are the people who are wrong?

Who are the food as fuel people?

Yeah, my wife's a food as fuel person.

She'd eat the same thing every night.

That's very sad.

Uh that's why I do most of the cooking in our in our house.

Um so yeah, it's good to know which one you are.

I mean, uh back in the time when Proverbs 9 was written, things were a little bit different.

Uh food was food was life.

If you didn't uh eat, you didn't live.

Diets were much more simple.

Uh bit of bread, bit of water, a bit of simple wine.

Feasts were special, they were rare.

To be invited to a feast was an honor.

Because just for a night, food could be pleasure rather than just fuel.

To eat with someone, as is the same today, to eat with someone was a sign of connection, of familiarity, of uh fealty, of love, of loyalty.

Every one of us is invited this morning to dine at one of two tables.

You'll have noted it in the reading.

If you're like, hold on, you've read the Bible?

Yeah, if you missed it, Proverbs 9.

Uh pull it up on your phone, or if you've got one of these things, uh, you can open it up to Proverbs chapter 9 and follow along with us.

Proverbs 9 · chapter mention

We're all invited to one of the two feasts that are laid out in this passage.

This passage begins and ends with two tables set by two very different people, Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly.

We begin with the the kind of the outside uh parts of the passage, looking at those two tables, contrasting them together, and then actually what we're gonna do is we're gonna come to the to the middle of the passage.

Because this is one of the rare passages in the Bible where actually the uh the central point sits in the middle.

Uh the Hebrews were terrible joke tellers because they would put the punchline right in the middle of the joke.

Um, whereas we tend to put the most serious point right at the right at the end.

One of the things that the Hebrews like to do was put it in the middle.

So we're going to start on the outside and we're going to kind of move in.

But as we look at the outside, we're contrasting these two feasts that we're all instinctively invited to.

And there are three aspects to this feast.

There's the the setting, the call, uh, and the result.

And so the the first point, if you're taking notes, can say, well, choose your meal.

Where are you going to dine?

There are three aspects that are contrasted: the setting, the call, and the result.

Or if you're thinking about planning a wedding right now, you've got the you've got the venue, you've got your invites, and then what are you serving for the afters?

What's gonna what's gonna happen once uh uh once the party gets started?

Contrasting the setting, then.

Uh so verses one and two, let's have a look at them together.

Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars, she has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.

Then, if you look down at verses 13 and 14, the woman folly is loud.

She is seductive and knows nothing.

She sits at the door of her house, she takes a seat in the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way.

And already you can see that there's a difference here.

Wisdom's hard at work, preparing her banquet.

She's not passive.

She's making things ready.

She knows that actually people don't tend to drift into wisdom.

That people need to be encouraged, worried.

You can say, Oh, look, this actually makes sense.

This looks great.

We don't instinctively turn aside into the house of wisdom, but wisdom beautifies her house.

She shows how attractive it is.

So you might go, oh, hold on, let's explore that.

She knows that we need to be pursued, we need to be wooed into wisdom.

She has prepared a place of stability.

Seven pillars.

The house of wisdom is sound.

She gives structure to all of life.

And number seven being that number of completeness.

That to dine in the house of wisdom is to find wisdom for every area of your life, private and public, secret and out there.

And she prepares no meager meal, but a banquet, slaughtered beasts.

The Nigerians here might be thinking of how many cows has she killed?

Right?

Cows have died today in the house of wisdom because she's preparing a feast.

She's preparing a celebration.

It's no meagre meal.

Wisdom offers us her abundance.

Not just survival, not just rations, but flourishing.

She goes above above and beyond for us.

She shows us grace in order to make us wise.

We see this embodied, don't we, in the life of ministry of the Lord Jesus?

Lord, Jesus was not just content to sit in heaven and watch us go our foolish way.

He was motivated by love to go to extraordinary lengths to prepare a feast for us that we might dine at his table.

He went to extraordinary lengths to show us grace.

And his kingdom, you see this in his life and ministry, his kingdom is not a rationed one.

