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choose the wise life

Proverbs 9:1-18 (JDV).

Proverbs 9:1 Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out her seven pillars.
Proverbs 9:2 She has slaughtered what needed to be slaughtered; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.
Proverbs 9:3 She has sent out her female servants; she calls out from the highest points of the city:
Proverbs 9:4 “Whoever is morally naive, enter here!” To the one who lacks sense, she says,
Proverbs 9:5 “Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine I have mixed.
Proverbs 9:6 Leave inexperience behind, and you will live; go straight on the road of understanding.
Proverbs 9:7 The one who corrects a mocker will bring abuse on himself; the one who rebukes the wicked will get hurt.
Proverbs 9:8 Don’t rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke the wise, and he will love you.
Proverbs 9:9 Instruct the wise, and he will be wiser still; teach the righteous, and he will learn more.
Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of Yahveh is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 9:11 Because by me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.
Proverbs 9:12 If you are wise, you are wise for your own benefit; if you mock, you alone will bear the consequences.”
Proverbs 9:13 Folly is a rowdy woman; she is gullible and knows nothing.
Proverbs 9:14 She sits by the doorway of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city,
Proverbs 9:15 calling to those who pass by, who go straight ahead on their paths:
Proverbs 9:16 “Whoever is morally naive, enter here!” To the one who lacks sense, she says,
Proverbs 9:17 “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten secretly is tasty!”
Proverbs 9:18 But he doesn’t know that the ghosts are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

This interesting passage depicts the life of wisdom and the life of folly as two women, both calling out for a relationship with a morally naive young man. The women are not different in their outward appearance or even their age. They could be identical twins in that respect. No, the difference between them is how they choose to catch their prize. Folly only offers bread and water and appears to have stolen that. She lures her man by offering him something for nothing. Wisdom built her own house, slaughtered her own cattle, and sent out her servants to buy everything she needed from the proceeds of her own hard work. Wisdom is the Proverbs 31 wife.

Both wisdom and folly are options, and both are appealing. But wisdom takes more work, and sometimes people opt for unrighteous living out of laziness. They are not equal in their result. The unrighteous life leads to spiritual death and the likelihood of an early physical death.

LORD, give us the courage to choose the wise life.