Are you somebody who is motivated by a carrot or a stick? If you're faced with a choice, are you more motivated to make the right choice by the appeal of the right one, or the fear of what may go wrong if you take the wrong choice?
At work, what incentivises you to put in that little bit of extra effort? Is it the idea that you might be noticed and so rewarded, or the fear that your career could be harmed if you just work to rule?
How about with Jesus? Is his appeal one of carrot or stick?
Many people who do not follow Jesus go through life without him, thinking that doing this is really good and enjoyable and full of pleasure. "Why would I want Jesus?" they say. "My life is just so good without him." What's our reply to that? Because we could say, "Actually, life without Jesus, when you reach eternity, will be extremely painful for you." Or we could say, "Life with Jesus and his people is the path to untold beauty and joy in this life and wonderful things in eternity."
Now, both are true. There is carrot and stick. But the Bible says, "Come over here and live," far more than it says, "Don't go over there and die."
Within these two chapters, Proverbs 8 and 9, we will see that there is both carrot and stick, and we'll see that this morning. But the focus is to portray Jesus as so attractive that our hearts are drawn to follow him.
What we have in these chapters are two portraits of wisdom. They are self-portraits. In Proverbs 1:7, we've had a wise teacher telling us to go and get that thing over there called wisdom. But you'll notice throughout these chapters, it's "I", "me", "my". I have trustworthy things to say, I open my lips, my mouth speaks what is true, come to me.
So let's look at these two chapters.
Wisdom the beautiful
Chapter 8, I've given the title Wisdom the Beautiful. Wisdom the Beautiful paints herself from lots of different angles. Wisdom sparkles, so as you look from different angles, you see different bits of light glinting—a little bit like a gemstone, we might say, as we read through this chapter—like a ruby.
Now, there is not time this morning to go through the whole chapter in detail, so verses 1 to 21, I'm just going to give you some headings. They're on the sheet as well. Go take these headings away and chew later in your own time on the beauty of wisdom. So here you go:
- 1 to 3 – The invitation is prominent. God does not wish to hide the path to a full life. Wisdom wants to be found.
- 4 and 5 – This is for everyone—all humanity.
- 6 to 9 – Wisdom directs you to both what is true and to what is morally good and upright.
- 10 to 11 – More precious than anything you could think of.
- Verse 12 – Wisdom is shrewd. It's the shrewd way to live.
- Verse 13 – Wisdom hates pride and evil. Wisdom is humble, which means when wisdom offers you shrewdness, it's very different from the world's shrewdness that tramples other people to get ahead. No—wisdom is humble shrewdness.
- 14 to 16 – Wisdom gives you the power to make good choices and then to follow them through, which is why leaders govern well with wisdom.
- Verse 17 – Wisdom is the love that, if you love her, she will love you back. There's a contrast there to some of the earlier chapters of Proverbs.
- Verses 18 to 21 – Wisdom rewards you richly. Wisdom—yes, more precious than rubies, than riches—but not because wisdom will make you poor, but because wisdom will give you true and lasting riches.
There we go. Take those headings away. Go chew and enjoy this poem about wisdom.
I want us to focus on verses 22 to 31:
The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth;
before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth.
I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary so that the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was constantly at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in the human race.
We must be careful not to misunderstand these verses. A heretic from the 4th century by the name of Arius did not believe that Jesus is God, and this passage was one of his favourite places to turn. He says this chapter shows God making Jesus so that Jesus can then make everything else, and that makes Jesus a creature just like us.
Now, before you think to yourself, "Huh, 4th century heretic—what's the relevance of that to me?" Actually, plenty. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are around today. They believe many things that are mistaken, but when it comes to Jesus not being God, all of their arguments are just a straight rehash from Arius. They just take his playbook and run it. So if you want to answer them, go read the 4th century stuff and you'll find all the answers. But they particularly love Proverbs 8.
So just in case you meet this on your doorstep, here are just a few things I can tell you about this chapter—three things.
Firstly, notice: this is a description of wisdom, not a description of Jesus. Now, Jesus is the ultimate wise person, sure—so this will describe him better than it describes any other human being who's ever lived—but it doesn't mean that everything said here of wisdom is literally true of Jesus the person.
Second thing to notice: this is poetry. There's not a person called Wisdom. This is a poem extolling the qualities of wisdom, which is very different.
And the third thing to notice: this describes God giving birth to wisdom. Now, just think about that for a minute, because what it cannot mean is this: once upon a time… (Now, just notice what I did there, by the way—"Once upon a time"…) Once upon a time, God was foolish. God wanted to make a world, so the first thing he did was he created some wisdom for himself so that the foolish God would then be wise enough to make something.