Again, think back to John chapter 2 and where Jesus turns the water into wine.

John 2 · chapter mention

Remember that story?

It's a great story.

The wedding feast is running out of wine.

And what does Jesus do?

They say, Well, you know, you've all had enough, actually.

I'm cutting you off.

Or you say, Well, I'm just going to make enough just to kind of uh get by.

No, he makes about 1,200 bottles of wine.

He makes baths of wine.

Why?

Because the kingdom that Jesus brings is abundant.

It's not rationed.

Some of you here this morning think that actually, if you were to become a follower of Jesus, if you were to give your life to him, that your that your life would be more rationed in terms of joy, in terms of satisfaction, in terms of meaning.

And Jesus would say, no.

Some of you maybe look at Jesus and think that Jesus is the guy who turns wine into water.

Who's the one that's serving water in this in this passage?

She sits there.

And she ain't doing anything.

She's lazy.

She knows that people will find her house before too long.

You just there's a there's a current.

There's kind of a a spiritual, intellectual, moral current to our lives.

You know, you just kind of you lift your you lift your legs, and where do you drift to?

Well, actually, you don't drift towards wisdom.

Wisdom's that way.

Wisdom's upstream.

But if you just kind of let it go, where will you drift to?

Well, you'd you'll probably drift past Folly's house.

And she knows this.

That's why she isn't going to extraordinary lengths.

Pursuing wisdom takes effort.

It takes a deliberate choice.

It's hard.

Have you noticed that?

Have you noticed that the the things that are most meaningful, most significant in your life are never the easy things?

Every parent in this room knows that.

Every person who's got married knows that.

Every person who is pursuing Jesus knows that.

The easy things don't tend to be the significant things of life.

But the significant things of life tends to tend to be hard.

They tend to take effort.

Foolishness, well, that just requires the path of least resistance.

The easiest possible road.

We read that she is seductive and knows nothing.

She's all looks and no substance.

There is nothing to be gained from her.

If you're a simple person, well, what this past is saying is, well, she's simple as well.

And you just end up compounding your own foolishness.

There's nothing to learn from her.

And her meal, well, her meal she hasn't prepared herself.

She's she's stolen it.

Stolen water, secret bread.

A meal that offers no real nourishment.

But here's the thing though, right?

We all know the sweetness of stolen water.

Stolen water does taste sweet.

Sin's easier.

It's more immediately satisfying.

It's more exhilarating than the labored feast of wisdom.

It's more immediately gratifying than the hard road of pursuing wisdom.

Folly offers us a feast that tastes good on the tongue but ultimately doesn't satisfy.

We've all gone after those things.

Whether it's the buying that thing, you know, if you're if you're just kind of obsessed about the new the new gadget in your particular area of tech.

The new thing, you think, I have to have that.

You obsess over it.

Do loads of read loads of reviews, do loads of research, because you've got this thing.

Your heart is kind of captured.

Every night you're kind of looking at, okay, well, which one it uh this kind of happens in the season when when we need to change our car, honestly, it's like six months of me looking on like car zone and reading reviews of cars and things like that.

Think, okay, this this one, this one is gonna be the one that's gonna you know get us to from A to B better than anyone else.

Our hearts get captivated by these things that ultimately don't satisfy, whether it's sex, a relationship, buying that thing that makes us happy, deriving our achievement uh or our identity from our achievement, our success, only to feel left empty again.

Have you ever really pursued anything in in say in an arena of competition and you've won?

You found yourself on the podium, or you've graduated, right?

You've worked so hard to get in your dissertation, to sit your final exams, to work that project with the rest of the team who aren't pulling their weight as much as you do, right?

And you get finally to that graduation day, and you reach that kind of high point, and then the next day comes, you're like, oh, what does that all mean now?

It ultimately doesn't satisfy in the way that we hoped it would.

Is it wrong to have those desires?

Is it wrong to desire connection, success, intimacy, significance?

No.

But when we dine at Folly's table, we're dining on candy floss, hoping that it will fill us instead of the banquet that Jesus offers us.

He knows our desires.

