Overview
There are but two manner of men in Proverbs: the wise and the foolish. The wise are slaves to Wisdom and, being ruled by her gracious hand, find themselves to be partakers of the guiltless pleasures of God's creation. In contrast, the foolish are slaves to Folly and, deceived by their own selfish pursuits, they are led by her seductions to the depths of Sheol.
Proverbs chapter nine is the end of Solomon's opening, which spans from chapter one until the end of this chapter, after which begin the sundry sayings, proverbs, and bywords. Following the theme established from the start of the book, Solomon presents the listener his two options: he must choose Wisdom or Folly; for there is no third.
Should this listener choose Wisdom, he rightfully may anticipate the joys of her paths; but should he choose Folly, though he may partake of lusty but stolen goods, verily would he face destruction, which is the only path known to those who likewise choose.
The Pleasures of Wisdom
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. (Proverbs 9:1-6)
Wisdom throughout Proverbs is the personification of godly insight. To accept Wisdom is to abide by the counsel of God, to begin to see the world and to have an understanding as God sees and understands. Wisdom is not God but a means to draw near to him.
Wisdom makes her appeal: Whoever is simple, let him turn in here! She does not discriminate against those lacking knowledge; for all that seek knowledge necessarily begin lacking and, only after much walking in her paths, do they start to posses it. In fact, all begin simple and, apart from God, simple do they remain.
Judges is one of the most extensive examples of evil and morally devoid behavior, which is paganism, that scripture offers us to depict life apart from God. The Jews, who of all people had most reason to obey our Creator, left behind any adherence to and care of God and, as the bookend to Judges, we are told, Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. False rituals, child sacrifice, and misuse of God's blessing are all recorded in this history of God's chosen race.
Now, if Israel could not resist the course of this world through their birth, how much less are we to expect good of our initial states? of ourselves apart from a conscious and direct intention to follow Wisdom, which is to walk the path of life?
Suffice it to say, if someone has not chosen to follow Wisdom, he is simple and, to quote Proverbs 1:32, The complacency of fools destroys them. An unobserved life is a simple and foolish life, one that is apart from God.
But the simple need not to stay simple precisely because Wisdom is accepting and, as motivation to come unto her, she even bears gifts.
Come, she says, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. She has prepared a feast and there is no guilt in partaking thereof. The meat and wine are hers and, within hear house, one is bid to enjoy them. Herein do we see the righteous pleasures that Wisdom hath. For pleasures, when enjoyed as God intended them, are pure. Such righteous pleasures may be enjoyed in their right ways; and only when a pleasure is desecrated or misused does it become a stumbling block to be avoided.
In the garden of Eden, which is our only glimpse of a pre-sin world, we see that God did not intend pleasure merely as a means to test his grace, but as a gift accessible to those walking in his righteous paths. You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, said God to the pinnacle of his creation in Genesis 2:16, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. In other words, the garden was a sea of allowance with a single prohibition; and these allowances included to eat of any fruit that man should desire, even of the tree of life. Wisdom in the garden, then, afforded one the freedom to partake of the entire flavor palate of the garden, save the one that surely would lead to death.
Even sexuality is a pleasure ordained by God, in which a man and woman may guiltless enjoy their conventional bond. This also was a gift: for God saw man in his lonesome as something pitiful, even being the one thing of which he said, It is not good. Wherefore created he a helper suitable for man, a partner to provide and to receive company, aid, and love. Adam rejoiced at this companionship, calling her bone of my bones. And, Therefore, reasons the scripture, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh (KJV). Considering moreover the commandment to multiply, we may know with certainty that sexual relations between a man and his wife are to be enjoyed.
Proverbs 5:15-20, in contrast to a lewd excursion into adultery, encourages a man, saying, Drink water from your own cistern, which is to say that he should reject the adulteress and enjoy the wife of his youth. Moreover is he instructed, Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. Again, sexuality is not impious, unholy, or in any wise absconding of anyone's holiness, neither for a man nor for a woman. For God designed marriage and, with it, sexual relations that not only spread man's dominion through reproduction, but also allow the man to pleasure his wife and likewise her to pleasure him.
With Wisdom, the pleasures of life extend the obvious, even beyond those pleasures in which the pagan can find momentary delight. For the counsel of God incontrovertibly exhorts the follower of God to enjoy creation in all wises.
