SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/3/2013
8:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Wisdom’s
Call to Life
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Pr. 9:1-18
Message of the
verses: I mentioned at the beginning
of our study on Proverbs that we were not going to follow the book of Proverbs
in the order that it was written in, but will follow the outline that Warren
Wiersbe has in his commentary on Proverbs, something that has been a practice
of mine for many years as I attempt to study all of God’s Word in this manner.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following in his introduction to
this last main point in this his second chapter on his study on Proverbs: “Instead of going to the busy places of the
city, Wisdom not remains at home and serves as hostess of a grand feast.”
Preparation (vv.
1-2): “1 ¶ Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out
her seven pillars; 2 She has prepared
her food, she has mixed her wine; She has also set her table;”
Wisdom is preparing to have a very sumptuous banquet in
her very fine and large house with seven pillars. She is setting her table with mixed wine,
which was probably three parts water to one part of wine. Water was not the best in Israel, and so wine
was mixed with the water to make it more palatable. Now where in the Scriptures does it speak positivity
about getting drunk.
Invitation
(vv.3-9): “3 She has sent out her maidens, she calls From
the tops of the heights of the city: 4
"Whoever is naive, let him turn in here!" To him who lacks
understanding she says, 5 "Come,
eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed. 6 "Forsake your folly and live, And
proceed in the way of understanding." 7
He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, And he who reproves
a wicked man gets insults for himself. 8
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, Reprove a wise man and he
will love you. 9 Give instruction to a
wise man and he will be still wiser, Teach a righteous man and he will increase
his learning.”
Dr. Wiersbe points out that during this time period in
Israel, and probably throughout the Middle East, that when a person was giving
a banquette that there would be two invitations, the first one days before the
feast, the second one the day of the feast to see how many people were actually
coming so enough food could be prepared.
It seems that the invitation given in this section is the second one and
it is given by the maidens of Wisdom.
Verse four tells who are invited, and in the NASB the word is “naïve”
who are invited to the feast, where in the KJV the word “simple” is used. We remember that Wisdom’s first invitation
was to the scorners who laughed at her, and then in the second invitation seen
in 8:5 she invited only the simple and the fools, however the fools did not
want the wisdom of God and so this time only the “naïve or simple” are invited.
When the simple decide to come they are ridiculed by the
fools and this can be seen in verses six through nine.
Celebration (vv.
10-12): “10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 11 For by me your days will be multiplied, And
years of life will be added to you. 12
If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, And if you scoff, you alone
will bear it.”
If one responds to the call of Wisdom, which is to
respond to the call of the Lord, what does one receive from this
invitation? First of all you will have a
greater respect for the Lord and also a deeper knowledge of the Lord as seen in
verse ten. Again I mention the book that
I am reading a chapter a night entitled “The Knowledge of the Holy,” by A.W.
Tozer, and the reason that I am reading it is to better know the Lord whom I
serve. I know that the Apostle Paul knew
the Lord as good as any human could know Him, and yet after serving the Lord
for many years his desire was still to know Him better, “that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being
conformed to His death; (Phil. 3:10).”
We have mentioned in an earlier SD that the principles
that are found in the book of Proverbs are not promises but when followed will
happen most of the time. We see that
long life is promised to those who fear the Lord and acquire wisdom, but that
does not always happen for there have been people who have served the Lord
fervently that have died at an early age.
With this said I want to say that it is good to follow the things that are
written in the book of Proverbs and leave the results to the Lord. Dr. Wiersbe writes that “Once again, Wisdom
promises to give long life, (v.11) and fill our days with rich experiences of
God’s grace. God wants to add years to
our life and life to our years, and He will do it if we obey His wisdom. Verse 12 reminds us that the Lord wants to
build godly character into our lives, and we can’t borrow character from others
or give our character to them.” Character
is something that is individual and we can gain character by belonging to a
good family whose desire is to worship and serve the Lord, and to go to a good
Bible believing Church and a good school.
These will help build our character, but it is still up to each
individual to do the right things.
Condemnation (vv.
13-18): “13 ¶ The woman of folly is boisterous, She is
naive and knows nothing. 14 She sits at
the doorway of her house, On a seat by the high places of the city, 15 Calling to those who pass by, Who are making
their paths straight: 16 "Whoever
is naive, let him turn in here," And to him who lacks understanding she
says, 17 "Stolen water is sweet;
And bread eaten in secret is pleasant." 18 But he does not know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”
We now move quickly to the prostitute (folly) who also
give an invitation to the naïve or to the simple, and her invitation is not to
a feast but to a funeral, their own funeral.
There is much difference between Wisdom and the prostitute folly and
there will be much more said about this in latter and earlier chapters of
Proverbs that we have not yet covered.
It seems to me that we can look at Wisdom as the call of
the Lord to salvation and folly as Satan whose desire is to lead those away
from the Lord. Dr. Wiersbe writes as he
concludes his commentary on this section, “When it comes to possessing eternal
life and living so as to pleas God, it’s an either/or situation. Either we accept the invitation or we reject
it; either we obey His wisdom or we reject it.
Those who claim to be neutral are rejection His Word as much as those
who turn away from it completely. ‘He
that is not with Me is against Me,’ said Jesus (Matt. 12:30).”
One more point from this section and that is a point
about marriage. Marriage is like
drinking sweet water from a refreshing stream, but folly (the adulteress) is
offering the stolen water from somebody else’s stream. God has ordained marriage to be a fence
around the fountain so that nobody will pollute the stream.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There was much
that was spoken of in this chapter of Proverbs, but the need to have wisdom is
something that I along with all believers are in need of and that wisdom is
found in the pages of the Bible. I also
can say that wisdom comes from knowing the Lord which can also be found in the
pages of Scripture. Tozer says that what
we think about God is the most important thing in our lives. Our God is BIG, and so if we don’t study to
know more about Him we will think that He is small.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Part of learning wisdom is to stay far away
from sin, not skirting along the edges trying to stay just a little bit away
from sin.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 121:1-3
1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where
shall my help come? 2 My help comes from
the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3
He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.
1/3/2013 10:19 AM
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