Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Wisdom has built her house;
    she has set up its seven pillars.
She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;
    she has also set her table.
She has sent out her servants, and she calls
    from the highest point of the city,
    “Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says,
    “Come, eat my food
    and drink the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways and you will live;
    walk in the way of insight.”
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults;
    whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you;
    rebuke the wise and they will love you.
Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still;
    teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
For through wisdom your days will be many,
    and years will be added to your life.
If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you;
    if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.
Folly is an unruly woman;
    she is simple and knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house,
    on a seat at the highest point of the city,
calling out to those who pass by,
    who go straight on their way,
    “Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says,
    “Stolen water is sweet;
    food eaten in secret is delicious!”
But little do they know that the dead are there,
    that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.

• Proverbs 9:1-18

“Proverbs 9:10 ”There are two particular words for holy in the Hebrew Bible. One word is used almost exclusively of God the Holy One and rarely used of anything or person except God the Holy One. In Proverbs 9:10 it says, ‘The fear of the Lono is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.’ I am greatly fascinated by the fact that the King James Bible refers to it in the abstract—’the holy’ rather than ‘the Holy One.’ And yet the Jewish Bible says ‘the knowledge of the Holy One.’
“Proverbs 30:3 also uses this phrase: ‘l neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.’ Again, the Jewish Bible translates it ‘the knowledge of the Holy One’ or ‘the All-Holy.’ The Jewish translators encountered exactly the same word more than forty times and translated it ‘the Holy One.’ So obviously this is God! And yet there is enough vagueness about it that the King James translators felt free to make it abstract and call it ‘the holy.’
“There is another word for ‘holy’ that is not used of God very often. It is not as ‘high’ a word; it is used often of created things. It is something that is ‘holy by contact or association’ with something holy. We hear of holy ground or holy Sabbath or holy city or holy people or holy works. It’s not the same awesome, awe-filled word that He uses when He says ‘the holy’ or ‘the Holy One.‘ ”

• A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God I

In the final introductory chapter, in which a father pleads with his son to seek wisdom, we see a contrast of wisdom and folly.  Which voice will we hear?

Wisdom has built a house and prepared it for the simple to come to her.  The idea of seven pillars is that the house is of adequate size to invite the simple to her, and seven is a completed number.  There is already meat and wine prepared for them.

Then verses 7-9 speak of not entering into foolish arguments or arguments with fools, depending on how you look at it.  Those that have already made up their mind to reject God’s wisdom will take any argument to be insults, and those that argue with the wicked will incur abuse.

This is very true of our world today.  The secular world wants to silence any opinion other than their own.  An opposing opinion offends them, thus they think opposing opinions are insulting.  And if you stand up to them, you will incur abuse.  I know this firsthand.  There is no free speech unless opposing views can be spoken and both parties remain civil.

Proverbs 9:10-12 is a good summary of the first nine chapters.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  You are not wise, but in fearing God you have opened the door for God to impart wisdom.  If you do not fear the Lord, that is being in awe of His greatness and aware of our own impotence, then you shut that door.  As the previous chapters state, God hates the proud.  If you are wise, God will reward you.  If you are a mocker, you stand alone against the insults and abuse.

Then the chapter turns to explain Folly.  Folly entices.  Folly lures the simple with lies about stolen water being sweet and food eaten in secret being delicious.  Why eat in secret?  The food was stolen.

I remember one summer after my brother graduated from college.  He went out with some high school friends and among many things, they backed a pickup truck up to the neighbor’s watermelon patch and stole all the watermelons that the old truck could carry including the one the neighbor wanted to show at the county fair.  They dumped all the watermelons into a small pond and used them as flotation devices.  Three months later, my brother entered his first year of seminary.  Odd, he had watermelons to eat, but he ate none.  They rotted in the small pond.  He did not hear Folly telling him that they would taste delicious.

But when we follow Folly, and we turn from God, death dwells there.

When I grew up, there was little need for apologetics where I lived.  You did not have to argue whether there was a God.  You could evangelize under the assumption that the other person at least admitted God existed.

Today, you walk through a minefield, and sometimes with people in your own congregation.  They find offense at the drop of a hat, and they silence good biblical teaching.  We must stand firm, but if we argue, we fall into their trap.

Yet, we cannot be silenced.  The truth and Truth will be victorious in the end.

And now let us sing.

The following song is sung by Liza D’Souza, Follow Me.  In following Wisdom, we must follow the Lord.  In following the Lord, we follow where He guides us.  And anywhere other than toward Folly is a good thing.

“Follow me, follow me, leave your home and family,
Leave your fishing nets and boats upon the shore.
Leave the seed that you have sown, leave the crops that you’ve grown, leave the people you have known and follow me.

1. The foxes have their holes, and the swallows have their nests, but the son of man has no place to lie down. I do not offer comfort, I do not offer wealth, but in me will all happiness be found.

2. If you would follow me, you must leave old ways behind. You must take your cross and follow on my path. You may be far from loved ones, you may be far from home, but my father will welcome you at last.

3. Although I go away you will never be alone. for the spirit will be there to comfort you. Though all of you may scatter, each follow his own path, still the spirit of love will lead you home.”

• Michael Cockett, Follow Me

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, Folly is enticing us from all sides.  And too many of us think there is salvation in the latest fad or the latest political candidate.  We can only find true salvation in You.  We need revival, but so many people around us are in the hands of Folly, thinking they have the good life, yet all they have is death.  Only You can reach them.  If we tried without Your strength, it would become an argument that would be taken as an insult.
In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.