In John Owen’s well-known book The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, he writes a prefatory note to the reader. And though this book was written in the middle of the 1600s, a prefatory note is not uncommon in books we find in bookstores in 2011. Often the author is trying to do anything he can do to get the reader to choose his or her book over the one sitting next to it on the shelf. So, there’ll be a preface in which the author tells the reader why this book is so important, why the content of the book must be known, etc. But although prefaces were in books when Owen wrote and are in books today, Owen’s preface is of a much different nature.
Owen begins with these sentences: “Reader, If thou intendest to go any farther, I would entreat thee to stay here a little. If thou art, as many in this pretending age, a sign or title gazer, and comest into books as Cato in to the theatre, to go out again,—thou hast had they entertainment; farewell!”1
Now, just in case the older English hindered you from getting what Owen was saying, here’s what he was telling the reader: “If you’ve picked up this book just because you were intrigued by the title and thought, ‘Hmm, this looks like it could be entertaining,’ and you’re the kind of person who won’t invest in carefully reading this whole book, then you’ve had your fun, put the book down and walk away!” So, although prefaces are still common in today’s publishing world as well, I don’t know many publishers who would allow their author to a potential buyer to put the book down if he or she isn’t serious about reading the entire book carefully – especially with the economy as it is.
I’ve thought for a while about how funny that note is by Owen, but I was reminded of it this week because it seems that Solomon is writing something very similar in Proverbs 9. You see, Proverbs 1-9 is an introduction to the entire book. We noted the first week that we began our study through this book that it is from the brief, to-the-point snippets of wisdom sayings that fill chapters 10-31 that the book gets its name. The things that we typically think of as “proverbs” are found in those chapters. So what does Solomon do in this final chapter before he begins this long section of wise sayings? He says, in essence, the same thing that Owen says in his preface.
In Proverbs 9, Solomon is saying something like, “Reader, if you intend to go any farther, I would entreat you to stop here for a bit. If you’re going to go on and read chapters 10-31 just as information with no commitment to obey it, then it will actually have a negative effect on you. As you hear this Word with a heart set against it, your heart will be further hardened. So stop here for a second and choose whether you’re going to commit to walking down the path of wisdom or whether you’re going to walk down the path of folly.”
So, that is how we come to Proverbs 9. We stand before this chapter this morning with a choice to make. And that choice will determine whether we are ready to move into the rest of the book and hear what it has to say. The choice is between wisdom and folly. Will we chose to walk on the path of the wise or the path of fools? And the choices ultimately could not be more different. In fact, note the very first proverb after chapters 1-9: “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother” (Proverbs 10:1). Which will we be? We must choose. That’s the main point of this final chapter of Solomon’s introduction to the Proverbs. But let’s look a bit more closely this morning to see the details of what he’s saying.
First, we see in verses 1-6 and in verses 13-18 that . . .
If you read through the chapter, you’ll notice that the lady wisdom calling out to all who would hear and follow her in chapter 8 appears again in the first six verses of chapter 9. And she’s calling out for us to hear and follow her again. But there’s also another woman here. The last six verses of chapter 9 presents to us woman folly, and she is calling out as well. We are called to decide then, which woman we will go after – wisdom or folly.
So, let’s note a few things about wisdom and folly according to these verses:
First, we see that wisdom and folly are both readily available to us.
I’ve mentioned this a few times over the first eight chapters of Proverbs, but it’s apparent here again that wisdom is not pictured as something that is unattainable. Woman, personified as a woman in these chapters, presents herself as someone who invites us, calls us, and pleads with us to come and embrace her. This is why I’ve said that it would seem one of greatest acts of foolishness to claim that we desperately want and long for wisdom and then neglect the reading and preaching of the Word of God – for it is here that God has given us wisdom. We’ve noted that it is foolish to say we long for wisdom and never ask God for wisdom in prayer because God’s Word tells us that he is ready to give wisdom to anyone who asks and does so generously and with great delight. But we see in these verses that foolishness or folly (or we might say, rebellion against God’s wisdom and ways is also readily available to us).
Listen to wisdom present herself to those who are simple-minded, that is, who haven’t decided which path they’ll choose. She invites them to come into her house and dine with her. We read: “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 the town, ‘Whoever is simple, let him 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’” (vv. 1-6).
Wisdom has prepared a feast. She has gotten an exquisite meal together in her house with meat and wine – so this is a nice and celebrative dinner. And she’s sent ladies out to call to those passing by to call from the highest places and tell them to come in, eat the bread, drink the wine, and enjoy.
