Proverbs 9:1 - Meaning and Application

Wisdom is introduced here as a great and generous queen. This Wisdom is the Word of God, by whom God makes known his goodwill toward people, and God the Word, to whom the Father has given all judgment. In the chapter before, she showed her greatness and glory as Creator of the world. Here she shows her grace and goodness as its Redeemer.

The word is plural, “wisdoms,” because in Christ are hidden treasures of wisdom, and in his work we see the many-sided wisdom of God shown in a mystery. Here we should notice, first, the rich provision Wisdom has made for all who will become her disciples. This is pictured as a lavish feast, and it likely gave rise to our Lord’s parables where he compared the kingdom of heaven to a great supper (Matthew 22:2; Luke 14:16). It was also foretold in Isaiah 25:6. It is like the feast Ahasuerus, the Persian king, made to display the riches of his kingdom. In the Lord’s Supper, the grace of the gospel is set before us in this way.

To welcome her guests, Wisdom has prepared a stately house, Proverbs 9:1. She did not find a house large enough for all her guests, so she built one for them. To make it strong and beautiful, she hewed out its seven pillars, which make it firm and give it grandeur. Heaven is the house Wisdom has built to receive all who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is her Father’s house, where there are many rooms, and where she has gone to prepare places for us. God hung the earth on nothing, so we have no lasting city here. But heaven is a city with foundations, and it has pillars. The church is also Wisdom’s house, where she invites her guests and where God’s power and promise support everything like seven pillars. Solomon may also be referring to the temple he had just built for worship, and to which he wanted people to come to worship God and learn Wisdom’s teaching. Some think he had the schools of the prophets in mind.

There is also a rich feast ready, Proverbs 9:2. She has slaughtered her meat and mixed her wine, so there is plenty of food and drink, and all of it is excellent. The word can also mean sacrifice, so this is a costly feast and a sacred one, a feast built around a sacrifice. Christ has offered himself for us, and his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink. The Lord’s Supper is a feast of peace and joy after the sacrifice of atonement, that is, the sacrifice that makes us right with God. The wine is mixed with something richer than itself to give it a fuller taste and strength. Wisdom has fully furnished her table with all the blessings a soul can want, righteousness and grace, peace and joy, the assurance of God’s love, the comfort of the Spirit, and the promises and first signs of eternal life.

This is all Wisdom’s own work. She has slaughtered the meat and mixed the wine. That shows both the love of Christ, who makes the provision himself, and the excellence of the preparation. What Wisdom prepares herself must fit its purpose exactly.

Second, Wisdom gives a gracious invitation, not to a few friends only, but to all people in general, to come and share these gifts. She sends out her maidens, Proverbs 9:3. The ministers of the gospel are commissioned to announce what God has prepared in the everlasting covenant for all who will come on its terms. They must do this with purity and care, not corrupting themselves or God’s word. They are to call everyone they meet, even in the highways and hedges, to come and feast with Wisdom, because everything is ready (Luke 14:23).

Wisdom herself cries out from the highest places of the city, eager for people’s good and grieved that they reject their own mercy for empty lies. Our Lord Jesus himself announced his gospel. After sending out his disciples, he followed them to confirm what they said. Indeed, it began to be spoken by the Lord (Hebrews 2:3). He stood and cried, “Come to me.”

We should notice who is invited. It is the simple and those who lack understanding, Proverbs 9:4. If we were preparing a banquet, these are not the people we would usually seek out. We would rather invite the wise and learned, so we could hear their wisdom and enjoy their conversation. But Wisdom invites the simple because they most need what she offers. She is looking out for their good. The simple are invited so they may become wise, and those who lack a heart, meaning sound understanding, are told to come here and receive one. Her preparation is more like medicine than ordinary food. It is meant to bring the greatest cure, the healing of the mind.

Whoever the person may be, the invitation is open to all and shuts out no one unless they shut themselves out. However foolish they may be, they will still be welcome. They may be helped. They will not be despised, and they will not be abandoned as hopeless. Our Savior came not to call the righteous, but sinners, not those who think they see clearly (John 9:41), but the simple, those who know they are foolish and are ashamed of it, and those who are willing to become fools so that they may be wise (1 Corinthians 3:18).

Next, we should notice what the invitation is. We are invited to Wisdom’s house: “Turn in here.” And this includes us, because who among us cannot admit that we fit the description of the simple and needy? Wisdom’s doors stand open to such people, and she wants to speak with them for their good. She has no other purpose toward them. We are also invited to her table, Proverbs 9:5: “Come, eat of my bread.” That means, taste the true pleasures found in knowing and fearing God. By faith, when we believe the promises of the gospel and take comfort in them, we feed and feast on what Christ has provided for poor souls. What we eat and drink becomes our own, and it nourishes and refreshes us. In the same way, God’s word nourishes the soul, because it contains food and drink for those who have understanding.

Finally, there is something required of those who want the benefit of this invitation, Proverbs 9:6. They must break off from bad company. “Leave the foolish,” that is, do not keep company with them, do not copy their ways, and have no fellowship with the works of darkness or with those who do such things. The first step toward virtue is to avoid vice, and that means avoiding the vicious. “Depart from me, you evildoers.”

They must wake up and rise from the dead. They must live, not for pleasure, because those who live that way are dead while they are alive. They must live for God’s service, because only those who do that truly live and live for a real purpose. “Do not live like an animal, as brutes do, but finally live like human beings. Live spiritually, and you will live forever” (Ephesians 5:14).

