Forsake your folly and proceed in the way of understanding!
[Proverbs 9:1-18]
I got a book gift from my friend this Monday. I wasn't interested in the book's author but personally, the title of the book drew my attention. The title of the book was ‘The road I haven't been to is more beautiful.’ Perhaps there are so many roads that I haven't been able to go, so I opened this book and started reading because I was curious about what the author said about that beautiful road. This is what the author said: ‘We have many choices in our lives. Choosing is also about choosing one of several things, but also giving up on the other. That is why people with a lot of regret have lots of regrets about other things that have been abandoned because of their choice’ (Internet). I think people who have lot of regrets about the road they haven't been able to go to are drawn to the title of this book and try to read it with curiosity. So I opened the book once and started reading it, and the title of the first chapter was ‘The road I haven't been to is more beautiful.’ In that first chapter, the author talked about her childhood and the Korean War. She was unable to walk the path she dreamed of because of the war and walked another path. When she looked at back her almost 80 years of life now, she concluded: ‘The silk that I dreamed of may be worse than the silk that I actually have now. But as if the road I have not been able to go to is more beautiful than the way I have been to, I can't help but to see that the success that I missed in reality looks much shabby compared to the dream I missed’ (Internet).
I personally looked back on my life for about 44 years, thinking about the path I have been on and the path the Lord gave me to walk. Of course, I know it's not easy to divide my life into just two paths. But I thought it would be nice to try it at least once while preparing for today's sermon. First of all, when I look back on the path I've been on, if I can say that path in one word, I can't help but confess that it was foolish path of wandering and sin. The reason why it was the path of wandering and sin is because I lived in the world apart from God, and I had left the Lord and tried to find the meaning of life, joy, and happiness in the world. Then, when I think about what I can say in a word that the Lord gave me to walk, I would like to say that it is the path of grace, the path of love, and the path of the purpose of existence of my life. The reason why the path of my life's purpose of existence is because when I was in my first year in college, through a college retreat at my church, the Lord made me realize the purpose of my life and led me to live a life that is guided by that purpose. And the reason why the way is the way of grace and the way of love is because everything is God's grace and God's great love that He made me to realize it and to enjoy it thus far. Meanwhile, about 6 years ago, God made me to start meditating on the book of Psalms, and continued to meditate on the book of Ecclesiastes and the book of Proverbs this year 2011. And I see that the Lord is leading me to walk the path of wisdom. In particular, the Lord continues to teach me what the path of wisdom the Lord wants me to walk as He reveals my own foolishness more and more through the books of wisdom. In the midst of that, the Lord is giving me the word, “Forsake your folly and proceed in the way of understanding” through Proverbs chapter 9. Look at Proverbs 9:6 – “"Forsake your folly and live, And proceed in the way of understanding.” Based on this word, under the heading “Forsake your folly and proceed in the way of understanding!,” I will like all of us to learn what folly we should forsake and how we can follow the path of understanding as we meditate on Proverbs 9:1-18.
First of all, what we want to think about is what is folly that we must forsake.
The folly we must forsake is mocking.
Look at Proverbs 9:7-8: “Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” When we refer to someone as ‘he’s arrogant,’ we think that the meaning is ‘he pretends to be proud and despises others.’ By the way, in today's text, “a mocker” refers to the “scorner” (Strong). This arrogant man is a scoffer of the instructions of truth (Park). And the trait of the arrogant who ridicule the instructions of truth is that he is proud and arrogant and likes to reject it with contempt. What does the arrogant despise and like to refuse? It is discipline and reproof or rebuke. In other words, the mocker likes to reject wisdom in contempt (Whitaker). That is why King Solomon says in Proverbs 9:8, “Do not rebuke a mocker.” What is the reason? The reason is because “he will hate you” (v. 8). In other words, if we rebuke the mocker, he will hate us so we shouldn’t rebuke the mocker. Another reason why we should not rebuke the mocker is because if we rebuke him, we will rather get dishonor and insults for ourselves (v. 7). Here the word ‘to get insults’ means that when we rebuke the mocker, we will get verbal abuse by the mocker (Swanson). This means, for example, that when we rebuke the mocker because we love him, he can pour out insults on us.
