WHICH CALL DO YOU ANSWER?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city:

“Let all who are simple come to my house!”

To those who have no sense she says:

“Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”

Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way:

“Let all who are simple come to my house!”

To those who have no sense she says:

“Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!”

But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.

Proverbs 9:1-6, 13-18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I’ve mentioned in the past about a vivid memory I have regarding an old cartoon that fits well with our message today as it has for prior ones. The cartoon involved the following:

There would be a cartoon character who would face making a moral decision. There were always two options, a right one and a wrong one. As the character pondered what to do, two little characters would appear magically, one on each shoulder. The first one was a small white angel who would urge the main character to do the right thing. Immediately after the angel finished, a little red devil would pop up on the opposite shoulder, urging the main character to ignore the urgings of the angel and instead follow the wrong course of action.

Two voices calling out, each trying to influence a person to take a certain path, one the path of righteousness, the other the path of sin. And although it was a cartoon, it was more real in its depiction in life than we maybe realize.

Our scripture passage today frames a real life scenario that parallels the little angel/red devil model. In it, we find two voices calling out to those who are vulnerable to influence, namely every man and woman on earth. Let’s look again at these two voices:

Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city:

“Let all who are simple come to my house!”

To those who have no sense she says:

“Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”

Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way:

“Let all who are simple come to my house!”

To those who have no sense she says:

“Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!”

But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.

Two voices, one trying to lead someone the right way while the other attempts to lead to wrong.

The first voice is the voice of divine wisdom, a voice calling out to the simple (other versions use the words inexperienced or those who lack good judgment) from on high. We read that wisdom has worked hard to prepare the way for those who would receive its invitation, building a house for them and preparing a meal with drink. She has servants to attend to those who come in and receive the promise of life and insight.

You’ll recall that divine wisdom dwells with the Lord. They are inseparable and have been together well before anything else was created. Being one with divine wisdom is the same as being one with the Lord. And so when divine wisdom sends out the invitation to commune with it and find life, it is referring to the eternal life found through the Lord Jesus Christ, THE Way, THE Truth, THE Life, and THE only way to God the Father.

All those who need to discern situations and make prudent decisions will always find themselves moving in the right direction when they realize that they cannot steer the right course by way of their own limited intellect but rather through the perfect insight and direction received through relating to divine wisdom.

Sounds easy enough, right?

It would be if it weren’t for the competing voice working against divine wisdom, the voice of folly.

Look at the contrast with divine wisdom. Folly is not organized or proper. Folly doesn’t possess insight. No, scripture tells us that folly is unruly and unknowing. Like wisdom, folly calls out from the highest points but the motives are quite different. For the food and drink it is offering is tainted, the company at the table of folly dead and destined for destruction.

This is the route that sin takes us on, a route that distances us from life and drags us into doom. Folly’s main purpose is to lure us to this place and do not underestimate it’s power to do so. For there are more than a few examples of people who were considered pillars of spiritual maturity who fell prey to the temptations of folly and found their ruin as a result.  

So the question today is, “Which call do you answer?”

Do you follow the call of divine wisdom or the call of folly?

There is no middle voice calling out. You choose one or the other, divine wisdom or folly, righteousness or sinfulness.

The contemporary Christian group Casting Crowns wrote the following lyric in their song, The Voice of Truth, and I close with it today:

Out of all the voices calling out to me I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.

My prayer is that we all will follow suit and choose to listen and believe the voice of truth, the voice of divine wisdom.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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