Proverbs 9

Thank God for the three days of wonderful exhortation and joyful fellowship in the Spirit! Although physically tiring, Spiritual Meetings are always uplifting and inspiring aren’t they? The spiritual (and also physical 🙂 feast prepared for us by workers of God motivated by His love as well as the amount of time we are given to walk in the garden with Him have indeed filled our cups to overflowing.

Coincidentally, today’s chapter also mentions feasts – one prepared by wisdom, leading to life; the other prepared by folly, leading to death. Let’s look at the two feasts prepared by the vastly different personifications and see what we can learn from them.

Bible Passage:  Proverbs 9

Before we look at the feasts, however, there’s one question that has always been on my mind ever since I came across the book of Proverbs:

Why is wisdom a woman?

I assumed that it would be one of the first questions people have upon reading the book but surprisingly, no one asked this question in the previous posts. Hopefully, this is not because it’s a silly question.

A quick search on the internet gives some brief explanations about how wisdom gives life and nurtures, both of which are deemed to be feminine characteristics thus is personified as a female. This sounds plausible but personally, I feel the life of Solomon has much to do with the fact that he personifies wisdom as a woman. We know that Solomon’s life was intricately linked to the women he is constantly surrounded by. From his mother to the Queen of Sheba to his thousand wives and concubines, we can tell from historical records (1 Kings 2) and the other books written by him (Ecclesiastes, Songs) that they affected his life greatly, be it for good or bad. He must have deeply experienced the power of women in the way they can either quietly nurture or subtly destroy; causing him to personify both wisdom as well as folly as women bringing about markedly different outcomes to the people who choose them respectively.

We shall now move on to look at these personifications as well as outcomes.

Feast for Life

For by me your days will be multiplied,
And years of life will be added to you. (Proverbs 9:11)

The feast Wisdom prepares is truly substantial and the amount of work put into the preparations as well as her attention to details is admirable.

Starting from the very basic item of venue, we can see how she has built her house solidly and hewn out seven pillars in order to construct a soound and substantial house in which to hold her feast. She also prepares all the items necessary for a feast and the whole feeling we get from reading about her is one of meticulousness and industry.

More importantly, she invites people to her feast in order to gain understanding and learning. One who attends her feast increases in the fear of the LORD and knowledge of the Holy One so as to receive life.

Feast for Death

But he does not know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of hell. (Proverbs 9:18)

In contrast to Wisdom, we have Folly who sits by the door of her house and does not seem to behave like one preparing a feast. We do not know what her house looks like but since she is a direct contrast to Wisdom, it is safe to assume that it would be dirty, unkempt and even worse, unstable.

Although she says the same thing Wisdom does, proving that words are nothing if not backed by truth and actions, she offers only water, bread and foolishness. Only the dead enters her house and her guests are in the depths of hell.

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The wise king has presented these two options and outcomes before us. Who will you choose? Listen to what the God who gives wisdom liberally says through the king,