Personally, I sympathized with the words of King Solomon “Do not rebuke a mocker” (v. 7). And I thought about why the mocker would hate to be rebuked. What do you think is the reason? Dr. Park Yoon-sun says that there are two reasons why the proud person rebels without receiving advice. The reason he rebelled is, first, because he became obsessed with pride, not knowing the truth, and thinking that what he had done was right. And second, because he has pride, he considers a person who gives advice to him or rebukes him as the person who humiliates him (Park). Dr. Park said such pride is sin. The reason is because the Bible tells us to consider others better than ourselves (Phil. 2:3) (Park). Don’t we have this sinful pride in us? In this way the mocker believes himself that he is right in his sinful pride. So no matter how much we rebuke him in love, he will never listen to our rebuke. To such a person, the rebuke of the wise man can never benefit (v. 12). Rather, the mocker doesn’t hear the rebuke of wisdom but hears the voice of the woman of folly (v. 13). Look at Proverbs 9:13-17: “The woman of folly is boisterous, She is naive and knows nothing. She sits at the doorway of her house, On a seat by the high places of the city, Calling to those who pass by, Who are making their paths straight: Whoever is naive, let him turn in here," And to him who lacks understanding she says, ‘Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’” The woman of folly calls to those who pass by, who are making their paths straight and says “Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (v. 17). What does it mean here, “Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant”, the voice of the woman of folly? According to one commentator, “Stolen water” can refer to implicit sex, because Proverbs 5:15 says, “Drink water from your own cistern And fresh water from your own well” and it can refer to the sexual relationship between a husband and a wife in marriage and stolen water refers to sex outside of marriage. And the “bread eaten in secret” (9:17) is a clandestine activity (Walvoord) and that also has a negative meaning. In the end, the Bible says that the mocker falls into this foolish woman’s deception (vv. 16-17) and will suffer alone (v. 12). What kind of suffer will the mocker go though? The mocker is simple (v. 16) and falls into the foolish woman’s deception (vv. 13, 16-17). Not knowing that her dwelling place is a place to be killed and to be sent to the depths of the grave (v. 18), the mocker responds to her invitation and eventually will face death (ref.: 2:18; 5:5 7:27). Therefore, Proverbs 9:6 says, “Forsake your folly and live, And proceed in the way of understanding.” We must obey this word and forsake our folly. And we must proceed in the way of understanding.
How can we truly follow the way of understanding? This question is what we would like to think about as the second and last in today's text. I think Proverbs 9:1-18 teaches us three things:
First, we must respond to the invitation of wisdom.
Look at Proverbs 9:1-5: “Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars; She has prepared her food, she has mixed her wine; She has also set her table; She has sent out her maidens, she calls From the tops of the heights of the city: ‘Whoever is naive, let him turn in here!’ To him who lacks understanding she says, ‘Come, eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed.’” In today's text, King Solomon says that two different voices are inviting us from the high places of the city: one is the invitation of the woman of folly (v. 14) and the other is the invitation of wisdom (v. 3). And the Bible says that he who lacks understanding (v. 16), in response to the invitation of the woman of folly called from the high places of the city, forsakes the right path he was walking on (vv. 14-15), choose the path of foolishness, and eventually die (v. 18). However, the wise man, in response to the invitation of wisdom from the heights of the city, forsakes his foolishness and chooses the path of understanding, and eventually lives (v. 6). The woman of folly says, “Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (v. 17), and invites those who lack understanding, while wisdom says, “Come, eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed” (v. 5) and invite them. This invitation of wisdom reminds me of Isaiah 55:1-3: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” What does it mean? Now God is inviting all people to participate in all His salvation through the prophet Isaiah. This refers to the gracious invitation of the Lord to participate in salvation through the gospel in the New Testament era (Park). In Proverbs 9, unlike “Stolen water” and “bread eaten in secret,” (v. 17) which the woman of folly refers to, wisdom says “my food And drink of wine” (v. 5). Here “my food And drink of wine” refers to the flesh to be torn and the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who is the true wisdom, to shed on the cross. The Bible says that if we drink the stolen water and eat the bread in secret in response to the invitation of the woman of folly, we will eventually die. But if we eat and drink the food and wine of wisdom in response to the invitation of wisdom, we will gain life (v. 6), that is, eternal life. Therefore, we must respond to the invitation of wisdom and walk the path of understanding.