Ecclesiastes chapter three begins by stating that For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted...a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace—a list that I have truncated but that extends to every aspect of life; for each moment has its season.
What, the question then becomes, is the godly and wise response to such knowledge, that to everything there is season?
Fortunately, Solomon continued to write, saying of God, He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end... I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
In answer to the question, the godly and wise response to the many seasons of life is this, to enjoy them and to take pleasure even in the most toilful hour. This truly is something impossible to the pagan but is given without reservation to those who hearken unto Wisdom: for by her can a man truly enjoy the life prepared by God. On this wise, Solomon speaks rightly in Proverbs 3:17, saying, Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
In life, Wisdom's feast is abundant, meeting needs for the godly individual and providing pleasure along the way. However, her benefits do not lie in this realm only but in the life to come are ever more abundant. For the end of Wisdom is obedience to God, for whom the great poet of old often composed praises for the life to come.
The sixteenth Psalm expresses clearly his satisfaction in the Lord GOD: I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. David is walking in Wisdom. He receives counsel of the Lord and is instructed thereby, for which reason he has no cause for fear, either in life or death; for of God does he say, Thou wilt shew me the path of life: In thy presence is fullness of joy; At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (KJV). The pleasures of the Lord have no end, but are entrenched in the full joy that persists as the Lord, unto the ages and ages more.
Wisdom, we then conclude, offers a life of pleasure and hope, wherein the traveler may dwell secure, knowing that, upon her path and heeding her sundry proverbs, he is wont to receive the blessings of the Lord, mainly the freedom to partake, without guilt, of the rightful pleasures on this earth, the most miraculous of which being that pleasure felt in the toil of life, so that, no matter the affliction that God hath ordained unto an earthly soul and however devoid of worldly-pleasures he may be, even still may he glory; and the hope of eternal glory with the God of ages, which marks the end of habitation in the house of Wisdom.
The Fear between Wisdom and Folly
Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. 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. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it. (Proverbs 9:7-12)
Considering the previous description of Wisdom, that her benefits are grand and freely available, it is a wonder that any would reject her offer. Yet herein is this question answered. Why does the scoffer continue in his scoffing? Because, Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse: this and the following like statements establish that a scoffer does not relent precisely for his hardness of heart. In this sense, the purpose of the warning, Do not reprove a scoffer, is less about the wisdom for the wise, but more a description of the scoffers hopelessness.
Similar are Proverbs 26:4 and 5: Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. The fool is a lost cause and, thus, one cannot win when dealing with such.
While the fool remains foolish, we see that the wise increases: for, Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. By aptness to learn will a wise man grow.
Therefore, ought we to conclude that the wise man is superior by his growth mindset? Is the takeaway from this section that those with smarts enough to analyze the world critically will enjoy the blessing of Wisdom described in the previous section? I, with scripture as my witness, submit not so; but fear, not one's cranium, separates the wise from the fool.
The fear of the LORD, says the wise king, is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. This repeats Proverbs 1:7, which confesses, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. For without a proper fear of his Creator, a man has no reason to accept his divine authority on all orthopraxy, or rightful living. Whereas the God-fearing man may say, "I will act according to his will; for he, having formed me with purpose, knoweth better than I," the man who fears not is wont to say, "I will act according to mine own will; for whose will better than mine is there to dictate my goals? Surely there is naught above to weigh obligations upon my back!"
More prosaically, the God-fearing man is seen to confer value judgments and methodological questions upward, knowing that his God created him, and being his Creator knows better than he what he was made to seek and to do. Naturally, such a man will seek the divine counsel wheresoever it be found, chiefly the sacred scriptures and the testimony of our very nature.
As a practical example, the God-fearing man may seek for himself a wife, knowing, He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD (Proverbs 18:22). When seeking a woman to wed, he will consider the many warnings against an ungodly wife, such as Proverbs 21:9, which reads, It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. And he will obey the revelation of the New Testament when Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:14, Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? So no matter the superficial benefits offered by a pagan woman, his fear of God, and by extension his fear of incurring a curse by straying God's instruction, is greater: he will not even consider a relationship with an unbelieving woman because God forbids it.
In contrast, one who does not fear God, while perhaps fashioning Christianity as religious seasoning to his life, will not take God seriously when he strictly forbids a thing. Why would a man reject the affection of a woman who wants him, save that the fear of One greater overcome him? Why would he give himself to others when he could gather for himself a mighty estate? Without the fear of judgment and of its Lord, perhaps even denying the existence thereof, he has no reason to heed the divine instruction.
