Listening to the Right Voice

Let’s begin this morning by reading Proverbs 9:13-18:

A foolish woman is clamorous;
She is simple, and knows nothing.  14 For she sits at the door of her house,
On a seat by the highest places of the city, 15 To call to those who pass by,
Who go straight on their way: 16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here”;
And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, 17 “Stolen water is sweet,
And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”  18 But he does not know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of hell.

When we first began to look at Proverbs 9 I pointed out that this proverb is a contrast between the way of wisdom and the way of folly.  Verse 16 above is identical to verse 4 of Proverbs 9  Both wisdom and folly are vying for our attention.  Both of them are crying out to gain followers.  But notice the difference in what wisdom and follow “have to say”.  In verse 17, folly says that stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.  In verse 5 wisdom says, “Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.”  Folly calls her followers to sin and wisdom calls her followers to eat of what wisdom offers.  Folly doesn’t really offer anything except what she has stolen.

There is a principle here in this proverb.  Folly, representing sin, can not do anything on her own.  She can only steal what has been made or counterfeit what God has made.  Sin doesn’t have any “original thoughts”.  Sin just takes what God has given and perverts it, twists it, into something evil.  Yet, verse 18 reminds us that there is a price to pay for sin.  Sin always promises more than it can deliver.

Let’s all be care to listen to the voice of wisdom and not folly.  Folly will always lead us to destruction.

In wisdom,
Eric