Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Two Ladies, Two Houses | The Writings | Proverbs 9

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Is wisdom the same thing as being smart? Who are Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly? Where is Lady Wisdom's house? In today's episode, Keith shares how Proverbs 9 presents us with a choice between the path of life and the path of death. Which will you choose? Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Proverbs 9

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. We're in the book of Proverbs on TMBT, and today we're going to look at Proverbs chapter 9. Proverbs is part of what is called the Wisdom Literature in the Bible. Other wisdom books include Job, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Before we dive into Proverbs 9, let's remind ourselves that being wise isn't the same thing as being smart. You might have done well on the college interest exams. You might have graduated the 4.0 from an Ivy League college and still be a fool.

And conversely, you might have never finished high school, much less gone to college. You might be intellectually mediocre. You might even have a learning disability and you can be wise. Because wisdom isn't measured by degrees or grade point average. It's not the same as knowledge. Wisdom is how you live your life. It's skilled, godly living. You can get knowledge from Google.

but you can't get wisdom there. Proverbs says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. It's impossible to be truly wise and reject God. God is the fountain of wisdom. Deuteronomy 4 says that wisdom is keeping God's laws and commands. The book of Proverbs gets its name from the short Pithy Proverbs that comprise chapters 10 to 31, but the first nine chapters lay out two paths available to every person. There is the path of wisdom and the path of folly or foolishness. In the first nine chapters, we see the value and the benefits of wisdom. Wisdom brings you wealth and prosperity, security, well-being, contentment,

along life, and good relationships with God and people. The paths of wisdom and folly are metaphors for our life. Everyone is on one of these paths, and we constantly encounter forks in the road that force us to choose, whether we will follow the path of wisdom or the path of folly. Ultimately, one path leads to life and the other leads to death. Okay, on to Proverbs 9, where we hear from Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly. They both call out to us, but their messages are very different.

Let's start with verse 1. Wisdom has built her house. She has set up at seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine. She has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city. Let all who are simple come to my house. To those who have no sense, she says, come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.

leave your simple ways and you will live walk in the way of insight so here lady wisdom is inviting people who need to learn and grow to come into her house and dine with her so that they can become wise verse 10 says the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the holy one is understanding for through wisdom your days will be many and years will be added to your life if you are wise your wisdom will reward you if you're a mocker you alone will suffer the spotlight shifts from Lady Wisdom to Lady Folly. Listen for the similarities and differences between the two. Verse 13. Folly is an unruly woman. She is simple and knows nothing. She sits the door of her house on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by,

who go straight on their way. Let all who are simple come to my house to those who have no sense. She says, stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is delicious. But little little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead. Both Lady Folly and Lady Wisdom desire a relationship with us. They both invite us to come in with them and enjoy a meal. Wisdom's meal is a sumptuous banquet in her magnificent house. Folly has a more insidious meal in mind. She calls out to her listeners and says stolen water is refreshing, food eaten in secret tastes the best. See these passages, are developing a metaphor. In the ancient near-eastern culture, to eat with someone is to form an

intimate relationship with that person, so these women want a relationship with you, because it's not possible to be united to both of them. They compete for attention. With which woman will you dine? Lady Wisdom or Lady Folly? These verses, of course, are not describing literally a woman of wisdom and a woman of folly. These women stand for something else. And the key to the key to understanding what they represent is found in the location of their houses. So let's begin with Lady Wisdom. Remember, her house is located in the heights overlooking the city. We need to transport ourselves back into the world of the original text. And when we do so, we discover that the building on the high point of the city is the temple. This was true throughout the ancient Near East.

In every nation, the temples were always put at the highest point in the city. Some nations who lived on flatland even built ziggurots or stepped pyramids, which were nothing more than human-made mountains where the gods were said to dwell. In Israel, God appeared on Mount Sinai and gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, and he instructed his people to build his earthly home, the temple on Mount Zion. The location of Lady Wisdom's house makes it clear that she represents God. She is a poetic personification of God's wisdom. So the figure of woman wisdom fits in with a long list of other metaphors for God's relationship with his people. God is said to be our warrior, our shepherd, our father, our spouse, our king. These metaphors point to varied aspects of God's character.

We can't reduce God to a warrior or God to a king or God to a shepherd or God to a father or God to Lady Wisdom. These are just different manifestations of who God is for his people. Lady Folly also has her house on the highest point of the city. When she calls to people walking by, she is sitting in the doorway on the heights overlooking the city. She also represents something other than herself. Lady Folly represents the idols, the false gods and goddesses that tempted Israel away from Yahweh. So where do these two paths lead? Proverbs 1 through 9 culminates with a choice that each one of us must make.

Who will we dine with? Will it be Lady Wisdom or Lady Folly? Proverbs makes it clear that this choice is a matter of life or death. It says that those who go in to eat with Lady Folly, well, they go there because her meal is enticing and inviting, but her guests are in the grave. False gods always promise life, but they only deliver death. On the other hand, to dine with Lady Wisdom brings life. The father tells his son that a relationship with wisdom brings great rewards. She offers you, long life and riches. She will guide you down delightful paths. All her ways are satisfying. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her. Happier those who hold tightly to her.

You and I, we're at a crossroads. We have to choose who we will build a relationship with. Will it be Lady Wisdom or Lady Folly? If we embrace Lady Wisdom, that means that we admit our need for God. It means that we worship the one true God. and we obey his commands that we know that his word brings life. If we listen to Lady Folly, it will mean that we were enticed by the fleeting pleasures of sin. We live for the temporal, not the eternal. We live for herself, not for God. Who will you choose today? Let's pray and ask God for grace to choose wisdom.