Decision Time

Most of us will at some stage or other had one of those ‘fork in the road’ moments. It’s time to decide, no more sitting on the fence, no more wavering, there’s a decision to be made, there’s a path to take. And the direction you decide to go will impact the rest of your life. Who you marry, what school you go to, what job you take, where you decide to live, etc.

You’ll often hear people saying, ‘If only I’d have done this, or not done that, my life would have been completely different’. For some of you here this morning you’ve big decisions to make, choices that you’re wrestling with that will impact you for years to come!

As we come to Ch.9 in Proverbs, it’s decision time. There’s no more sitting on the fence! The wise Father has been showing his son, the people of Israel, and us all, the benefit of wisdom in all areas of life. He’s been setting in front of us these 2 paths that we must decide upon! And he has sought to wet our appetite if you like for the path of wisdom. And now, before we move into ch.10 and see these proverbs proper, he makes one last appeal. And essentially it’s this, What’s it going to be? What are you going to choose? It’s decision time!

And so the question is posed to everyone of us this morning, what’s it going to be? We’ve all a limited amount of time left, everyone of us has a date fixed in which this is all going to be done! So for the the time we have left, it’s decision time! What path will we choose?

This passage splits up into 3 sections, you have these competing voices in v.1-6 & v.13-18, and then in the middle you have something quite different. It acts as nearly diagnostic test to help us see who we’re listening to, and what that looks like!

So let’s begin by looking at these competing voices...

Two Competing Voices (v.1-6 & v.13-18)

In one sense, life is pretty simple! Really there are always only 2 options, only 2 paths, 2 ways. It’s not like a multiple choice examine where we have numerous different things to choose from! When you boil it all down there are only 2! There’s the way of wisdom, the narrow road, the path of life, or there’s the way of foolishness, the broad road, the path that leads to death!

It should be pretty easy then to choose the right way you would imagine! But unfortunately, the complexities come from within us! The Bible tells us we’re born in sin, shapen in iniquity. We’re not neutral, we’re bent, we’re naturally twisted, we veer towards the path of foolishness without even having to try!

But God in His grace enters the picture! He sends His Son, the One who wasn’t bent towards sin, the One who made the right choice every time, chose wisdom, chose obedience, chose sacrifice, chose honouring God! And then went to the cross to pay the price for all the foolishness of His people! That work is done, it’s finished, it’s complete! When we trust in Jesus, when we kneel before Him as our Saviour & Lord, then we’re accepted, clean, wise!!

But the work continues, because God wants to straighten us out now! He wants to change us to become what we already are in Jesus. And the way He does it is through His Word! That’s His tool, that’s what His Holy Spirit takes and uses to remake us! So the battle is now on, to listen! Because It’s not the only voice that calls us!

It’s like standing at a T junction, and there are 2 signs that say the same thing but they’re pointing in opposite directions! Which one will you choose?!

Lady Wisdom (v.1-6)

Notice firstly the preparation of lady wisdom v.1-3...

She has gone to a lot of effort here. She’s worked hard, prepared well! She’s built her house and hewn her seven pillars! There is a permanence and a stability here. The number of pillars indicates the size of the house, and lady wisdom has built one big enough to welcome everyone who will comes into it!

She’s also slaughtered her beasts, mixed wine, set the table! She has put on quite the feast! The table is ready, it’s set with the finest of food and the best of drinks! And it’s been set at cost to herself! This is her beasts that have been slaughter to offer to others!

Wisdom is ready, she’s prepared, all the hard work has been done by her and now all that’s needed are the invites to go out and the guests to arrive!

You know what it’s like when guests are coming but you’re not ready! Maybe you’ve been delayed or they arrive really early, and it’s panic stations! The table isn’t set, the food isn’t prepared and it’s awkward, uncomfortable!

Not so with lady wisdom, she is ready for us! All she needs now is to go out and call the guests in! And that’s what she sends her young women to do v.3-6...

These messengers get themselves into the highest places, probably symbolising the city walls. If you have a good news message, then you want to proclaim it in such a way that as many as possible will here it!

It would be like today going to the sporting events where thousands gather, putting it on Facebook to reach the maximum audience!

And the message is a staggering one! It is an offer of grace! A feast, a banquet that you don’t have to pay for, that you don’t have to earn! It’s not just for the nobles and people of importance! Rather it’s for the simple! It’s for all of those people who are prone to foolishness, to making bad choices, to messing up! It’s an offer to all of us!