He says, Come and eat from the feast that I have prepared.

Let me give you an identity that no circumstance, no suffering can take away from you.

Come and dine at my table, where I've already given you, adopted you as a son, a daughter.

That can never be taken away.

Where you're already loved, no matter of what you have done in the past or will do in the future.

Dine at my table.

Have your soul nourished, have your soul satisfied by me.

The call, uh the call is uh is slightly different.

How does the call happen?

Well, in verse 3 we read that uh the wisdom has sent out her young women from the highest places, and says, Whoever is simple, let them turn in here.

To him who lacks sense, she says, Come and eat of my bread.

Lady Folly, her call, she sits at the door of her house.

She takes her seat at the highest places of the town, and verse 15, she calls.

She just she just yells to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, and says, Whoever's simple, let them turn in here.

Wisdom has messengers, she has young women that she that she sends out.

Have you noticed that in your life that you've reached various decision points or circumstances where actually, as you've thought about things, maybe as you've lain in your bed at night, you've thought, hold on.

I need to think about this.

Maybe actually I'm going the maybe I'm going the wrong way.

You've said things to yourself that you wouldn't admit to other people, but you've thought, hold on, is this the right is this the right course of action?

Is this the right decision?

What's happening?

But wisdom's messengers are coming to you in those circumstances.

Wisdom's messengers are whispering to you at those forks in the road, or at those moments of regret.

When you regret a decision, that's when wisdom's messengers are coming and they're speaking to you, and they're speaking to you perhaps in in gentle tones.

Those voices that you only hear when everything else is shut off and you lie quietly on your own.

And your own conscience begins to speak.

I say, don't ignore wisdom's messengers.

What right now is calling you to wisdom?

Is it the regret of some recent sin?

Or is it the fact that you're here this morning and we're talking about these things?

Folly, by contrast, she needs little help.

She's loud, she's brash, she's basic.

Her voice often drowns out wisdom's messengers.

Our desires take over, don't they?

What we want often drowns out those more subtle voices.

Tells us to love success, beauty, influence.

And all of those voices speak way louder than the subtle messengers of wisdom.

But who do but what is it that they say?

What do they call?

Well, they say the same thing.

Did you notice that?

Whoever is simple, let him turn in here, verse 4.

Verse 16, whoever is simple, let him turn in here.

All of us are simple.

Simple in the book of Proverbs means uninitiated, a little bit gullible, a little bit easily led.

And the point there is that they're these voices are speaking to all of us.

That they come to us with the same sort of call.

Both God and the idols that would replace God, they offer the same thing.

Do you ever notice that?

Come here and live, come and be satisfied.

There's a, I didn't put this in my notes, so let's see if I can remember it.

There's a um there's a story in the in the book of Isaiah.

So after about Isaiah um 30 or so, um, you get into a narrative section that talks about basically the fall of uh of Jerusalem or the siege of Jerusalem that happens under King Hezekiah.

And what happens there is that the uh the king of Assyria sends a messenger to uh to the king of Israel, to Hezekiah, and says, Well, if you if you bow the knee to me, if you come and uh and submit to me, I promise that I will, and here's the important bit, I will cause it so that every man and woman will sit and dwell in secure in security under their own vine.

Why does that matter?

Well, that's exactly what God said back in Deuteronomy.

God said, actually, if you follow me, if you listen to my words, if you follow my commandments, you'll all dwell securely under your own vine.

That is the gracious shade of God's provision.

And here's this foreign king, and what does he offer?

Does he offer something different?

No, he offers the same thing.

And so it is with the idols in our life, with the false gods.

They offer us the same thing.

Do this and you will be satisfied.

Do this and you will have an identity.

Do this and you will feel intimacy, connection, control, success, comfort.

These are all things that are offered by the one true living God.

The only difference is that the idols promise much and deliver little.

They promise life but deliver death.

Jeremiah has the this illustration in Jeremiah chapter 2 where he talks about how everybody is thirsty.

Jeremiah 2 · chapter mention

That's why we're singing, we're talking about, you know, come, come you who are thirsty, come you who are weary.

