Merits of Wisdom Proverbs 9:1-12(v. 1) “built her house…hewn out her seven pillars: The house is solidly built in a firm foundation (Christ is the Cornerstone). The builder has not skimped on effort or material. An honest attempt was made to do the best work possible. Cornerstones served multiple purposes. Two of which were (1) to support the wall (2) They were cut at exactly/perfectly 90 degree angles, every stone laid on it or after it needed only to be aligned with it to make a wall perfectly straight and level or as masons and carpenters call it, the stones are “true”.
(v. 2) “prepared her food...mixed her wine...also set her table”: The wise are totally prepared.
(v. 2 & 3) “sent out her maidens, she calls. From the tops of the heights of the city”: Makes extra efforts to assist others by inviting them. Helps others. Celebrations such as weddings were often community events during the time of the Biblical writings. They would often last days. This required a lot of planning. We see this is the amazement of the man when the wine is brought out after Jesus turns it to wine from water. To have saved the best wine for last meant that it may have been saved for days.
(v. 4 & 5) “Whoever is naïve…who lacks understanding...eat of my food and drink of the wine: Wisdom is helpful to those that don’t have it. Wisdom is also best served in like-minded company. To discern a wise saying to its fullest advantage it often takes a equal or an equivilant amount of wisdom to utilize it. Wisdom begets more wisdom because the wise take advantage or criticism as we see below.
(v. 7 & 8) “He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor…reproves a wicked man gets insults….reprove a wise man and he will love you”: It is the age old question - When does a fool realize he’s a fool? Answer: Never. He’s too dumb to realize it and won’t accept criticism because he doesn’t think he’s wrong.
(v. 9) A wise man on the other hand is smart enough to realize the only path to more knowledge is to admit he doesn’t know (humble himself; Christ-like) and make room for the knowledge in his head by admitting they doesn’t know or admit he is wrong. The smart get smarter and the dumb…well, they stay dumb unless God intervenes
(v. 10) because fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge.
Disadvantages of Folly Proverbs 9:13-18
(v. 13) The woman of folly is boisterous, she is naive and knows nothing.: Loud-mouths that don’t think before they talk (is there anything more annoying?). We are dealing with the personalities that are never content, always requiring or craving attention. They are fake “generalists” or experts on everything, masters of nothing. They talk the ears off a brass monkey with nothing to say.
(v. 14 & 15) “sits at the doorway…by the high places of the city, calling to those who pass by, who are making their paths straight: The foolish are a bane to society. Not only do they create their own turmoil and “reap what they sow”. So too, because they are often a burden to society because of their stupidity, they drag down others with them that are not spiritually strong or discerning.
(v. 16 & 17) Drinking from one’s own well refers to sex in marriage so stolen water is adultery. ‘Bread eaten in secret is pleasant." Also then implies some type of illicit activity because of its close association to the previous comment. As we have already learned reading Proverbs 2:18 referring to adulteresses “her house sinks down to death and her tracks lead to the dead, so too this verse 18 in chapter 9 refers to the same end result
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