Two Tables — Proverbs 9

In Proverbs 8,

Wisdom herself spoke.

“I am wisdom.”

Wisdom raised her voice at the city gates,

in the places where people come and go.

In Proverbs 9,

Wisdom takes another step.

She builds her house,

prepares her table,

and invites people to come.

“Come, eat my bread

and drink the wine I have mixed.”

Wisdom does not merely speak.

She invites people to her table.

Yet Proverbs 9 presents another invitation.

Folly also raises her voice.

“Stolen water is sweet,

and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

Wisdom invites.

Folly invites.

Both call people to a table.

There were two voices in Proverbs 7:

the voice of the father,

and the voice of the adulterous woman.

In Proverbs 9,

there are two tables:

the table of Wisdom,

and the table of Folly.

Proverbs asks the same question again and again:

Which voice will you listen to?

Which invitation will you respond to?

At which table will you sit?

Every day,

we live surrounded by invitations.

Even today Wisdom calls out:

“Come, eat my bread.”

Proverbs 9 is a chapter that invites the reader,

standing before two invitations,

to come and sit at the table of Wisdom.

"Come, eat of my bread."