Second, we are to love rebuke and instruction and teaching of wisdom.
Look at Proverbs 9:8-9: “Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.” When we rebuke the mocker, he will hate us, and it will invite insult and incur abuse. But the Bible says that if we rebuke the wise, he will love us (vv. 7-8). Why does the wise love us for rebuking him? The reason is because through our rebuke, the wise will add to his learning and will be wiser (v. 9). In a word, because our rebuke will benefit the wise (v. 12), we must love rebuke, instruction, and teaching of wisdom. As I meditated on these words, I wrote a short writing under the heading ‘We must know how to be pointed out’: ‘Everyone knows how to point out. However, it is not easy to point it right. Even more difficult is pointing out wisely with the love of God. We must be able to point out humbly and correctly with the love of God. At the same time, what is really important is that we must be able to humbly receive the pointing out. Of course, when we are being pointed out, we can get stressed and it can hurt our hearts. Especially when we see the selfish side of a person rather than feeling the love of God through that person who pointed us, our hearts can feel pains and be troubled. Also, when we are pointed out in the midst of misunderstandings while our hearts aren’t properly understood, our instincts may have the urge to point out the misunderstanding of the person who pointed us out. Nevertheless, we must be able to humbly receive his pointing out. The reason is because maybe God is pointing us through him who pointed to us (whether that pointing out is correct or not). We need to know how to use people's pointing out as an opportunity to grow before God.’ This is what the Bible Proverbs 12:15 says: “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.” The mocker who believes in himself that he is right will not listen to us and will hate us when we rebuke him in love because he think that he is right no matter what. But when the Bible says that the wise hear counsel, he has humble listening ears. He doesn’t believe that he is right and doesn’t boast. Rather, he heeds correction and gains understanding (15:32, 21:11). So we must heed correction. We must love the rebuke of wisdom. Therefore, we must become wiser and walk on the path of understanding to the end.
Third and last, we must know and fear the holy God.
Look at Proverbs 9:10 – “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” In order for us to forsake our folly and proceed in the way of understanding, we must get to know God. What kind of God is our God? He is the holy God. The more we get to know that holy God, the more we can't help but fear Him. The reason is because the more we get to know the holy God, the more we get to know how sinful, unclean, and profane we are. In Proverbs 9:10, King Solomon said that the fear of the Lord is “the beginning of wisdom”. Here, the word “the beginning” is different Hebrew word from “the beginning” in the theme verse Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; ….” In Proverbs 1:7, the word “the beginning” means “beginning”, whereas in Proverbs 9:10, the word “the beginning” means “prerequisite” (Walvoord). That is, what King Solomon is saying in Proverbs 9:10 is that the fear of God is a prerequisite for wisdom. In the end, the prerequisite for wisdom is that we fear God because we come to know the holy God. In order for us to forsake our folly and proceed in the way of understanding, it is essential that we know the holy God and fear Him as the prerequisite for this wisdom. We hope that we become wise believers who fear God as we diligently know the holy God. Therefore, I hope and pray that all of us can walk along the way of understanding with the Lord.
When we look back on our lives and think about how we should live now and in the future, the Bible Proverbs 9:6 tells us to forsake our folly and proceed in the way of understanding. We must walk the way of faith by forsaking especially arrogance. And we must respond to the invitation of wisdom to walk on the way of understanding. And we must love rebuke and instruction and teaching of wisdom. And since we know the holy God, we must live according to God's will in the fear of God. Victory!