You know what Jeremiah says?

Jeremiah says, we're all thirsty, we're all looking for a drink.

And we've all turned from this huge fountain of living water, and we've turned to cisterns, cracked pots that can hold no water, and we're licking the mildew, hoping to find a drink, hoping that it will satisfy us.

That's what our hearts are.

Our hearts go.

If I only lick the mildew a little bit more, if I only pursue this thing a little bit more, maybe then it will satisfy me.

And Jeremiah and Lady Wisdom and Isaiah and I want to tap you on the shoulder and go, have you seen the font of living water that's there?

Drink from him.

It's not that your desires are bad, it's that you're looking for them satisfied in the wrong places.

You're dining on candy floss rather than the slaughtered banquet that God offers.

They both say, Turn in here.

What does it mean to turn in here to Lady Wisdom's table?

Well, that's repentance, folks.

That's turning from the way that you're going and deciding to follow Jesus.

It's the wisest and best decision you will ever make.

From there, things will only get better.

Not easier.

But better.

To sit at the folly or the table of folly is to go deeper into your sin and rejection of God.

And from there things can only get worse, even if for a little while they seem easier.

Then the result is contrasted for us in verses in verse 6 and verse 18.

Leave your simple ways, wisdom says, and live.

Walk in the way of insight.

Verse 18.

He does not know that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of Sheol, the grave.

To dine at wisdom's table is life, because to turn to the God who is life in himself, who is the source of life, we cannot help but live.

Cannot help but become more alive at that table.

But to dine with folly, to turn from the God who is life, and to choose death, he does not know that the dead are there.

It's like a horror movie, right?

Just imagine in your mind's eye.

If you don't like horror movies, you can tune out for a second, right?

The room's dimly lit.

He's ushered in by this beautiful woman, and the other guests they're silent at the table, and she sits down with him, and as they eat, the awful reality begins to dawn that the guests are not silent because they're eating.

Silent because they're dead.

And in the distance he hears a door close behind him.

So it is with our sin and folly.

We don't know that the bait contains a hook until we've chewed down on it, until we're on the line.

And wisdom's plea, don't bite down.

Don't dine at that table.

Come and dine with wisdom.

Because where you eat, where you eat will be seen in your life.

This is our our second point.

We've only got only got two points this morning.

The second point is this you are where you eat.

Not you are what you eat, you are where you eat.

And here now we're focusing a little bit more into this, into this middle section.

And they seem like a strange uh insertion into this contrast of these two tables, but I think they're here in the middle in order to draw our attention like the point of an arrow to the center of the passage.

And what these verses show are some real-world outworkings of whether it is you're dining with wisdom or dining with folly.

The point being that the table that you choose will be reflected in how you live.

And there are a couple of ways that that's seen.

The first is well, how you respond to criticism.

How you respond when somebody corrects you, comes and offers you a piece of advice that would mean a change in your life, or they've noticed something that isn't particularly healthy or uh or godly or good for you, or good for others around you.

And so they have a conversation.

The conversation is not particularly easy, it's never fun, it's always kind of hurtful in the moment.

But when the emotions have calmed, how do you respond?

Do you respond in humility or in hatred?

Do you just carry this kind of bitter knot in your stomach with the person who has had that conversation with you?

Same with teachability.

Are you willing to learn?

When was the last time you changed your mind?

Or admitted that you were wrong?

If the answer is never, then you're dining with folly.

And that's going to be seen more and more by the people around you.

It's stunting your growth.

As a person, as a follower of Jesus.

Where you're dining will also be shown in not just how you receive counsel, but who you actually give counsel to.

It takes wisdom to know whether or not a person will value your words or whether they won't.

It's foolishness, actually, to be like a dog with a bone and just this person is wrong and they will be corrected.

Like you're on an internet forum or Facebook comments, like I will, tonight, I will win the internet.

And to chew down on every small detail and every small mistake, offering your insight to people who have no interest in receiving it.

Do not cast your pearls before swine.

