Enter in

Wisdom has built her house; she has made it strong with seven columns. She has cooked meat, mixed wine, and put food on the table. She has sent her servant girls to announce from the highest hill in the city, “Whoever needs instruction, come.” She invites all the simple people and says, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have prepared. Leave your old, foolish ways and live! Advance along the path of understanding.” 
(Proverbs 9:1-6 ERV)

For just a moment, imagine this huge house with the biggest dining area you have ever seen. The table is all set with lots and lots of fruits, cheeses, and fresh baked crusty breads. The room is filled with the luscious odors of finely seasoned meats roasting on a bed of hot coals, savory roots and nourishing veggies mixed with rich butter, and the sweetness of baked desserts oozing with goodness. The servants all stand at the ready to launch into service, but there are no guests yet. The room is empty except for those who stand at the ready, but this feast has not been prepared for the affluent or the proud. It has been prepared specifically for those who have "need" - for those who are ready to "leave" behind their need and enter into the goodness prepared just for them.

The call goes out - come if you have need, enter if you're interested in leaving your old ways...the door is open, the feast is prepared. The call is for "whoever", meaning anyone who realizes they have the need to partake of Wisdom's table. It isn't a "by special invitation only" kind of moment - it is one of those moments when you come to a place of realizing the intensity of your hunger and the desire to have that hunger met with what will truly satisfy. The feast is set, the participants just need to realize the invitation is for them!

A little later in this chapter there is a comparison of the "other woman" who merely sits at her door and calls out - the woman's name is "Foolishness". She hasn't gone to such troubles, but she doesn't have to exert much effort to get people to enter her doors! It says of those who pass by that they show little interest in her offering to enter, but somehow they are lured in anyway. It isn't the amount of effort she exerts as much as it is they are too gullible to realize the death trap they are about to enter. It says of her house, "18 Those simple people don’t realize that her house is full of ghosts and that her guests have entered the world of the dead.

One feast is prepared with the greatest of care. The other house is "open", but the same appeal isn't there, yet the ease at which some can be invited in should not surprise us. There are just some who will take the easiest path in life, regardless of how appealing some others might be. Let us be wise in our choice of "whose" house we will enter into today. Let us not choose the easiest, but the "choicest"! Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Steel in your convictions

Is that a wolf I hear?

Sentimental gush