Seek wisdom, avoid injury, and obtain life and favour from the Lord

Our passages today: Mat 4:1-11 & Proverbs 9, Preacher Mark Harrison, Sunday 25th May 2024

Introduction

Are you wise? Have you ever really thought about it? Wisdom is something that’s still quietly celebrated even in our culture today. We want to listen to wise people who know the answer and can help us succeed. But what does it mean to be wise? How can one become wise?

To explore this we’re continuing our series in Proverbs: a fascinating and somewhat under-appreciated book in the Old Testament, that is really practical and relevant; it’s where the rubber of faith hits the road of real life, helping us deal with tricky situations where there’s no clear answers. I’m Mark and one of the members here.

Recap

Last time, several months back, we looked at Proverbs 8. A personified woman: wisdom is crying out to everyone to listen and seek her. To the wise, the simple, and the fools opposed to God. She’s offering an “inheritance to those who love” her “better than Jewels and all you may desire”, “riches and honour” are with her. As Josh mentioned last week: who wouldn’t want riches and honour? So how do we get this?

Well, first we asked: what is wisdom? Our basic definition is that “Wisdom is knowledge in context”. And I return to the great illustrator Jez Tuya who once quoted: “Knowledge is that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad”

And then we asked who wisdom is, because there’s more going on than ‘knowledge in context’, if you look at C8 and v22-31: she’s as old as the Earth itself, she’s described as a “master workman” beside the Lord, there “before there beginning”. Think of the creation narrative and the beginning of John’s gospel – the language is so similar. And hence a lot of people have said Lady Wisdom is Jesus: after all the Bible says Jesus the “Word of God” present since the beginning.

But as we saw that doesn’t fully cover the message of Proverbs. Because Wisdom also stands as an attribute of God; something Christians should seek every day as part of their “walk with the Lord”  to obtain life and favour. Many of us are simple Christians without much wisdom; vulnerable to spiritual injury and even death.

Overview

And our passages today follows on from this:  illustrating the stark choice between wisdom and folly. Both offering a feast with a very different menu – Will you feast with Wisdom? Or risk Folly’s temptations?

Let’s look at our passage: helpfully divided into three sections for us in the ESV version:

1. Wisdom’s invitation v1-6
2. Wisdom’s feast v7-12
3. Folly’s invitation and feast v13-18

1. Wisdom’s invitation (v1-6)

We’ll start with v1: picture wisdom’s house that she’s built with with 7 pillars which she has “hewn” or made. It’s a grand house. Some have said the 7 pillars represent the 7 aspects of wisdom mentioned in proverbs: instruction, knowledge, understanding or insight, discretion, counsel, and reproof – all characteristics of wisdom. 7 generally symbolises perfection in the Bible, and I think that’s the main message here. This is the perfect Wisdom of God.    

She’s taken the time to prepare and done everything required for her perfect feast. Notice in v2 there’s a large amount of meat from freshly slaughtered animals, and wine that has been mixed.

This isn’t just popping down to the local supermarket and getting a kilo of mince: in the old times, slaughtering animals was a big occasion. Wisdom here has multiple animals; it’s a lavish feast. And wine will be served with the meat: so there’s alcohol too.

Alcohol in Christianity

Now Some of you may be thinking: is it wise to be having alcohol? A good number of Christians avoid alcohol because of the issues with drunkenness and sin, and there’s merit in this approach. The apostle Paul lists drunkenness as something to avoid in Gal 5:21. But there’s no rule against drinking alcohol in the Bible. For instance:  In addition to animal sacrifice, God accepts wine as a drink offering in Leviticus (23:13), Jesus turns water to wine in John 2 as his first recorded miracle, Paul advises Timothy to drink some in 1 Tim 5:23, the Kingdom of God is likened to a vineyard in Mat 20:1-16. And Pastor Ian has planted a vineyard…and their wine is very good too.

So how then can the Bible promote something that can lead to drunkenness and sin as a good thing that “gladdens the heart”? The answer’s right here our passage: moderation! Wisdom offers wine in moderation, and this is because she mixes it.

Moderation

Yes I know, mixing wine isn’t very common today – you wouldn’t tip a fine bottle of Pinot Noir into a dodgy Chardonnay. That’s not what we’re talking about! 

In ancient times people drank a lot of fermented drinks because they were safer than water, and the wine was very bitter and had a high alcohol content! You can see where this is going!

