Proverbs 8:Lady Wisdom or Woman Folly, Everyday, we make decisions based on wisdom or folly.
Listen to Wisdom’s Invitation
Matthew 7: 24-27
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Wisdom is abundant if we listen for it. How we act upon wisdom is quite another issue. Running up our own debt limits at Christmas, the type of cable shows or music we choose to listen to. The devil wields three powerful weapons: the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life. These will over power our decision making unless we listen to and act according to Lady Wisdom’s call.
What does “LISTEN” means. It is both the physical hearing…receiving the sound waves and our physical ear processing the meaning PLUS ACTING on what we hear, and take Mt 7:24-27. HEAR: Wise man build house on rock, foolish built on sand foundation. Both men heard same thing, acted differently and very different consequences followed.
Proverbs 8: 1-6 (references)
Lady Wisdom is Always There
Proverbs 8:2 states Wisdom is everywhere, at the crossroads, the city gate, it abounds…but we must LISTEN, physically hear it and then act accordingly.
Parallelism is used to drive the points forward
See verse one, where those two words are used to do that.
Wisdom and Understanding
1.Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?
Lady Wisdom:
Listen (and be willing to hear) – Action (be willing to act), and when the action is correct, righteousness happens. Only when “righteousness” is birthed in a man, consistently, in relationships with others………then justice occurs, and when done with a “pure heart”, and “right motive”, integrity is established.
That is what Lady Wisdom does for us, and she comes from the love of God, agape love.
Woman Folly (Prov 9:13, see references)
The she sits on the highest place and by her door, luring men with her messages. She comes from Satan, eros love-lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life (1 John 2:16) are her weapons. The personification of sinful and selfish living. When we fall to those temptations, the consequence is sin, and not acting upon Lady Wisdom’s calling can also result in sin. Sin is disobedience to God’s commandments, either by doing what is forbidden or failing to do what is required.
Read more on sin and forgiveness