The only requirement is we come…we turn in here. There’s a changing of direction, a repentance, an about turn. We were walking down this path, but now we hear this message and turn to go a different way! We enter into this feast, and we eat and drink! We enjoy what is on offer!

No doubt what the wise Father has in mind here is the wisdom that is to be offered in the proverbs that are to come. In a sense they are the food and drink, they are the banquet that’s been spread! It’s ready, it’s prepared, the question is will we feast on it, will we turn from foolishness and delight in wisdom!

The father makes clear that it’s through the wisdom offered here that we truly live! There a way to exist in this life, there’s a way to get through and even think we’re living. But if life is created, sustained, purposed, by and for God, then to live without reference to Him and His will is not living! It’s the greatest of delusions!!

We’ve mentioned on a number of occasions how wisdom finds it’s fullest expression in the person of Christ! In reality the call of wisdom is the call of Christ in the gospel! And that happen on 2 levels, the first is that first great call…...

Maybe you’re here this morning and as yet you still haven’t responded to that call of Jesus Christ! You’ve never come and feasted on Him by faith! Here is an offer this morning that you need to listen to! The King of Kings invites you to come, just as you are! You don’t have to be a certain person, you don’t have to have everything sorted out, you don’t have to have your sin all under control! You simply have to hear this invite to come, realise that you need it, and accept that by faith! Believe that Jesus has come to do what we could never do, in walking in complete wisdom, and then dying on the cross to take the punishment for my foolishness!Remember there only are 2 paths, no more! Come, believe, and live!

But there’s that continual call that as Christians we must hear! Even though we’ve trusted in Christ, we’re still so prone to being simple! Daily we stray, we wonder, the Bible describes us so perfectly as sheep! And yet the shepherd calls us! He calls us continually to turn in here…come… Following Jesus is a life of faith and repentance! It’s a walk, a journey, a pilgrimage, not a one off decision! Every day we must listen, feast on the good things of Christ, believe!

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,… () Today we must choose wisdom, choose obedience, choose honoring God! Today we choose to trust in Christ as our Lord and Saviour not just for eternal life, but in every area of life in this world! Our health, our finances, our families, our friends, our emotions, our desires, our struggles, our fears, our pains! The table is spread, wisdom is ready, Christ has done the hard work! Now He calls us to come, and keep coming!!

Woman Folly (v.13-18)

But as we said, there’s not only one voice that calls to us! Not only do our hearts naturally gravitate towards foolishness, but foolishness also pursues us! It’s again personified here as another woman! And there are similarities with lady wisdom! That’s the deadly thing about it, as we’ve seen before!

Look where she sits, v.14...

She knows where to get our attention! She knows how to make herself heard! Isn’t it remarkable how temptation is so often prepacked with our names on it! It seems the very areas we’re weakest at, that will be the wall that she climbs to call us! To grab our attention! Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ()

And look what she says, v.16a… She’s after the same people, she wants to draw in those who are simple, who can be foolish, who can lack sense! She wants to draw us in! And it sounds so like what we hear from the other side! And isn’t that the deadliness of it! The enemy twists the truth, uses the same language, the same terms, religious phrases, but there are dangers as you scratch the surface!

With lady wisdom we saw her great effort and preparation! With the woman folly there is none of that, there seems to be no depth (she knows nothing), rather she’s loud and seductive! What she lacks in substance she makes up for in show!

Don’t we see the reality of this played out continually today! Foolishness in abortion, in gender ideology, in promiscuity, in countless issues of the day! And there’s no substance, there’s no logic, there’s just loud voices, popular culture, bells and whistles. The last thing that foolishness wants is to be examined! Because she knows nothing! She’s not prepared, she relies on the fact that people won’t think, but rather simply act on their impulses, their feelings!

v.17...

What she offers again is so similar, but yet a cheap imitation of the real thing! Lady wisdom offers a feast, the best wine, the fattened calf! Woman folly offers bread and water! The lure is how they’re packaged, stolen water, bread eaten in secret. It’s the fact that they forbidden that makes them desirable!

And again this is the nature of all sin! It takes that which is good, and it offers it in a way that is forbidden! It takes the good pleasures God has created and twists them into something deadly!