Mixing with fresh or seawater was both the cultured thing to do for taste, but also for moderation. Drinking still or undiluted wine was “barbaric” according to the Greeks. In the story of the Iliad, just three glasses of undiluted wine are enough to get the giant cyclops drunk – strong stuff. 

So this is a deliberate and thoughtful thing to do, a wise thing to do(!): she practices what she preaches. 

And this is a lesson for us – the wise way forward is often to reject the poor choices put before us and find another option. For instance, I was recently presented with an issue at work where a process was failing due to insufficient user permissions. I was presented with options to either grant full access to the users which would compromise security, or have the process run anonymously as admin but then we couldn’t tell who was doing what. The answer was neither of these: what we needed to do was copy the small piece of data needed into a place the user could access it. Going back to the root of the problem and what we were trying to resolve was key. We needed to mix or moderate the requirements and find a wise solution.

Wisdom’s call

In our passage, Wisdom has pre-empted the problems and put a lot of effort into the feast, and also into the invitation: she doesn’t want to dine alone. Her servants are in the town calling from the highest places where their message will have the most impact. She is actively out there seeking people.

Remember Proverbs 8:1: Wisdom herself was calling out from the highest places. Now she’s enlisted all her messengers to call to us as well!

In our passage v4-6:

Proverbs 9:4-6 ESV

“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, [5] “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. [6] Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

This is an ‘all hands on deck’ moment – Lady Wisdom is out there herself with all her messengers, pulling out all the stops to spread the word. If so much effort is going in: what is so important about this feast?

Why so much effort? (Nature of wisdom)

There are plenty of clues but let’s take a non-obvious detail: look at the description of her messengers as “young women” in the ESV. A random detail? Is anything in the Bible random? What does it tell us? “Young” gives us contrast with the ancient lady herself: she’s as old as creation. 

Being female is possibly a reflection of the culture for a noble lady at the time – there’s no impropriety. 

Fair enough, but have you wondered: why is wisdom female? We know that Male and Female represent a complementary relationship in the Bible. So Wisdom being female brings to mind the complementary relationship between God and His attributes, God and Creation, husband and wife, Christ and the Church. It is a “profound mystery” as Paul says (in Eph 5:32) as he makes the point that God is modelling human relationships on his own relationships; including that of the church being out there proclaiming that Christ has risen from the dead!

It’s a point made throughout the passage: Wisdom and God are intimately related so we should take notice, you can’t have saving faith without some wisdom, and wisdom could well save your faith. 

So this message is an important message from God: firstly the simple should come, that there’s great food and drink on offer. And if that wasn’t enough, we’re implored to “leave [our] simple ways and live”!

Look at v5:

Proverbs 9:5 ESV

“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Where else do we have bread and wine? In church: for communion. Why? And what does it remind us of? Well, Pastor Elimr stood here four weeks ago breaking bread and proclaiming God’s salvation through Jesus: his blood shed for us, his body broken: the penalty of our sins on Him. And why is this so important? Because without Jesus there is no forgiveness for Christian sinners, no relationship with God, only eternal death.

Why are we invited?

But why us? What have we done to deserve this invite? Nothing! Isa 64:6 says even “[our] righteous deeds are like [filthy rags]” to God. We don’t deserve it. This is love, pure love from God:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16

This free and open invite to salvation because God loves us is so unique to Christianity, so humbling and amazing: 

This is far far more than friend’s dinner party or a “Come Dine With Me” experience; this is a carefully prepared, life-saving experience for everyone!

So what are we waiting for?! Let’s see what wisdom has to offer.

2. Wisdom’s feast

V7-12: On the menu today we have four courses. Starting with a selection of entrees:

1. V7-8 Avoid sharing wisdom with fools
2. V8-9 The wise seek more Wisdom

Then the main course:

3. V10 Jesus is the foundation of godly wisdom (1 Cor 3:11)

And for dessert:

4. V11-12 Godly wisdom will keep you from harm (cf 8v35-36)

What a feast! Everyone ready? 

Let’s read from v7:

The wise seek more wisdom: personal seeking and taking feedback gracefully

Proverbs 9:7-9 ESV

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. [8] Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.[9] Give instruction[b] to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

v7-9: is offering both instruction and test for personal validation. Are you wise? Perhaps I’ll put it another way:

Do you love those who find fault with you, and graciously accept their feedback?

From your wife, or husband, your children, friends, or colleagues? Yes, it’s difficult.

