Proverbs 9:1-18 (NLT)
1 Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven columns.
2 She has prepared a great banquet, mixed the wines, and set the table.
3 She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come. She calls out from the heights overlooking the city.
4 “Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says,
5 “Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live; learn to use good judgment.”
7 Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return. Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.
8 So don’t bother correcting mockers; they will only hate you. But correct the wise, and they will love you.
9 Instruct the wise, and they will be even wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn even more.
10 Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
11 Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.
12 If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.
13 The woman named Folly is brash. She is ignorant and doesn’t know it.
14 She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city.
15 She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business.
16 “Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says,
17 “Stolen water is refreshing; food eaten in secret tastes the best!”
18 But little do they know that the dead are there. Her guests are in the depths of the grave.
The structures are already in place – Wisdom’s palace and Folly’s shack. Established is each realm and a call can continually be heard from it inviting to experience what is surely to be found within its walls. One has excellence and worth at every level and built in to the fabric and substance of every rooms design. Folly has facades that appear to be impressive and inviting, but are made of paper and dispensable elements that will quickly crumble and fail.
The choice made for one or the other is the choice made to experience what they’ve prepared, but it’s also the choice to become what they’ve formed. Wisdom is not just a structure, but the identity and nature of the one who chooses it. Those who choose Folly take on the identity and destiny of the Simple, those who have errantly elected sand over rock for their foundation.
At first glance, wisdom would seem to be restricting, confining, and undesirable. Folly would appear to be the liberating, delightful realm of independence, free from prudish restraints. What is found, though, it the disciplined choices of the wise take them to freedoms and liberties the simple can never know. However, those lies that foster self-gratification lead to the chains of self-loathing, while the Truth that provides borders and guidelines sets free from real chains of lack and corruption to know the joys of fulfillment and abundance.