Come and Eat
Proverbs 9:1-6
Several years ago, we had three teenage boys who had watched a survival show on TV and wanted to come out to our house and survive for the night. We said that was fine. They picked a spot down by the pond to make camp. They eventually got their tent set up (I’ll spare you the details, but it was entertaining to watch from the house). They planned to live off the land, but they couldn’t seem to catch fish or capture any wildlife, so they came up to the house to get hotdogs to roast over the fire.
They were going to start a fire with a couple of sticks or something but of course that didn’t work out either, so they came up and got matches. Eventually they made a fire, cooked up their wild game (hot dogs) and crawled into the tent. By morning they were freezing (it really wasn’t that cold out since it was spring) and showed up at the back door looking rather pitiful, hoping Patti would make them breakfast. She fed them a big breakfast and thankfully all the boys survived. Whew!
Okay, maybe that wasn’t the most intense survival experience ever, but what if you really were in a winter survival situation? Imagine you’re disoriented, freezing, and trying to find some place for a shelter before you perish. Through the falling snow, in the darkness, you see the flickering lights of a cabin. Maybe there is hope. You get to the cabin and see there is a fire going inside and the table is set for supper. Suddenly, the door opens, and the host invites you in out of the cold. The cabin is warm and filled with the smells of food. To your surprise, it’s as if the host was expecting you.
That’s the scene described in our Proverb this week. The traveler is lost and confused. About the time there seems to be no hope he comes across a cabin in the wilderness. It’s a beautiful cabin built by lady wisdom. Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars; She has prepared her food, she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. It’s like she was expecting company.
There’s differing opinions over what exactly the seven pillars represent. In the Bible, seven often carries the idea of perfection or completion. I think that makes the most sense here. It’s a beautiful cabin with everything needed for the weary traveler. The phrase prepared her food literally meant she slaughtered the slaughter. This is not leftover beans and rice. This is an all-out feast.
Who is the host? None other than lady wisdom. She has sent out her maidens, she calls from the tops of the heights of the city. She is inviting all who are outside to come in and dine with her. “Whoever is naïve, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks understanding she says, “Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake your folly and live, and proceed in the way of understanding.”
Of course, anyone is welcome, but she is specifically inviting the naïve. To keep our imagery going these are people with no survival skills. They will die in the wilderness. They aren’t dumb or weak or evil, but they lack the necessary skills needed to survive in this environment. Lady wisdom’s motive is not to condemn or shame but to teach. If these people are going to survive in the wilderness, they need to learn basic skills.
We’ve met the naïve in Proverbs before. This person is not lacking in intelligence or bent on self-destruction like the scoffer. This is simply a person who is gullible and lacks the discernment to separate the truth for the lies. These people are easily persuaded and go with the flow.
Imagine the currents of the culture like a river current. The naïve are like a leaf that floats down into the river and goes with the current. Skillful living requires we swim upstream but the naïve don’t understand this. To them what is normal is good. Follow the crowd. It makes sense because everyone else is living the same way. The naïve will perish in the wilderness of our culture unless they go inside and dine with lady wisdom and learn how to survive in a harsh environment.
She also invites him who lacks understanding. The Hebrew word translated understanding is literally the word for heart. The reason the translators don’t use the word heart is because what we mean by heart today and what the writer meant are not the same and the difference is significant.
For us today, heart symbolizes emotions. If we read someone was lacking heart, we’d think lacking willpower or the courage to try. But that’s not what the writer is saying. In the Hebrew, heart was the sum total, the center of the whole being. It included the mind, emotions, and will. These people lack knowledge of the truth. They are untaught, they haven’t sat at lady wisdom’s table to be trained in survival.
This is critical to understand. No amount of willpower can compensate for a lack of truth. We are not talking about a try harder self-help program. People don’t die in the wilderness because they didn’t try hard enough. They died because they didn’t know what to do to survive. They lacked understanding (heart).
The wisdom we need to live is not some buried treasure. It’s not reserved for those who go to college or have more resources or are especially smart. Lady wisdom has set the table and invites all who want help to sit down with her and dine with her. But know this, if you choose not to go in and listen to her, there are two other voices like wolves, calling in the night and they want to devour you: The scoffer and the woman of folly. We’ll meet them over the next two weeks.
Lady wisdom is inviting you to come in out of the cold and dine at her table. Will you join her?