None of us are perfect and we all need correction to improve. Whether that correction or feedback is constructive and given in love or not, even when it’s given in the heat of the moment with with the wrong motives – it’s still feedback and there’s still something to learn – we shouldn’t get offended and say: “oh I don’t need to listen to this” “ they did X which is much worse”, “they’re just being silly I know better” – do you? How much do we see this attitude around us? How many times do we think this ourselves?

Of course we have to be careful in how we interpret the feedback (and seek counsel from a wise elder if unsure), but the passage is saying we should give feedback and receive it gladly to encourage one another. Wisdom is starting with this point to set some really important ground rules: being teachable is at the heart of wisdom: A stubborn fool can’t become wise. So hence we should always be seeking to learn.

Giving feedback: we can’t change others

Unfortunately, while we have a choice to accept feedback ourselves, the passage notes that we can’t force others to do so.

V12:

Proverbs 9:12 ESV

If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

Because Wisdom is a personal choice. We can help guide others but it’s not guaranteed, and further: if you do try v7 gives a strong warning: trying to reprove a scoffer will result in abuse or injury.

I’ve seen this countless times and it’s really important to identify who you are dealing with and when. If someone doesn’t want to listen, there’s no point engaging and arguing: for people who have made up their mind: it doesn’t matter how good your reasoning is, some are even just trying to use what you say against you. It’s best to not engage, as best you can to avoid injury.

Did you notice wisdom’s public invitation in vv3-6: her message is to the wise and the simple, but not to the mockers and fools this time; because of what she’s about to share.

Be careful with the Gospel

You see: we need to be careful with wisdom and especially gospel wisdom

Jesus elaborates on this in Mat 7:6:

6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

It’s worth looking up the context of this verse: Jesus has just called believers to : “take the log out of your own eye before commenting on the spec in your brother’s eye”. And then V6 then goes further saying if that person is not a brother, then don’t even offer the pearl of wisdom. Because the foundation of wisdom, the gospel, is folly to unbelievers and they are liable to go on the offensive. 

To illustrate this i was reminded of a recent news article where a plane passenger was watching a raunchy adult film on a long-haul flight and received a note from another passenger saying: “You are a sinner. Repent and turn to Jesus”. Proverbs would suggest  this is not a wise way to approach a non-Christian. In the article the non-Christian was quote “appalled” by the note and carried on watching the film anyway. Owch! Perhaps a wiser approach would have been to appeal to their sensibilities: for instance if there’s a child able to see it, or just ignore it and block up the gap with an extra pillow! In order to share the gospel, maybe try getting to know the person first, is this ‘sin’ really the most important thing you can help them with?

Personally, I find 1 Cor 5:9-12 really helpful in dealing with these situations. Paul writes:

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

Paul’s key point is that we are to hold Christian “brothers” (and sisters) to a different standard than non Christians. Because a non-Christian’s primary sin is idolatry (not worshipping God alone) and the rest follows on from this.

They are missing a firm foundation: the belief in God and acknowledging Jesus as Lord. V10:

Proverbs 9:10 ESV

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

Yet last time we noted 1 Cor 2 v7:that this is “ secret and hidden” and (v14) not understandable as it is “spiritually discerned.” – it’s seems like “folly to [non Christian’s]”. So don’t be too hard. That’s not to encourage sin, but simply to be understanding. 

These passages are saying true wisdom is hidden and explicably linked to faith: we can’t reveal it, we can’t force someone else to come to faith or be wise.

But wisdom can be used to influence and impact others through our speech and conduct, and can be used by God to bring people to a saving faith – so don’t lose heart. 

Wisdom is from God: can a non-Christian be wise?

Because For believers, that saving faith in v10 is just the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom with many practical benefits that can help (V11):

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

Proverbs 9:11

Because wisdom helps us make wise choices, protects us from harm, and prevents injury as we looked at last time.

So given non Christian’s lack this foundational faith necessary for wisdom, can they be wise? Can a non Christian be wise? By definition: Yes. Wisdom is knowledge in context;  sure everyone has some context from their experience, but who provides the ultimate context? God. So it’s a transient worldly wisdom.

Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1:14 ESV

I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

It’s vanity because there’s no anchor, the worldly wise risk being, “simple children, tossed by the waves” according to Eph 4:14.

In Christ we have an anchor, which means Christian wisdom far surpasses worldly wisdom. Think about it:

1. Firstly it’s leads to eternal life, free from suffering and sin
2. It allows us to be wise beyond what our experience would allow
3. You can just ask for it: it’s a prayer away
4. It’s relational, we’re guided in wisdom by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us

It’s an amazing privilege for holding on and staying true to that anchor.

