The Book of Proverbs gives us a
vision of the paths to life and death represented by the
image of two women. One is named Lady Wisdom. She leads all who will listen to
her words down the path of life. The other is named Lady Folly. Her lies are calling people off
wisdom’s path to come and die. And this should remind us
of the beginning of the Bible. How in the book of Genesis, God in his wisdom
created a garden and put two trees within it. One was the Tree of Life, which had fruit that
would keep you near God and eternally alive. The other was the Tree of
Knowledge, which had fruit that was desirable to the eyes and
even promised to make you wise, but in the end, its fruit
would only cause you to die. The first to face this paradigm were Adam
and Eve who were told to let God’s wisdom define what is wrong and what is right, to trust
wisdom’s voice, to listen to wisdom’s words, so that thereby, they
too would become wise. Through wisdom they would live
with God and eat from the Tree of Life. But there was another voice in the
garden by the Tree of Knowledge that did not speak
wisdom but spoke lies. It was the voice of the serpent
that called the gardeners aside and taught them to question the
voice of wisdom, taught them to listen to their own truth, to define their
own versions of wrong and right. And this was the voice of
sin, the voice of the enemy. This was the voice of Lady Folly. Adam and Eve turned their backs on
God, on wisdom, and therefore, on life. They turned toward folly, toward sin,
which opened up the door for them to die. So, they were separated from
God who is the source of life. They were separated from the
tree that would keep them alive. The point of Proverbs, then, is to get us
back into the garden, back to life, back to Eden. And Proverbs does this by trying to teach
us to listen to the voice of Lady Wisdom. And the primary way Proverbs seeks to tune
our ears to Wisdom’s voice and open our eyes is with short, simple sayings that
play out God’s Wisdom in everyday life, so that we can see in everyday
things, what God’s ways look like. And what they look like is life. What they look like is vitality. What is looks like to be wise is
to have joy, favor, and immortality. What is looks like to live with wisdom
is to be back in the garden of Eden. Which is why in Proverbs, Lady
Wisdom is not just giving good advice. She is leading those who
will listen to the Tree of Life. But alongside the way of life found
beside nearly every wise Proverb line, we find the way to death
also being described. She is called adulterous,
forbidden, wayward, Lady Folly. Her speech is smoother than oil. Her lips drip with honey. She lures people away with her vain
promises of pleasure, ease, and fame. But her path only and
always leads to the grave. Just like what happened to Adam and
Eve when they turned to the forbidden tree, anytime we try to define what
is good and right in our own eyes, anytime we try to find pleasure
in places God wisely denies, anytime we try to live
contrary to what is wise, we take the forbidden
fruit and swallow folly’s lies. Anytime we try to find a way to live apart
from God, we only find our own demise. And that is because we are trying
to live apart from the Tree of Life, which is why we all die. Because doing right is
not our default position. We as humans don’t naturally
listen to the voice of Lady Wisdom. So, when we meet her in Proverbs,
she is not some quaint, quiet teacher. Instead, she’s begging people to
listen like some wild street preacher. Proverbs shows us a picture of Lady
Wisdom crying loudly along our paths and in the public squares trying to snatch
people before they fall into folly’s snare. She says if anyone would turn
to listen, she would pour her thoughts into them and
they would know wisdom. But no one pays attention
to this wise rhetorician. And so instead of pouring out wisdom,
the foolish will get disaster and distress. Instead of receiving the Tree of Life, all
who follow folly choose the Path of Death. But God’s wisdom would triumph over folly
because wisdom would come in the flesh. Wisdom would move beyond the words and
sayings of Proverbs to take on life and breath. Wisdom would be a human. The voice of God would
be like us so that we could encounter wisdom
in the person of Jesus. Jesus is wisdom in the flesh. He is Proverbs made alive. He walked on actual paths and spoke in
actual squares to show us the actual way to life. He walked the path of the wise,
which no one else was able to tread. He refused the snares of folly,
by which everyone had been misled. He earned a way to the Tree of Life and
a way out from the house of the dead. For by trusting in the life Jesus
lived and the tree on which he died, we can escape the fruit of death
and be fed by the final Tree of Life. We all approach this path. We all face this choice to follow the ease of
Lady Folly or intently listen for wisdom’s voice. But the difference now is that Jesus
does what Proverbs said Lady Wisdom would do for those who listen to her
counsel and for those who hear it. Jesus comes to fools like us and pours
his wisdom into us through his Spirit. Wisdom has come near us. What used to be a distant
voice has now come inside. For the spirit of wisdom, by which
Jesus lived, died, and was made alive is the same spirit guiding those who trust
Jesus down the path to the Tree of Life. Thank you so much for watching our
introduction to the book of Proverbs. We are a non-profit ministry, and we are making introduction videos to every single book of the Bible showing that book's main theme and
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