All of us have experienced an evening out on the town with friends and family and heard the question: “Where are we going to eat?” It can be a hard question to answer. Different people have different tastes. Who picked last time? How far away are the different restaurants? How busy are they? Who gets to make the selection? Because of the difficulties involved, the most common answer to the original question is usually something like, “I don’t care. You choose.”
In Proverbs 9, Solomon gives us the choice of two places to eat. When we look at the options, it is not like a night on the town. The best place to eat is easy to pick.
The two options are hosted by two ladies. One is called Wisdom. The other is called Folly.
In Prov 9:1-6, Wisdom sets out her banquet. It includes the choicest meats and the finest wine. She invites everyone to dine at her table. Those who partake will live and walk in the way of understanding (v 6). In Proverbs, this means a long life with the blessings that righteousness brings.
Solomon makes it clear that what one learns at the table provided by Wisdom is the Word of God. At that banquet, one learns the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of Him (v 10). That is what eating Wisdom’s food will bring.
But there is another table at which we can eat. Folly (the foolish woman) has also spread out a feast for us (9:13-18). A table is set in her house. But the food on her table is “stolen water” and “bread eaten in secret.” At first glance, who would choose water over fine wine? (OK, a teetotaler today would, but nobody in ancient Israel would have. That’s Solomon’s point.) And who would choose bread over choice meat? (OK, a vegetarian would, but nobody in ancient Israel would have. That’s Solomon’s point.)
Only a fool would eat at this foolish woman’s table. But many do. Perhaps the idea of stolen water and bread eaten in secret describes the allure of what is forbidden. In Proverbs, water might refer to illicit sexual activity and bread to getting rich quickly by employing criminal means (4:14-17; 5:15-18). The food offered certainly means living contrary to the wisdom found in God’s Word.
Whereas Wisdom is a banquet of life, Folly offers the opposite. Solomon says that the dead are in her house, in the depths of the grave. What a picture! They are eating a buffet in the grave. Imagine a bunch of corpses sitting around a table in a tomb, eating. The point is that everything the people at Folly’s banquet do will end in ruin.
It would be a mistake to say that those who eat in Wisdom’s house are believers while those who eat in Folly’s house are unbelievers. Solomon is talking to his son. He is telling him which path to walk on. It is a matter of lifestyle. He has a choice. One leads to blessings and life. The other leads to ruin and death.
The same is true for believers today. Believers already have eternal life. But will they have a deep experience of that life, or will they walk in death? A believer can live foolishly, according to the desires of his flesh, and reap death. Or he can live wisely in accordance with the teachings of the Lord through His Spirit. If he does, he will experience an abundance of the life he has in the Lord. That abundance will be seen in this life and the life to come (Rom 6:16-23; Gal 6:8) It all depends on whether he will feast upon the wisdom found in the Lord’s words (Heb 5:12-15; 1 Pet 2:2-3).
When we go out with friends, it’s often hard to choose where we will eat. But when it comes to our spiritual lives, it’s a no-brainer. I volunteer to pick.