They must choose Wisdom’s paths and stay on them. “Go in the way of understanding” means, govern yourself from now on by the rules of religion and right reason. It is not enough to leave the foolish behind. We must also join ourselves to those who walk in wisdom and follow the same spirit and steps.

Wisdom also gives instructions to the maidens she sends out to invite others, meaning the ministers and others who work in their places to serve her purposes. She tells them what their work must be. They are not only to speak in general about the preparation made for souls and the offer of it. They must speak to particular people, tell them their faults, and reprove and rebuke them (Proverbs 9:7, Proverbs 9:8). They must also teach them how to improve, and show them how to change (Proverbs 9:9). God’s word is meant for reproof, correction, and instruction in right living, and so is the ministry of that word.

Wisdom also tells them what kinds of people they will meet, what to do with them, and what success they may expect. Some will be scorners and wicked people who mock the Lord’s messengers and mistreat them. They laugh at those who invite them to the Lord’s feast, as people did in (2 Chronicles 30:10), and they treat them badly, as in (Matthew 22:6). These people are not forbidden from being invited to Wisdom’s house, but the messengers are told not to keep pressing them with reproof and rebuke. “Do not reprove a scorner. Do not throw pearls before pigs” (Matthew 7:6). So Christ said of the Pharisees, “Leave them alone” (Matthew 15:14).

Do not reprove them, first, because it is fair to them. They have already refused the help they received, and they have given up their claim to more help. Those who are dirty, let them stay dirty. Those who cling to idols, let them be. “We turn to the Gentiles.” Second, do not reprove them for your own sake. If you do, you may waste your effort and be shamed by the failure. You may also stir up their anger. Even if you speak wisely and gently, if you speak faithfully, they will hate you, insult you, and say every evil thing they can about you. So your reproofs may do more harm than good.

Others, however, are wise, good, and just. Thanks be to God, not all are scorners. Some are wise enough and honest enough to welcome teaching. When we meet such people, we must reprove them if needed, because even wise people are not so wise that they never need correction. We must not ignore anyone’s faults just because we respect his wisdom. And a wise person should not think his wisdom keeps him from correction when he says or does something foolish. In fact, the more wisdom a person has, the more ready he should be to have his weaknesses shown, because a little foolishness is a serious flaw in someone known for wisdom and honor.

With our reproof, we must also give instruction and teach them (Proverbs 9:9). We may expect them to take this as kindness (Psalm 141:5). A wise person will count those as friends who deal honestly with him. “Rebuke such a person, and he will love you” for your frankness. He will thank you and want you to do him the same favor again, if needed. It is just as much wisdom to accept a reproof well as to give one well.

When a wise person receives correction well, it will do him good and meet its purpose. He will become wiser through the reproofs and lessons given to him. He will increase in learning, grow in knowledge, and so grow in grace. No one should think himself too wise to learn, or so good that he does not need to become better and therefore does not need teaching. We must keep pressing forward and keep seeking to know God until we reach full maturity. “Give to a wise man,” as the Hebrew says, give him advice, reproof, or comfort, and he will become wiser still. Or, as the Septuagint reads, give him an opportunity to show his wisdom, and he will do it. Acts of wisdom strengthen wise habits.

Wisdom also gives instructions to those who are invited, and her maidens must press these lessons on them. First, they must learn what true wisdom is, and what they will receive at Wisdom’s table (Proverbs 9:10). The heart must be formed by the fear of God, and that is the beginning of wisdom. A reverence for God’s greatness and a fear of his anger are the first steps toward true religion, and all other parts of it grow from that. At first, this fear may bring trouble, but love will slowly drive out that trouble.

The mind must also be filled with the knowledge of the things of God. “The knowledge of holy things” is understanding, meaning the things that belong to God’s service and to our own holiness. Even reproof is called something holy (Matthew 7:6). Or it means the knowledge that holy people have, taught by the holy prophets, about the things they spoke as the Holy Spirit moved them. This is understanding, and it is the best and most useful kind. It helps us most and brings the best results.

They must also know the benefits of this wisdom (Proverbs 9:11). “By me your days will be multiplied.” Wisdom helps the body stay healthy, so a person’s life on earth may be longer, while folly and excess shorten life. It also brings a person to heaven, where his days will be multiplied without end, and the years of his life will never stop increasing. There is no true wisdom apart from the way of religion, and no true life apart from the end of that way.

They must also know what follows if they accept or refuse this fair offer (Proverbs 9:12). Those who embrace it are blessed. “If you are wise, you will be wise for yourself.” You will be the one who gains from it, not Wisdom. A person cannot do God any profit. It is for our own good that we are invited. You will not leave the gain to others, as we do with our worldly wealth when we die, which is why it is called another man’s wealth (Luke 16:12). You will carry this wisdom with you into the next world. Those who are wise for their souls are wise for themselves, because the soul is the real person. No one truly looks after his own best interest unless he is truly religious.

This brings us back to God and away from the folly and brokenness that rule us by nature. It uses us in what is most helpful in this life, and it gives us a claim to what is far better in the life to come.

It also shows the shame and ruin of those who reject wisdom. If you scorn wisdom’s offer, you alone will bear the result. You will carry the blame for it. Good people must thank God for their goodness, but wicked people can blame only themselves. God is not the author of sin. Satan can only tempt, not force, and wicked companions are only his tools. So the full guilt rests on the sinner.

You will also bear the loss of what you reject. What you despise will lead to your own destruction. Your blood will be on your own head, and that will make your judgment heavier. “Son, remember that this fair offer was made to you, and you would not accept it. You stood within reach of life, but chose death instead.”