We continue to today with insights from our Proverb of the week, Proverbs 9, from the Message Bible.
Vs.4-6. Are you confused about life, don't know what's going on? Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me! I've prepared a wonderful spread – fresh–baked bread, roast lamb, carefully selected wines. Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning.
Once again, Wisdom calls out to us. Will we turn aside? Will we listen and learn? A multitude of voices clamour for our attention. So much noise and so many distractions. How easy to walk on by, to get caught up in the busyness and miss the simplicity of Wisdom. It's our choice.
Vs.10. Skilled living gets its start in the Fear–of–God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God.
The fear of the Lord is the awareness that God is always with us. If we could live with this awareness on a constant basis, imagine how much smarter we would be. Think about how infinitely better our choices would be.
Vs.11-12. It's through me, Lady Wisdom, that your life deepens, and the years of your life ripen. Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life; mock life and life will mock you.
True Wisdom is seeing life from God's perspective. Knowledge is possession of the facts. Understanding of comprehension of the facts. Wisdom is knowing what to do with what we know. That alone comes from God. Ask for wisdom today.
Vs.13-18. Then there's this other woman, Madame Whore – brazen, empty–headed, frivolous. She sits on the front porch of her house on Main Street, And as people walk by minding their own business, calls out, "Are you confused about life, don't know what's going on? Steal off with me, I'll show you a good time! No one will ever know – I'll give you the time of your life." But they don't know about all the skeletons in her closet, that all her guests end up in hell.
The Temptress is always at work, seeking to allure us into the dangers of lust. She's so attractive but in the end sin stings and leads to death. Don't take the bait. There's always a hook. Be smart. Walk on by …