But there is someone else who is calling for us to come and dine with her as well. We read in vv. 13-18: “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 him 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, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”
Just as each of these ladies call to those passing by, so we are to see that wisdom and folly are each readily available to us. The Lord has given us his Word with its wisdom, knowledge, commands, and benefits, but sin is always crouching at our door as well. This is why we must never let our guard down but constantly be fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness.
Second, wisdom and folly (or obedience and sin) both can be appealing.
Note how appealing woman’s wisdom setting is. She has nice meat, bread, and wine. What kind of person would not find that an appealing meal? The point of the text is that we all would. We know that wisdom holds appeal to us, doesn’t it? The idea of being a wise and godly old man is tremendously appealing to me. The benefits of walking in wisdom in this life are immense. What kind of person would not want his children or the next generation saying, “That is a man who loves the Lord, obeys the Lord, and is full of wisdom. And what’s more, he’s done that consistently in life”? Of course, we all want that. Wisdom has its appeal.
But so does folly, doesn’t it? The appeal is different, but it is there, isn’t it? She doesn’t say to us that she’s mixed her own wine, prepared her own meat, and baked her own bread like woman wisdom. Rather, she has stolen hers. So, she tells us that stolen water is sweet and bread that you have to eat in secret is fun. And indeed, sin has its passing pleasure. Again, to pretend that sin doesn’t hold an appeal to us is to deceive ourselves and leave us thinking that we do not need to fight and fight consistently to pursue righteous and run from sin.
And, third, we see that there is no neutral ground between wisdom and folly.
Neither one of these ladies wants you to sample a bit of food from their and the other’s table. Wisdom says to us, “Leave your simple ways” (v. 6). She wants us to abandon any pursuit of anything other than the Lord’s wisdom and ways. Similarly, woman folly wants us to turn and come into her house. The message is that we must choose. There’s no middle road here. There’s no neutrality. Right now, if you’re not actively pursuing obedience, righteousness, and wisdom, then you are walking toward the path of foolishness, disobedience, and sin. You don’t just drift into obedience. You must aggressively turn and move in that direction. So, we see in these verses that we must choose between wisdom and folly – between obedience and disobedience, between righteousness and unrighteousness.
So, perhaps it will do us good just to stop for a second and examine our own lives. Which road are we walking down? Are we actively pursuing God’s wisdom in his Word and obedience to that Word? Are we right now pursuing sin, thinking it will not destroy us? Or are we merely drifting through life, filling and minds, hearts, and lives with somewhat of a contentedness with something less than an all-out pursuit of holiness. Solomon tells us that we must choose?
But Solomon also tells us something else important. You see, one thing that we want to do is not simply say this morning, “I’m going to turn from this sin, repent, delight in the gospel, and walk in righteousness.” Now, of course, we want to do that. But we want to do more than that, don’t we? After all, how many people have made a decision in an instant only to later show that they failed to walk consistently in obedience? And that’s what we want, isn’t it? No one says of a man who lives a decently moral life and then murders another man on his eightieth birthday, “Wow, I’m so glad that the first seventy-nine years of his life were lived so well.” No. Consistent obedience is what we want, isn’t it? Walking in life-long wisdom is what we want. So, Solomon helps us in verses 7-10, showing us that . . .
You see, Solomon is telling his sons in these verses what kind of men they need to be if they’re going to be the kind of person who will continually walk on the road of wisdom. And the first thing he mentions is that . . .
We must be humble, teachable, and open to correction.
Solomon tells his sons in vv. 7-9 that the path of wisdom is taken by those who are humble, teachable, and open to correction. We read in these verses, “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. [It doesn’t pay to try to correct or reprove a scoffer. So, Solomon continues . . .] 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.”
Now, I know, we probably all would love to hear the secret to making sure we never stumble and sin and do stupid stuff throughout life. What can we do to make sure we always think and act in perfect wisdom? Well, the answer is basically that we need to realize that we aren’t able to walk in perfect wisdom. We are prone to sin in numerous ways. But, the good news is that we are called to walk down the path with other believers. The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone.
But if you’re going to profit from having others walk through life with you who can see sometimes more clearly and farther down the path than you, then you need to be humble, teachable, and open to correction. Simply put, there are going to be times when we are not thinking rightly. There are going to be times when we’ve deceived ourselves and hardened our hearts. There are going to be times when we’re just ignorant. And the Lord has accounted for that both by giving us his Word and by giving us others who can instruct us, encourage us, and rebuke us.
But again, if we’re going to benefit from those whom the Lord has given us in life to continue to walk down the path of wisdom, obedience, and righteousness, we need to be humble, teachable, and open to rebuke. Do you see the idea here? If you’re humble, teachable, and open to rebuke, then even if you’re ignorant of something or have done something foolish, you can be taught and corrected so that you continue down the path. But, if we are prideful, unteachable, and not willing to be corrected by someone, then we have nothing that will turn us back when we wander off the path of wisdom.
