What are you setting on your table?
“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table.”
Proverbs 9:1-2, NIV 84
Wisdom is personified in these passages as a woman who builds her house and sets her table. She then calls out an invitation for those who are simple to come to her house and join her for a meal.
What’s on Your Table?
Wisdom has built her house. I like to think of this as a woman who takes the time to think about the materials with which she is building.
Jesus had something to say about how we build.
“I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”
Luke 6:47-48
We can know what the Word says, but if we do not put it into practice, we are not building a house—we’re just playing in the sand.
Let’s build our homes on the Rock.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.”
Psalm 127:1
We need to build on the Rock of our salvation, which is Jesus Christ. If we live a life that acknowledges God as a part of our lives, we are in trouble. When Jesus is the foundation of the life we are building, He is not part of our lives. He is our life.
Wisdom also builds with seven pillars. Seven is the number of completion in the Bible, so let’s look at seven qualities of wisdom according to James.
Let’s frame our homes with wisdom.
“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”
James 3:17-18
Imagine if we built our lives and our homes on the foundation of the Word of God and our salvation, and then we framed it in with purity, peace, consideration, submission, mercy and good fruit, impartiality, and sincerity.
Now, that’s a house worth living in. And that’s a home worth inviting others to.
But Wisdom does one more thing. She sets a table. She prepares the meat and mixes the wine. The meat and wine remind me of the blood of the covenant and the meat of God’s Word.
As women of wisdom, we can invite others to the table to share the Gospel of grace available by faith in the blood of Christ. We can disciple other women in the truth of God’s Word.
Let’s invite others to the table.
But then Folly sends out invitations to the simple, too.
“The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. ‘Let all who are simple come in here!’ she says to those who lack judgment.”
Proverbs 9:13-16
Folly is an attention-seeker; she has to be the loudest voice. She may be popular, but she is leading others to destruction.
“But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.”
Proverbs 9:18
Folly hasn’t even set a table, because what she has to offer is not worthy of the table.
“’Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!'”
Proverbs 9:17
It may seem that what she has to offer is delicious–sin is enticing. But the truth is that what is done in secret will eventually be revealed. Sin has consequences that are not so pleasant.
These passages in Proverbs are written to warn others to follow the ways of wisdom and not folly. But I think they also serve as instructions to us as women. Which woman do we want to be?
We can be the attention-seeker—loud and undisciplined, manipulative, and leading others astray. Or we can be the voice of wisdom and truth to those around us—to our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.
Let’s be women of wisdom.
Let’s build a home on the foundation of truth with the walls of wisdom. Let’s set a table with food that will endure and drink that will quench every thirst. Let’s invite others to the home we have built and the table we have set and offer them life.
Our homes can become a place to share the Gospel. Our table can be a place to disciple someone. So, how about it? Do you know someone, young or old, who needs an invitation?
“Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live.”
Proverbs 9:6
The house and table of wisdom lead to life.
What’s on your table?
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