Folly
This week's study is on Proverbs 9:13-18:
There's a lot of wisdom in how the Bible personifies certain good and bad influences. Sin and poverty are made out to be like predators or adulterous women, and wisdom is made out to be like the ideal mate. A lot of the book of Proverbs is basically "You're going to have to invest a lot in Wisdom but here's what you get." These verses, however, are about wisdom's evil twin sister, folly.
Like wisdom, folly calls out to us. But unlike wisdom, folly is not doing us any favors. Folly calls out to people who are on their way to where they need to go and tells them to detour. Folly offers shortcuts and foolishness. Unlike wisdom, which can be subtle, folly is often in your face. Folly is the loudest voice in the room when you're looking for answers.
Reading these verses and thinking about them, you can see how people get pulled into making stupid decisions and get distracted from what they were aiming for. They're going about their business and then all of a sudden something offers them a shortcut to what they want. It seems like wisdom, since it's new information to them, but it's really folly. Think back to a time when you followed temptation or were led astray by someone who was wrong. You were pursuing what you were looking for, whether it was to be more righteous or to have more money or to be more loving or whatever, but what you got was stupidity instead.
Proverbs says that people who get duped by folly don't realize that it leads to death. The words used for the dead can mean those trapped in Hell. Which if you think about it, isn't that kind of how life is for people who make bad decisions they can't easily get out of? Jail when you were warned to shape up, or an abusive marriage when your friends said not to marry that person, or crushing debt when everyone said not to put everything on your credit card, or a bad reputation when people told you you needed to slow down before it was too late, all from following folly instead of wisdom.
If you could take a look at the people on the other side of the path you're on, you'd probably make different decisions. There was a program called "Scared Straight" which tried to do this awhile ago, showing people on their way to living as criminals what it would be like if they landed in prison. Folly takes advantage of the lost, because if people knew where they were going, they wouldn't choose the path to Hell.
Being seated in a high place, folly can call you out from anywhere. There is no path that is out of earshot from folly's call. Think about that. It's like there's a force out there trying to distract you from being what you're meant to be and achieving what you otherwise would achieve. Could it be...Satan? Sometimes, but most of the time it's just the fallen world around us.
So if someone were trying to lead you astray, how would you protect yourself? Spiritually, in the Apostle John's first letter, he tells us that we should test the spirits if we feel spiritually led to something. Do the results lead to what God wants, and what is good, or do they oppose themselves to God and produce evil? The same thing can be used to tell wisdom from folly. See what happens to people who go down that path. What does it produce? What does God say about it?
None of us wants to end up in a miserable room full of dead people. We don't want wasted lives, missed opportunities, and stunted growth. Earlier in this week's chapter of the book of Proverbs it says that the beginning of wisdom is a reverence for God. By trusting God, we can get out of some of the messes we get into, and get through the rest without permanent harm.
We should choose wisdom over folly, but no matter which we choose, we should choose God to direct us.
The woman called Folly is brash,
she is naive and does not know anything.
So she sits at the door of her house,
on a seat at the highest point of the city,
calling out to those who are passing by her in the way,
who go straight on their way.
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here,”
she says to those who lack understanding.
“Stolen waters are sweet,
and food obtained in secret is pleasant!”
But they do not realize that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of the grave.
There's a lot of wisdom in how the Bible personifies certain good and bad influences. Sin and poverty are made out to be like predators or adulterous women, and wisdom is made out to be like the ideal mate. A lot of the book of Proverbs is basically "You're going to have to invest a lot in Wisdom but here's what you get." These verses, however, are about wisdom's evil twin sister, folly.
Like wisdom, folly calls out to us. But unlike wisdom, folly is not doing us any favors. Folly calls out to people who are on their way to where they need to go and tells them to detour. Folly offers shortcuts and foolishness. Unlike wisdom, which can be subtle, folly is often in your face. Folly is the loudest voice in the room when you're looking for answers.
Reading these verses and thinking about them, you can see how people get pulled into making stupid decisions and get distracted from what they were aiming for. They're going about their business and then all of a sudden something offers them a shortcut to what they want. It seems like wisdom, since it's new information to them, but it's really folly. Think back to a time when you followed temptation or were led astray by someone who was wrong. You were pursuing what you were looking for, whether it was to be more righteous or to have more money or to be more loving or whatever, but what you got was stupidity instead.
Proverbs says that people who get duped by folly don't realize that it leads to death. The words used for the dead can mean those trapped in Hell. Which if you think about it, isn't that kind of how life is for people who make bad decisions they can't easily get out of? Jail when you were warned to shape up, or an abusive marriage when your friends said not to marry that person, or crushing debt when everyone said not to put everything on your credit card, or a bad reputation when people told you you needed to slow down before it was too late, all from following folly instead of wisdom.
If you could take a look at the people on the other side of the path you're on, you'd probably make different decisions. There was a program called "Scared Straight" which tried to do this awhile ago, showing people on their way to living as criminals what it would be like if they landed in prison. Folly takes advantage of the lost, because if people knew where they were going, they wouldn't choose the path to Hell.
Being seated in a high place, folly can call you out from anywhere. There is no path that is out of earshot from folly's call. Think about that. It's like there's a force out there trying to distract you from being what you're meant to be and achieving what you otherwise would achieve. Could it be...Satan? Sometimes, but most of the time it's just the fallen world around us.
So if someone were trying to lead you astray, how would you protect yourself? Spiritually, in the Apostle John's first letter, he tells us that we should test the spirits if we feel spiritually led to something. Do the results lead to what God wants, and what is good, or do they oppose themselves to God and produce evil? The same thing can be used to tell wisdom from folly. See what happens to people who go down that path. What does it produce? What does God say about it?
None of us wants to end up in a miserable room full of dead people. We don't want wasted lives, missed opportunities, and stunted growth. Earlier in this week's chapter of the book of Proverbs it says that the beginning of wisdom is a reverence for God. By trusting God, we can get out of some of the messes we get into, and get through the rest without permanent harm.
We should choose wisdom over folly, but no matter which we choose, we should choose God to direct us.
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