Therefore, he that fears God will love that which God blesses and hate that which God curses; for to act otherwise is to miss the promised blessings and to transgress the living God. But to him that disdains the Lord, these blessings are seen as false promises and his judgments as never to occur. Fear of God thus separates the wise from the fool.
The Curses of Folly
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. (Proverbs 9:13-18)
Having described the many pleasures of Wisdom and given the reason for which a man still would reject her, the introduction to Solomon's proverbs ends with the expectation of those who reject Wisdom, choosing instead to tread down Folly's road
Wisdom is a mighty host that offers a delightful feast to those who turn her way, having sent out young women to bid men enter her gates. In contrast, The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing and her offerings are not bountiful but false; for she offers what she does not even own: Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. To enter her gates, either partake of her stolen goods or steal yourself a meal to bring. Thus, whereas Wisdom makes an honest offer to enjoy her benefits—even sending pleasant maids to beckon the simple—Folly is likened unto a seductress, master in the art of selling what she hath not, beguiling her victim of his soul and strength.
Folly decries a marriage grown bland: "Lose her for thy true love," she says, "For has God really said that thy wife is a blessing?" She scoffs at her who thinks to keep her child: "Lose it just as he left thee; for what blessing to thee is a child?" And she encourages the self-righteous: "Surely thou shouldst curse those sinners who will never repent as thou didst; for what is grace?"
In Genesis 3, the serpent, the most subtle beast of the field, came unto the woman and made her an offer: Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (KJV). And though the woman had then responded with God's command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that ancient serpent beguiled her of paradise to Folly, saying, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (KJV)—causing Eve to override God's judgment with her own, perceiving that the tree was good for food, proving man inadequate to abide in godly living.
The serpent's offer is akin to Folly's, subverting God's rejection to selection and his curse to blessing; for where God offered a luscious garden, rife with sustenance, companionship, and even the very presence of God, there the serpent offered them to become their own gods, knowing to discern for themselves what is right and wrong, good and evil. We may say by analogy that the serpent offered them stolen water and bread to eat in secret.
The irony is grave, that Adam would forfeit God's paradise under the presumption that he could do it better, that he could form the worlds more rounded and the beasts more pleasant, only to find that his rule tendeth unto pain and suffering. Even so, the serpent succeeded to beguile, exemplifying the seductress lady Folly and her tactics, bringing us all our woe through God's curse upon us, that we should toil each day in exile from our God till one greater Man restore us (Genesis 3:14-19).
Remember, though, that even in this toil is the God-fearing man able to take joy amidst this toil, knowing that For everything there is a season and that He has made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:1,11). Likewise doth the Spirit testify by Paul, saying, We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Amen.
But this confidence, which may be grasped in the darkest hour for those that fear their God, is not known to the fool because, in contrast to the righteous joys of Wisdom, the fool's expectation is certain death, even the second death. For though he might have entered Folly's den seeking momentary mirth or a passing pleasure, he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Of such who enter by Folly's door, Paul wrote in Philippians 3:19, Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. They do not consider the ultimate end of their lifestyle, but only their present enjoyment, which God does not always stifle this side of judgment. For the psalmist of the seventy third, Asaph, wrote, For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek... But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. So a succeeding fool may bring ill-confidence to the undeserving, even jealousy to the man who fears God but does not see half the increase. However, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death (Proverbs 14:12).
Though a man find himself to escape every repercussion for foolish living, there is One that he cannot escape. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14). And concerning this judgment, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Thus shall the fool find that what Folly truly has to offer is a one way ticket to the depths of Sheol.
But the truth of the matter is this: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Every man, woman, and child has flirted with the vile lady Folly and therefore shall join her guests, except he be regenerated unto belief in the Son of God, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16 KJV).
Therefore, the Christian be encouraged that he has such a hope in forgiveness and be moved to choose Wisdom, as is fitting for an heir of the kingdom to come. Otherwise, may the unbeliever see his sin, how he has cursed what God has blessed and has heeded the call of Folly, and be moved to choose Wisdom, which is fulfilled only in belief in the God who justifies the ungodly and in the Christ, that he find grace to endure judgment. For how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Hebrews 2:3).
Any scripture quotation without an explicit version tag is from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016).