#DailyDevotion Wisdom Has Invited You Over For Dinner. Are You Going?
Prov. 9:1-10 Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars. 2She has butchered her meat, mixed her wine, and spread her table. 3She has sent away her maids and calls from the highest spots in the city: 4“If you’re untaught, turn in here.” If you don’t have understanding, she tells you,5“Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine I mix. 6Leave ignorant people and begin to live; walk the road that leads to understanding.”
What are who is this Wisdom? St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 tells us Jesus is our Wisdom from God. Some may try to make a little hay that wisdom here is feminine. I think it is fair to say that the uncreated God is neither sexually male or female, however His preferred pronouns are masculine and as far as gender is concerned God is male. He is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Wisdom though, as far as the Hebrew language is concerned is feminine in gender. I’m sure they didn’t think of wisdom as a person. In a lot of foreign languages nouns are either masculine, feminine or neuter. A table could be masculine, feminine or neuter but it isn’t male, female or emasculated.
Now that that is out of the way, Wisdom or rather Jesus, has set up his temple/restaurant, with seven pillars. I think these seven pillars are a reference to the Holy Spirit and the seven-fold Spirits spoken of elsewhere, Isaiah 11, “2The LORD’s Spirit will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.” It is the Spirit through whom the Wisdom of God comes to us. The seven-fold Spirit of the LORD sets up and holds up the sort of wisdom that Jesus intends to impart to us at his temple/restaurant.
The house of course is the Church, the Temple of the LORD. The Word and the Sacraments are the food that is prepared for us there. Her pastors and other servants of the Church go out inviting people to come in and partake of God’s Wisdom. There is no one Wisdom/Jesus turns away. He calls out to the world, “If you’re untaught, turn in here.” Again he calls out, “Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine I mix. 6Leave ignorant people and begin to live; walk the road that leads to understanding.”
Jesus gives us the true teachings of God. He instructs us through the prophets and apostles as to what the LORD would have us know, believe, live and do. Jesus tells us in Matt. 7, 24“Anyone who hears and does what I say is like a man who had the sense to build his house on a rock. 25The rain poured down, the torrents came, the winds blew, and they beat against that house. But it didn’t go down, because its foundation was on the rock. 26“Everyone who hears what I say but doesn’t do it is like a man who was so foolish he built his house on sand. 27The rains poured down, the torrents came, the winds blew, and they beat against that house. And it went down with a big crash.” So listen to Jesus. Come in to his Church in which he will instruct you in his ways and become wise. Do what he says and like a house built upon the rock in the day of trouble.
Heavenly Father, you have sent us your Wisdom from on high that we might be educated in your truth and walk in your ways through Jesus Christ. Grant us your Spirit that we might rightly partake of it and live our lives with understanding. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.