Throughout Proverbs we see this real tight coupling between fear of the Lord, wisdom, earthly benefit from making wise choices, and spiritual benefit helping us avoid sin, it’s really central to a strong and sustainable faith.

Application

But there’s a real trap here interpreting this passage that we need to be aware of. It’s easy to think that these charactures of the wise, the simple and the fool are labels for individuals we may meet: “Wise Christians” and “foolish non-Christian”, but this fails to grasp the deeper point that Wisdom is making.

Think about what we’ve looked at: Wisdom is a personal virtue, we are wise for ourselves: we know ourselves, but we don’t know for certain who are Christians and who aren’t, we don’t know their inner hearts like God does. Therefore, how can we label anyone else wise or a fool?

Because Wisdom is the foundation of our personal faith and she’s set us a challenge to continually seek her (8v34): you see: Wisdom’s intent is that we should be applying this passage a lot closer to home.

For instance: would you consider yourself wise all the time? I know I’m not. And I think of arguments and I see verse 7 in action – was I open to listening? Was the other person? No: injury was incurred, you can’t reason with a fool. Even two Christian fools who in that moment are opposed to God by failing to respond in love. 

And this is how proverbs operates: there’s a general observation and a specific application; we can think of the fools, the simple and the wise as three different stereotypes, that people outwardly display, but also within ourselves.

And this is why Jesus’s offer of salvation is renewed every morning (Lam 3:23), because we are all foolish sinners.

So hence the application of v7-9 is not so much who we’re dealing with, but what we’re dealing with; not everyone is wise or foolish all the time. Even “ a stopped clock is right twice a day”. We have to discern the situation and the interaction rather than the person themselves, and remember to take the log out of our eye before removing the spec from a brother.

Because Jesus came to save the foolish; by providing a foundation of wisdom so that we might know the truth: that we are imperfect and need his saving grace. This starts at home with ourselves.

His offer of salvation is for anyone to accept; same as wisdom’s feast. The simple can turn in, the fools can learn sense (8:5)

While, we can and should expect sin from other humans, (and note: it hurts!) Wisdom can help us deal with this. What we really need to focus on is our personal wisdom and walk with the Lord.  This is the challenge for each of you today: will you respond like the wise man in verse 8? Will you respond with love to those who reprove you?

Because even the wisest amongst us has more to learn.

So are you satisfied with Lady Wisdom’s feast? We’ve seen how: 

• Jesus Christ is the foundation of Wisdom and
• It’s personal and needs constantly renewing
• To keep us safe from harm 
• Yet we need to be careful with how we share it

Being simple by ignoring this message risks spiritual ‘injury’ and death. This is what the remainder of our passage warns us about.

3. Folly’s invitation and feast

As we now meet our alternative host for the evening, because there are two dining experiences in town! You have a choice, you don’t have to take Lady Wisdom’s offer. Madame Folly is happy to invite you in.

We’ve left this section to last because our passage has left it to last. We know enough about wisdom to see the alternative for what it really is:

Folly is “loud” and she “knows nothing” – this whole section is a striking contrast to v1-6. She is “Seductive”, this is the same caricature of folly in C7; as an adulterous woman. It’s Amsterdam at night: there are all sorts going on, and we shouldn’t miss the motive for this imagery. As Pastor Ian noted in our studies on the book of Romans: “sexual sin isn’t the worst sin, but often the first sin that appears in the absence of truth” as it’s a sin against ourselves. Sexual sin is used throughout Proverbs 1-9 as both a direct lesson, and also a metaphor for other sins: it invokes the emotions of temptation and entrapment – because this is what sin is like. It draws you in, just a little bit, and the path out of it gets harder and harder.

And Folly’s message seems to be effective, she has no servants; doesn’t need them. She doesn’t need to even leave her door. She’s done no preparation, and the meal on offer is very simple meal: bread and water. 

Bread was the basic staple at the time: it’s just enough to survive. And it’s stolen – it’s not even hers! She’s committed a crime and said, “come and join me in my crime”: so if you eat that bread knowing this, you are stealing too! And once a criminal, she can blackmail you, and it’s no wonder that v18 shows many never leave:

Pro 9:18

the dead[d] are there,

    that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

The exit is difficult, and many don’t make it. Lev 6:1-5 notes the exit requires admitting guilt and paying reparations for what’s been done. So many don’t make it.

And then…our passage ends abruptly. The author of Proverbs is showing us the abrupt end of this path: the finality of it. Folly’s feast is a trap!