Dine at wisdom's table.

Wisdom knows who to speak to.

Speaks to those who want to learn, speaks to those who want to grow in wisdom.

Those who are committed to folly.

Let them go their way.

And in the end, whatever table you choose, you will come face to face with it.

Not only will other people begin to perceive it in your life, but you'll know it deep down in your bones.

It's a very interesting little verse in verse 12.

If you are wise, you are wise for yourself.

If you scoff, you alone will bear it.

What does that mean?

You would expect it to say something like, if you are wise, that is for the good of others.

If you scoff, you alone will bear it.

Or it could be the opposite.

If you're wise, you're wise for yourself.

If you scoff, it will be seen by everyone.

No, it's both are you will know what table you're dining at.

You will know in ways that you don't want to admit what kind of person you are becoming.

In the end, you will come face to face with yourself for good or ill.

I think of kind of two um two older illustrations.

It's like the end of uh the uh the uh the picture of Dorian Gray, uh the Oscar Wilde play, where Dorian Gray sells his soul to the devil, and the devil, Mephistopheles, paints a painting of him, and uh Dorian Grey continues on in great success uh and and and length of life, and in the end, he goes into the attic to see the painting that Mephistopheles had painted and sees that it is a wizard and haggard and wicked-looking old man comes to face to face with his true self.

Or if you're a child of the 80s like me, and you're still working through the trauma of the never-ending story, you have the uh you have the myrrh, the scene of the myrrh there, and and Atreyu is warned that men have run away screaming because they cannot bear what they see in the mirrors, because they come face to face with their true selves.

That's what happens eventually in your life.

We can have a support group, never-ending support group, like when when Artex, the horse, died in the swamps of sadness.

I still need to talk to somebody about that, right?

But for now, you will come face to face with yourself.

These tables shape our character.

And when all is said and done, you will have to live with that.

Here's the thing about character: you cannot borrow somebody else's.

You cannot borrow somebody else's good character.

Nor can you lend your godliness and good character to someone else who you love.

You cannot escape yourself, at least not by yourself.

And this is why at the very center of this passage is verse 10.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

If you're like, I don't, I'm not sure that I particularly like the person that I'm becoming.

How do I change?

Well, you come and dine at the table of the king.

You come to the Holy One.

The only hope for real change, real life transformation, renewed hope and help for the future comes from him.

Wisdom's invitation is to dine at the table of the king.

That is why it sits at the center of this passage, like the very tip of that arrowhead.

Two tables, two effects on our life, one plea, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is how you turn aside and dine at wisdom's table.

Everything changes when you come and dine at the table of the king.

Who does he want at his table?

He wants you.

He wants us.

Simple, foolish, regretful, ashamed, tired, weary.

Why does he want you there?

Because he is full of love.

He is full of grace.

He is full of compassion.

He is tender in heart, and he longs to satisfy your soul.

How do you get to that table?

How do you get to dine with the king?

By faith.

It's that simple.

You trust him.

You receive him.

This week we remember that he took bread and gave it to his disciples, saying, This is my body broken for you, as it would be on that cross.

He lifted up the cup and said, This is my blood shed for you, that your sin might be forgiven, that your shame might be taken, that you might be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

His life nourishes our soul and satisfies our hearts.

Maybe you've been a follower of Jesus for years and you haven't you haven't dined with him in a while.

I want to leave you with a story from the Gospels.

You remember the disciples?

Remember the disciples after the crucifixion.

In the depth of their sadness, their weariness, their disillusionment.

Peter gets up one day and he says, I'm going fishing.

So we'll go we'll go we'll go with you.

And they head out and they fish all night.

As dawn is breaking, they're rowing back in towards the shore, the sun is just beginning to peak over the Galilee, and a smell comes to their nostrils.

It's a wood fire.

There's fish roasting on it.

And there he was crucified, glorified.

Preparing a meal for them with nail pierced hands.

Preparing a meal for his friends.

Turn aside tired and weary Christian.

Turn aside disillusioned disciple.

Rest a while.

Come sit and eat.

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