Two Voices Calling: A Meditation on Proverbs 9 and John 6, for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost

Wisdom hath builded her house,

she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

She hath killed her beasts;

 she hath mingled her wine;

 she hath also furnished her table.

She hath sent forth her maidens:

she crieth upon the highest places of the city,

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither:

as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.

Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

 

 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame:

and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.

Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee:

rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser:

teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:

and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

 For by me thy days shall be multiplied,

and the years of thy life shall be increased.

If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself:

but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

 

A foolish woman is clamorous:

she is simple, and knoweth nothing.

For she sitteth at the door of her house,

on a seat in the high places of the city,

To call passengers who go right on their ways:

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither:

and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But he knoweth not that the dead are there;

and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

 

Solomon’s inspired wisdom anticipated and pointed forward to the words of Jesus 900 years later, when He taught His disciples and anyone who would listen, that:

 

I am the living bread which came down from heaven:

if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever:

and the bread that I will give is my flesh,

which I will give for the life of the world…

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:

 the words that I speak unto you,

they are spirit, and they are life.

 

What Solomon observed is that there are always two voices calling to mankind, and their respective ends are always the same.  God calls to mankind by His Wisdom through His Word, having built the house of His Kingdom in perfect enduring stability (seven pillars), prepared the feast which would nourish everyone who partakes of it, set the table for dining, and called to everyone to enter into His eternal fellowship and life.  His Word and Wisdom call those who lack wisdom and knowledge to come and learn of Him, to be fed and nourished by Him, and thus enlivened to go forth in the way of understanding, forsaking the path of the foolish.

 

Of course, this also means that there are other voices calling to mankind.  Solomon provided an example in the guise of a foolish and clamorous woman, whose lust and appetites she proclaims from the lofty parts of the city, enticing others to depart from virtue and consume her secret wares.  She also calls to the foolish and the simple, wooing others to a path of submission to their passions and vices, ending in death and destruction.  Though this voice is typified as an impure woman in contrast to the pure woman of Wisdom, the cacophony of voices calling man to destruction are really a dark symphony of vice.  All voices which call man away from God and the life He offers, are calling out from the same darkness and evil, with the same motive and end in mind for the men they call.  While God calls mankind to life, the voices of evil call mankind to slavery, death, and destruction.

 

Jesus spoke to the crowds all around Him about being the bread of life which would be given for the life of the world, and yet, many chose not to listen.  His Word went out with the power to convert every heart, but God still gives man the power to deny Him, and to turn away from life to death.  Like today, many who heard Jesus then turned back to the sultry voices of death rather than embrace the life of grace by faith and repentance He offered them.  Yet that is the curse of mankind, particularly those who think themselves wise, who ask presumptuously of the Word of God Incarnate, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?—or any number of variations on the theme of how God can grant the grace He promises.  Man still has the power to reject the King of the Universe in His offer of divine grace, but he cannot escape the King in His Law; man will either hear His voice and come to Him, forsaking foolishness that they might live, or they will follow the voices of the damned into the place of the damned, lost in the darkness forever.

 

Even so, God does not cease calling the world to Himself, nor in offering His true food and drink for the life of the world.  It is Jesus alone who could accomplish our salvation by His Cross, even when we thought it impossible—only Jesus who could call mankind out of slavery to sin, death, hell, and the devil, into the magnificence of His Kingdom through the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation offered freely by grace through faith in Him alone.  Even we simple and foolish mortals, consumed by our desires and so often lured into dark places by the siren songs of hell, are called today to the banquet of the King.  There is no hinderance placed before mankind to heed the call of His saving Wisdom, except the heart which prefers its own evil over the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and to suffer under the Law rather than to live liberated in the Gospel.  It is God’s good will that all might hear Him, repent, believe, and live, for God desires the death and destruction of no one.

 

Be of good cheer, all you who hear the voice of Wisdom in the Lord Jesus Christ:  for His house stands forever, and His banquet is never diminished!  There is no end to the mercies He pours out to you, withholding not even His own Body and Blood, that you might have food and drink indeed unto everlasting life.  Turn to Him, you who are simple of mind, who lack understanding, and as His disciples of old, He will fill you with the Words of eternal life.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.