Now, let me say two things in light of this: 1) this truth has been borne out again and again in the history of the world. There have been times that all or some of the pastors have met with someone and left that time with them grieved. But we were grieved not necessarily because they were involved in some obvious and grotesque sin but because they just didn’t seem to be humble, teachable, and open to rebuke. And on those occasions, my heart has broken to hear one of my brothers rightly say, “I’m worried that there’s nothing to keep him from destroying himself” – because of pride and an unwillingness to be taught or corrected. Indeed, this is an area where each of us can set ourselves up for destruction.
And, 2) humbling ourselves so that we are teachable and open to rebuke and correction is hard. No one I know of gets excited to hear they’re wrong or that they need to do something differently. No one goes to the dentist just hoping against hope that he’ll tell them they need to floss more. No one does a job hoping that those over him will tell him he could have and should have done something better. Needing to be taught and rebuked and corrected is hard. And furthermore, some people who teach and rebuke us are wrong. It doesn’t mean that everyone who rebukes us is right. I had a friend who was pastoring a church and the deacons rebuked him for preaching a section of the Bible that they didn’t think was helpful for them to hear. Now, obviously that rebuke needs to be answered with the reminder to those men that All Scripture is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
So, not only does being corrected or rebuked not feel good but sometimes it’s flat wrong. Yet, we would be fools to let those realities lead us to shut our ears from hearing rebuke because if we’re not willing to be corrected by others, then we’re like the man who says, “I can do this alone.” And the reality is that we can’t live the Christian life alone. We’re not designed to live it alone. We’re designed to benefit from the community of believers that the Lord has put in the church. So, let us pray that the Lord will humble us, make us teachable, and make us open to rebuke and correction.
And as those who at times will need to instruct and correct others, let’s always make sure we do that with grace and gentleness, knowing that there will very well come a day when we will soon need instruction and correction ourselves. And one more thing (last one on this note, I promise) – try to spend more time encouraging and building up then you do rebuking. And since we know rebuke will sometimes be needed, then we need to make sure that we’re spending a lot of time in encouraging and building up others – and delighting in doing it.
We must be people who submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 9:10 brings us full circle. The book begins by telling us in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” and here we are told, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” The greatest key to walking consistently on the path of wisdom is found in having a heart that regards our Lord as who is he – the Lord! If you do not first repent and place your faith in the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope, then you have no hope is walking consistently along the path of wisdom. That’s required even to start walking on that path.
As we place our faith in Christ, he takes hold of us, and you can see his preserving grace in your life again and again. And each day – whether we have sinned egregiously and felt like we’re done quite well – we are in desperate need of remembering the gospel and by faith knowing that we are justified, forgiven, and given grace for obedience because Christ lived, died, and was raised for us. We must be that kind of person to walk in wisdom.
And finally, this final chapter of the introduction to Proverbs reminds us that . . .
We’ve noted this a few times throughout these few weeks, but the choice of submitting ourselves to the wisdom of God’s Word and living according to that or of turning our back on God’s wisdom and walking according to our own desires, is not a small matter. Rather, our choice will have eternal consequences. Woman wisdom says in verse 6, “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” Again, in verse 11, “For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.”
Now, we could say that this is talking about just living a longer life on earth, not eternity. But throughout the rest of the Bible we see that the blessing of life in the Old Covenant is ultimately shown to be a type, a shadow, of the true reality of having eternal life. So that when the Israelites are not allowed to enter the land in Numbers 13-14, we are told in Hebrews 3-4 that they will not enter God’s eternal rest for those who believe. Their denial of having life in the land was showing that they would not have eternal life. Similarly, then, the blessing of life in Proverbs is pointing us to the reality of eternal life.
So, in light of that, listen to what the text says of the one who does not fear the Lord, who does not follow the Lord’s wisdom. First, in verse 12, “If you are wise, you are wise for yourself [that is, you benefit yourself, but] if you scoff, you alone will bear it.” And in verse 18 we read that the one who goes into the house of woman folly is a man who is ignorantly walking to his death. “But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”
So, let us ask ourselves this morning, will we in faith submit ourselves to the Word and wisdom of God, or do we want to turn from God’s wisdom and words and walk according to our own desires? Both paths are available. Both paths can be appealing. But one promises life and the other death. Let us, then, be those who by faith proclaim our trust in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ this morning, pray for humility, that we would be teachable, and that we would be open to rebuke. And let us submit ourselves to the wisdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and his Word this morning. May that be our visible proclamation as we come to the table this morning. Amen.