That is nonsense.
So it cannot mean that. No—when these verses speak of God giving birth to wisdom, it just means this: God has his ideas, his plans, his good designs first, and then he creates to make something out of those plans and good designs.
The New Testament says that God the Son is eternal—he's existed for all eternity. So you cannot take this chapter and use it to say that the New Testament, in its plain teaching, is wrong and God the Son is just a creature.
Anyway, that's just in case that's helpful for you.
Let's look at what this is saying. Wisdom has been around before God made anything. Wisdom was by God's side as God made everything. Wisdom is God's co-worker in creating. So you could even say Wisdom made the world.
Now, if you've been coming to church for a while, or you read the Bible a bit, you'll be used to the idea that the world is as it is because God made it. But this just goes one step further: the world is as it is because God made it by his wisdom.
This is why the world is good.
So, verse 30:
I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in the human race.
This is wisdom—to quote Genesis, looking at all that God has made and saw that it was very good. Creation itself delights God's wisdom.
What does all this mean in practice?
We're going to look at an example. So turn over to Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 17.
Okay—Proverbs 14:17 says this:
A quick-tempered person does foolish things,
and the one who devises evil schemes is hated.
Now, what does that say? It's not hard to understand, is it? Someone with a quick temper is going to do things that are foolish because their temper will get ahead of their ability to think clearly. That's true. And someone who regularly plots how they can hurt other people is going to end up unpopular. That's true.
Now, it'd be easy to think of this verse as coming into being because someone observed the world and said, "I'm spotting a pattern here. I've just noticed that every time people routinely set out to hurt other people, that person ends up unpopular. I've just noticed this — let me share that thought with you." Well, it is that, but it's much more than that. God made everything by his wisdom. So it means God has designed the world, designed you, designed other people to work this way. God has deliberately built a world where people who set out to hurt other people end up unpopular. That's the way it's designed.
Let me show you a picture called The Persistence of Memory by the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí.
Art critics love looking at artwork and just noticing things, and if, like me, you haven't got a very good eye for that, you just think, "This is so clever — how did you spot that? The fact that dress is blue is significant? I would never have seen that." Now, this painting was devised about 25 years after Einstein published his theory of special relativity. So someone said to Salvador Dalí — they said, "Ah, I see what you've done here. I think what you've done is you've tried to paint special relativity. You want to create a painting that shows that time can be bent." Do you know what he said? "No," he said, "that's not it. Let me tell you how this painting came into being. I was sat watching a wedge of Camembert in the sun, and as the sun made the Camembert cheese warm, it just sort of deformed and flopped, and I thought, I'm going to paint that." He said, "Lots of the things in life that we treasure and think are permanent actually melt and don't last. That's what I want to create." And so what I'm creating in this painting — this was his phrase — "I wanted to paint the Camembert of time."
You see, for art critics to notice things, that's one thing. Very different when the artist intentionally designs something to show you something. The reason wisdom works, the reason the world is as it is, the reason the world is beautiful and full of joy, is because God's wisdom is written into its DNA.
Now, have you ever gone on holiday and had some tinned food but realised that you do not have access to a tin opener? Now, if this was an all-age teaching slot, we'd do a vote and see who has done this. But to protect the innocent, we won't be doing that — my hands can remain safely by my side. You could try a kitchen knife, see if you can prise the tin open. You could try a hammer and screwdriver — a trusty pair of tools. Either way, you would most likely injure yourself, but still end up with no food. I'm speaking theoretically, because those tools were not designed to be used in that way!
If God's wisdom came first and he designed the world by his wisdom, then if you go through life and ignore God's wisdom, that is like trying to open canned food with a screwdriver. But if you live by God's wisdom, then you are navigating life the way God designed it, and so your life will experience the beauty and the delight of God's world lived along the grain of the way he's made it.
Wisdom the Beautiful.
Wisdom the life-giving host
Now let's look at chapter 9, which I've called Wisdom the life-giving Host. Chapter 9 contrasts two women. The first six verses of chapter 9 portray Wisdom personified as a woman who invites you to her house. The last six verses portray Folly personified as a woman who invites you to her house. So you've got two sections of six verses, two lines to each verse — you can lay them out in parallel and see that they're structured in parallel, and yet very different.
The point is that you have a choice in life. Your choice is not will you listen, but to whom will you listen?
Lady Wisdom (9:1-6)
So, first of all, Lady Wisdom. Let me just draw you to four little details in Lady Wisdom's little piece in verses 1 to 6. Notice firstly the house:
Wisdom has built her house;
she has set up its seven pillars.