But, come on! you may be thinking: Stolen bread vs fine meat? why would anyone go in? You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that one. But why is Folly’s message so effective? Why are there so many guests in v18?

And this is the trap: trivialisation of folly. Society tends to think that being foolish is lighthearted and something silly, like a clown outfit that’s amusing but can otherwise be ignored. Yet our passage teaches that it’s deadly serious and leads to death. 

That still doesn’t answer the question: How can someone who “knows nothing” be so effective with their invite?

There’s a couple of hints in this section that something more sinister is going on. Notice that:

1. Folly’s at the entrance to her house, but is also in the highest places
2. She’s managed to place herself in the middle of the paths
3. Her guests are in sheol, or the grave

That she “knows nothing”, but has managed to get a house or seat at the “highest point in the city” to somehow intercept people going straight on their ways, to invite them to a feast leading to the grave, hints at her identity as doorkeeper, an agent, even ‘attribute of’ the main opposition to God.

Discerning folly

And now our two true hosts for the evening are revealed: Lady Wisdom, an attribute of God, against who? in our NT example (in Mat 4:1-11) We see the master temper himself in the epic battle of wisdom against folly. And now we know who is pulling Folly’s strings, we can see just how dangerous a threat folly and her master are when Jesus was tempted in the desert. If he had failed, there would be no salvation for any of us.

Let’s take a brief look at what happened in Mat 4:

It’s Right at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry: he’s  led into the desert by the Holy Spirit: This is God’s plan to prepare him for ministry. He’s hungry, there’s physically not a lot to do, and His mission feels far removed.

Commentators reckon he had water, would have slept, and prayed a lot to prepare for ministry, but 40 days alone in the elements would have been a very testing time.

If any of you have watched the survival series “Alone” those that pass the 40 day point are the serious contenders for winning, and they’ve all kept themselves busy, and caught and eaten something to get there. But Jesus had no food at all.

Into this, the tempter arrives and he knows the weak points: Jesus “ was hungry”, and likely apprehensive about his mission (we know that he sweat blood prior to going to the cross for us), and the tempter offers shortcuts to meet his physical needs and avoid an agonising death on the cross.

This is where we need to be careful: it sounds logical, it sounds like “wisdom”, a bit of friendly advice to someone in a jam? But it’s not Godly wisdom! It’s twisted, like the words in Genesis 3 when the woman is tempted by the serpent in the garden to eat the forbidden fruit. “Did God really say you should not eat from any tree in the garden?”

He uses our physical desires like turning rocks to bread, love of money or desire for status

He uses things that we know are good twisting them, like the temple, sex, and positions of authority

And He even uses our faith taking scripture out of context “he will command his angels concerning you” – and how many false teachers have led people astray.

But note: Jesus resisted, he used scripture in context, and the tempter left him. We can also remember James 4:7: “Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you”. 

Now we’re not Jesus, so our temptations are unlikely to be on such a grand and vivid scale, with God’s plan for humanity on the line, but the personal battle is just as important for us: our salvation is at stake.

We need to take this warning against folly seriously – she is subtle and manipulative, because her master is clever and cunning. Godly Wisdom, Prayer and the Holy Spirit are needed to resist them.

Application

So to summarise, three points:

1. Like salvation, wisdom is personal

We can seek wisdom through prayer, scripture, good fellowship, and above all being teachable.

2. In that: we should help teach others, but be careful

Lest you suffer injury. Use the charactures as a guide, but also people’s responses. Are they responding well? Continue. Are they not? Then leave them and pray.

3. And be vigilant and resist folly

As Jesus did at his weakest moment, no matter how logical and appealing folly can be, we need to hold on to true wisdom. 

Conclusion

So today, whether you’re a Christian or not you’ve hopefully seen the wisdom present consistently throughout the Bible, throughout many different authors over thousands of years: Old Testament and New. A message of relationship, joy, and love from God who is calling out to you. This is Wisdom, and her call (v5): “leave your simple ways and live”.  

A lot to consider: there is a take home summary at the back and it will be available online for a time. Thank you for listening today. Let’s pray:

Closing prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for the time you have given us to come together and hear your word. We pray for those that don’t know you: that you will provide understanding of the truth behind the world we see; that all is created for your glory, and you love us such that you would die for us. 

We pray for Christians: that each of us would not be satisfied with the foundational spiritual milk alone, but crave solid food, wisdom, and a meaningful eternal relationship with you. Thank you for your great mercy, grace, and love for us. Amen