Wisdom: Two Invitations (Proverbs 9)
From A Voice In The Wilderness
Her invitation is: "whoever is simple, let him turn in here...stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant" (vs16-17)
This is such a common-place experience in today's society, that a 'funny' line can be written for a sitcom; I've not seen it, but heard the line in a promo for one of this coming fall's lineups. The female, in a rage, yells at the man something like, "How DARE YOU lie to the woman you are cheating on your wife with!!" She is "naive". She is what is called elsewhere, many times, the "strange woman", the "seductress". The invitation is that the secret rendezvous is fun. It is exciting. Being 'forbidden', it is alluring.
Now... where Wisdom promises life, and the Foolish Woman promises excitement; the reality is that following her is the path to death.
"But he does not know that the spirits of the dead are there; the ones she summons are in the depths of Sheol" (vs18 )
And to whom does she call?The passers by "who are going STRAIGHT on their ways" (vs15b) The "good" men... she seduces, allures, corrupts... and ruins.
And when this happens... whose 'fault' was it? Where does the blame fall?
"...and if you scorn, YOU ALONE shall bear it" (vs12b) "He who sins against [Wisdom] does violence to HIS -OWN- SOUL" (8:36)
Nobody else to blame. Yes, she might have been "irresistible". But the choice is always before us. Wisdom or foolishness. "Turn in here" (vs4) to Wisdom's Life, or "turn in here" (vs16) to the ways of death and Sheol.
Two invitations. Two responses. Two outcomes. And the outcome is between the -individual- and God. The one who does the enticing is answerable for -themself- to God. If a person allows oneself to be enticed, all a person can do before God is acknowledge one's -own- guilt. ("I acknowledge my transgressions.." Ps51:3) Yes, the serpent was judged for seducing, but Adam and Eve paid for their own guilt...and their sin then passed to the rest of the earth and humanity.
Two invitations. Good or Bad. Righteousness or Wickedness. There are no (proverbial) "gray areas".
"No one is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. It is not possible to serve God and mammon." (Mt6:24)
And we are responsible for our own -individual- choices... how we respond to the various "invitations" of life... If we are filled with wisdom, we have the necessary "prudence" to ferret out the enticing evil "devices" (8:12) and avoid them.
"I Jehovah search the heart, I examine the soul, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
"For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his practice.
"...who will render to each one according to his works:
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to what his work shall be."
(Jer17:10, Mt16:27, Rom2:6, 2Co5:10, Rev22:12)
"I call Heaven and earth to bear witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live;" (De30:19)
"..knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Let us
walk decently, as in the day...putting on the Lord Jesus Christ..
...redeeming the time, because the days are evil."
Romans 13:11-14~ Ephesians 5:16
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