So this is a house she's built herself. It's a perfect house — perfection symbolised by the number seven. And as we read on, we see she's not just inviting you to pop round for food and then leave after a couple of hours at a pre-booked departure time. She is inviting you to move in and live in this wonderful mansion for the rest of your life. That's the house.
Second, notice the meal:
Verse 2: She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
The meat is prepared — the language there is of choice cuts, well prepared, marinated if you like it, lots of spices added, cooked to perfection. Now, they didn't in those days know about vegetarian diets, okay? They've never heard — there is no Hebrew word for vegan, at least not in ancient Hebrew. But don't worry if that's you. I can assure you that if this was written today, Wisdom would have prepared all the special diets that are required with equal care and attention to the meat. So do not think this is an anti-vegetarian passage.
And the wine is mixed, which means it's maybe had a few spices added to it, served at just the right temperature, decanted to be at its peak.
Then notice the guests:
Verse 4: "Let all who are simple come to my house!"
To those who have no sense she says,
"Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways and you will live;
walk in the way of insight."
"All who are simple" — now we met this word when we looked at Proverbs chapter 1 with Pastor Lee. We saw that being called simple is not an insult. It just means someone who's got stuff to learn. And you know what? That's all of us. The only qualification to be at this banquet is to know that you need it. That's it.
And then fourth, notice the invitation:
Verse 3: She has sent out her servants, and she calls
from the highest points of the city...
Let me give a little window into the life of being a church pastor. One lesson we've learned over the years is that if you have an event coming up in church life and you want to publicise it, if you just put a single picture on the slides that rotate on the screen before the service, that does not translate into a full event. People need to be invited — often individually, maybe more than once. That's not because people don't want to come — it's just that the world is a deluge of communication. And that's reality.
By the way, as it comes to Christmas Funday and carol services — don't just assume that if you stick a copy of our flyer on your own Facebook wall, all your friends will come. No — you need to go out and get them, because that's what Lady Wisdom does. She doesn't just set a banner up outside her house advertising the banquet and go, "I hope some people notice." She sends out a large team to go and gather the people in.
Now, the invitation to follow Jesus is portrayed using many different word pictures. But a particularly common one is the invitation to a good meal. So Isaiah 55 starts like this — if I can get there:
"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 labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare."
Or the words of Jesus in John chapter 6, where Jesus says:
Verse 27: "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you."
Verse 35: "I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never go hungry,
and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
Verse 51: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
This bread is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world."
Verse 57: "Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father,
so the one who feeds on me will live because of me."
And then Luke chapter 14 and this parable of Jesus may feel really familiar. Now we've just had Proverbs chapter 9 read—see if you recognise it:
A certain man was preparing a great banquet and had invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, everything's ready.” But they all alike began to make excuses, one after another. The servant came back and reported this to his master.
Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town. Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame.”
“Sir,” the servant said, “what you ordered has been done, and there's still room.”
Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, that my house may be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.”
So there's Lady Wisdom.
Lady Folly (9:13-18)
Now let's have a look at Lady Folly at the end of chapter 9. Notice how similar this sounds, by the way.
Verse 3: “She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city.”
Verse 14: “She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city.”
Verse 4—this is uncanny: “Let all who are simple come to my house. To those who have no sense, she says...”
Verse 16: “Let all who are simple come to my house. To those who have no sense, she says...”
So the warning is that the invitation to be foolish and the invitation from Jesus to embrace the wise life sound so similar. You hear the invitation to the simple to come and eat—you need to work out who is calling you. How do you tell the difference?
Well, the answer is in verse 10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” So the wise life is built around a respect for God. Fear doesn't mean being frightened of, by the way. Remember, God wants you to come and live in his house with him—be his guest, not frightened of him. Respect for God and knowing him.
Whereas therefore the foolish life is to reject God and his ways.
There are three main differences between Wisdom's poem and Folly's poem.
The first is that Folly doesn't leave her house. She has just put her banner up as people wander past. She kind of hopes that they might be foolish enough to wander in. She's got no passion to invite people in, because she doesn't love her invitees. And in the later chapters of Proverbs, we will see that one of the hallmarks of foolishness is laziness. So, of course, Folly herself can't be bothered to get off her backside.
Second difference is that her drink is stolen and her food is secret.
Verse 17: “Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious.”