Friendship is twisted into obsessive relationships. We become possessive of a person, you see it in school all the time! One person who has to be the number one friend, or there’s jealousy and envy!

Money instead of being a means to an end, and a means to bless others, it becomes an end in itself! A god to be sought after, hoped in, treasured, stored up!

Food instead of being something that’s enjoyed in moderation, it becomes an indulgence that we can’t control! Our appetite controls us, we eat till we’re bursting and then some more!

We’ve seen already the corruption of God’s gift of sex within marriage!

Rest which is given by God to be a refreshing to the person, becomes twisted into laziness! We live to rest, we want to have more and more leisure, we’re fooled into thinking work is the enemy and leisure the goal!

v.18...

The truth is, the loud and seductive offers only lead to one place, one outcome! death! Death in our relationships, in our mental health, in our physical health, in our souls!

Maybe you’ve had a taste of that to some extent in your life. You’ve been lured into foolishness, you’ve been offered something that looks satisfying, but the more you’ve taken the more you’ve lost! It happens in hundreds of ways throughout the day, in the big and the small! I’ve shared before even a small example from my own life, is the lure of football. Something that isn’t wrong, but foolishness takes it to a place it shouldn’t. It becomes more than a interest and simple pleasure. It becomes an obsession! You think about it, read about it, talk about it! It puts itself up in the place of god in your heart! and it only leads to death! Emptiness, dullness to spiritual things!

Maybe this morning as you sit there you know straight away how foolishness calls in your life, maybe in areas of appearance, friendships, money, work, shopping! But remember there’s a better voice, if we’ll listen!!

So let’s finish by considering these verses in the middle of these 2 competing voices!

How are we Hearing? (v.7-12)

In these verses we’re given 2 different ways in which we hear, or in which we accept instruction. And the way we do is so challenging, and so revealing! Essentially the way we receive reveals the path we’re on! It acts like a diagnostic test to show us if we’re turning aside to lady wisdom or woman folly!

2 different people are portrayed here, on the one side we have the scoffer. If you try to correct them, instruct them, help them see they are on the wrong path, then you better be ready for abuse! You better brace yourself, because it won’t go well! It will likely spell the end of any relationship because they’ll hate you!

Maybe you’ve experienced such a situation before?! And you know you don’t want to again! You’ve tried to graciously point something out to someone, maybe a bad attitude, maybe a habit of careless words, maybe a lifestyle choice that is unhealthy. But the reaction has been one of aggression, anger, ‘how dare you’, ‘who do you think you are?’!

But we can all be guilty! A friend of mine always talks about the self defense lawyer that we all have living within us! Who’s always ready to spring to make a case for us in every situation!! We’ve all had those feelings of being a bit prickly when someone has pulled us up about something! Our pride is not an enemy that lies down easily!

But there’s another person portrayed here, it’s the wise person. Instruction, correction, reproof is no easier to hear, it still can cut deep and will certainly hurt pride! But they’ll love you for it! They want to be wise, want to walk in the truth, want to increase in learning! They’ll receive it from you and thank you for it! They’ll see the love behind it, and humbly recognise that they need it! They’re not the finished article, they’re on a journey!

What a joy it is when we experience this kind of interaction! It actually strengthens relationships! Deepens friendships!

But let me ask you this morning? How do you hear? Think back to the last time someone reproved you, how did you feel, how did you react, did you take on board what was said? Or did you get you back up? Did you seek to allow the defense lawyer to go to work?!

Or maybe you can’t remember the last time someone did give you instruction or correction. Can I suggest it’s not because you don’t need it! We all do!! It’s likely because you not having close enough fellowship with others so they can see more clearer, or maybe people have learnt not to offer it to you?!

Why don’t you ask others in your life what they think? Ask those close to you how they would assess your hearing, and be careful how you hear their answer!!

v.10-11...

At the heart of our hearing, at the heart of our decision is very heart of wisdom itself! It all begins with the fear of the Lord, the knowledge of the Holy one! If we don’t have that, we have nothing but foolishness, we will never hear as we should, because we’ll be deceived into believing we are god!

v.12...

It’s decision time! No one else can make that call for you, your parents can’t, your friends can’t, you’re siblings can’t! You make that decision, and you own it!

So what will you choose today? Wisdom or folly? Christ or self? And if you’ve already given your life to Christ, will you keep hearing wisdom, keep coming, keep turning, keep feasting on what He has to offer each day?!