Proverbs 9:1-6 ESV
“Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’
To him who lacks sense she says,
‘Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.’”
Wisdom Calls Out
Who are the simple? They are those who lack understanding,
who perhaps are easily led astray. They are the gullible, the naïve, and the
trusting. They are those who are ripe to be deceived because they trust easily.
They, perhaps, are also the merciful, the ones who have compassion for others,
which is one of the reasons that they might get talked into things easily.
So, godly Wisdom is calling out to the simple to leave their
simple ways, to forsake their naivety and their gullibleness and to walk in the
ways of insight and understanding. For, it is not good to be naïve and to be
too trusting of others who might be deceptive and manipulative. For the
manipulative are the ones who prey upon the naïve and the compassionate.
I know that I used to be the naïve and very trusting, even
though I had been hurt by others many times over. And part of that is because I
was (still am) a compassionate person whose heart goes out to the hurting. But
through many difficult circumstances in my life (the “school of hard knocks”) I
learned wisdom and understanding, and I am still learning.
It is good to be a compassionate person who cares about
others, but it is not good if that is not coupled with wisdom and discernment.
We need both! We need to not get hardened by the “hard knocks” of life so that
we become insensitive to the needs of others or to where we lack compassion.
But if our compassion is lacking in wisdom, it can lead us in the wrong
direction.
So, we need to learn from our mistakes, and from our times
when we lacked good judgment so that we don’t repeat those same errors. We need
to let godly wisdom and good counsel do its work in our hearts and minds so
that we gain understanding and good judgment, and so that we don’t fall prey to
deception and manipulation anymore.
For there are many liars and deceivers out there in the
church, in the government, in the news (and social) media and elsewhere. And
lies and deceptions abound all over the place. So, this is a call to not trust
everything that we read or hear or think we see, but to test it all in prayer,
in the study of God’s word (in context), and in the exercise of discernment.
Don’t stop caring about people. Don’t stop being
compassionate and merciful. Those are great qualities to have! But couple them
with discernment, wisdom, and understanding. Don’t fall for every sad story.
Social media is ripe for people to prey on vulnerable and compassionate people.
Let God fill you with his wisdom.
Proverbs 9:13-18 ESV
“The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’
And to him who lacks sense she says,
‘Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’
But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”
Folly is Loud!
Not only is Wisdom calling out to the naïve and the trusting,
but so is Folly. And Folly’s voice is very loud and strong and it is
everywhere. Folly’s voice comes from the liars, the deceivers, the
manipulative, and those who are given over to the desires of the flesh. So, if
we are not wise and discerning we might fall prey to Folly’s deceptions and
manipulations.
Folly’s voice can be heard through the mouths of preachers,
politicians, famous people, people of influence in this world, the news media,
social media, advertisements, music, the internet, movies, TV shows, electronic
games, educational establishments, books, magazines, and the like. And, again,
if we are not people who are exercising wisdom, discernment, and good judgment,
we might easily fall prey for Folly’s voice.
Many professing Christians are easy prey for Folly’s voice
because they are not following the counsel of God, but the counsel of men in
their worldly wisdom. They are following after a diluted cheap grace gospel
which allows them to live by their feelings rather than to walk by faith, and
which excuses away their sinful practices rather than putting them to death.
So, if we don’t want to fall prey to Folly, we have to not
believe the lies of the enemy just because they sound good to itching ears. We
have to not join in with those who compromise the truth of Scriptures to appeal
to the flesh of mankind. But we must be students of the Scriptures who study
them in context and who pray to God for wisdom and understanding.
For, Folly’s voice is very loud and it is immense and it is
being spread everywhere. And the masses are following Folly’s voice instead of
the voice of God and of godly wisdom and counsel. And that is because Folly is
teaching people that they can be saved from their sins and bound for heaven
while they continue in their sinful addictions.
Folly is twisting the Scriptures to her advantage in order
to lead people astray with her lies. She is convincing the masses that they can
continue to do what they know is evil, and that their lifestyles don’t have to
change, but that God still forgives them and invites them into his heaven. So,
she turns evil into something good and what is good into evil.
But what those who follow after Folly fail to realize, not
necessarily out of ignorance, but out of a refusal to accept the truth, is that
if they continue in their sinful practices, and they do not walk in obedience
to the Lord, and sin is what they practice, and righteousness is not what they
practice, that they will not inherit eternal life with God but will face the
wrath of God.
So, don’t believe the lies. Learn the truth from reading the
Bible verse by verse, in context. And then obey what it teaches you. For your
eternity depends upon you hearing and obeying the truth and you no longer
following after the lies. For Jesus died on that cross that we might die with
him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.
[Lu
9:23-26;
Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas
1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom
2:6-8; Matt
7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1
Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]
Pie Jesu
Songwriter: Andrew Lloyd-Webber
Merciful Jesus,
Pie Jesu,
Who takes away the sins of the world
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Give them rest, grant them rest
Dona eis requiem, dona eis requiem
Lamb of God
Agnus Dei,
Who takes away the sins of the world
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Grant them eternal rest
Dona eis requiem
Forever
Sempiternam
Requiem
Requiem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46wueF4OKck
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