Now just think about the whole of chapter 9 and ask yourself the question: who has she stolen this food from? It has to be Wisdom, doesn't it? Two houses at the top of the hill, and one's prepared a lovely banquet, and the other's got some stolen food—it's obvious where it came from. Wisdom has gone through a great deal of trouble to prepare a delicious meal to feed and nourish those who will come. And Folly has nicked it.
Folly is not like a lion that takes great care to stalk and kill its prey. Folly is like the hyena or the vulture that waits for another animal to kill its prey so that it can steal it.
Now, people in this world who don't follow Jesus have much to teach you. As a pastor, do not come to me and ask how to fix your car. I do not have a clue. If I tried, it would never run again. However, when unbelieving teachers try to teach you wisdom for life and values, if what they're teaching is something that works, it's because it's nicked.
So just ask this question: who invented the idea that human beings have dignity, and so there's such a thing as human rights? Who invented the idea that we should respectfully tolerate views we don't agree with? Who invented the idea that work needs to be carefully counterbalanced with rest? Who invented the idea that we should love others rather than just look after ourselves? Who invented the idea that we should forgive people when they hurt us and let us down? Who invented the idea that the world is an ordered place, and so science is worth pursuing? Who invented the idea that we should care for the poor rather than let each person fend for themselves? Who invented the idea that slavery is bad because people are not possessions to be traded?
It all comes from Jesus and the Bible. And if you look at civilisations that have not been permeated over many centuries by the Christian Gospel, often a number of these things are missing.
See, Wisdom has prepared her food and Folly has nicked it, so that she can pretend to you that you can live a life that is fulfilled without God. You can't.
Third difference between these two is that it leads to death.
Now, you can see, can't you, this food eaten in secret is delicious. You can see the appeal of something illicit.
I have at home somewhere—I don't know where, probably in the loft—a couple of 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. I never have any intention to use them. Why would I illuminate my living room with 100 watts if I could use a modern LED bulb and do it for 13 watts?
Do you know why I've got them? About 10 years ago, the government decided it was going to make it illegal to sell or buy a 100-watt light bulb. And I thought to myself, I have no idea whether I'm going to have a use for these things, but they're about 30p. So you know what? If I'm not going to be able to buy one next year, I'm going to buy a couple just so I've got them in case I need them.
There's something about something that is prohibited that is particularly enticing and appealing. So Folly's offer kind of seems extra exciting because it's slightly naughty. From the outside, it looks like a house with a great party going on. But if you go in, he says, you will never come out—not alive. You'll be carried out in a wooden box.
It's kind of the reverse of Halloween decorations. If you're wandering down your street and you see someone's house is decorated with fake gore and all this kind of stuff, what are you going to find inside? Well, I can't tell you—because not every house is a place of love and happiness—but probably what you will find is kids enjoying their favourite meal for tea, having a bath, and going to bed rested, happy, and secure.
This is the reverse. From the outside, everything looks peaceful, happy, secure, and fun. But inside, it's haunted. “The dead are there,” he says. It's a place of horrors.
Every time, then, over the next week you see someone's house decorated in that way, use it as a little visual aid memoir. What I'm seeing on the outside of this person's house is a little picture of what it's like inside the house of Folly. And I'm not going to go there, because I won't come out alive.
Both women appeal to you to come to their house. Whose will you go to?
And verses 7 to 9 tell us that it's not a one-off choice. You don't suddenly decide, “That's the house I'm going to go to and spend the rest of my life.” What happens is, you make a series of small choices that slowly become a habit, that eventually become your destiny.
Each time you hear God's voice, you either get better and better at dismissing it until you abuse those who were so rude as to tell you how you should live your life—or you welcome God's voice and slowly grow in wisdom, each time it happens.
Conclusion
So, are you motivated by carrot or stick?
With Jesus, there is a stick. But there is beauty, life, and joy to attract us to him. These paragraphs do warn us of the dangers of rejecting wisdom, but mostly they are a poetic portrait of wisdom to show us the beauty and vivacity of wisdom.
So build your life on the rock that is Jesus.
Now, the appeal of chapter 8, the poem of wisdom—the beautiful—ends after the passage on Creation with a little section where Wisdom calls us what to do in response. So I'm going to finish by reading these words. But realise as I do that Jesus is the ultimate wise one. So ultimately, Jesus is the one who issues this invitation.
So hear this as words to you, individually, from Jesus:
“Now then, my children, listen to me. Blessed are those who keep my ways.
Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it.
Jesus says: ‘Blessed are those who listen to me,
Watching daily at my doors,
Waiting at my doorway.
For those who find me find life and receive favour from the Lord.
But those who fail to find me harm themselves;
All who hate me love death.’”