Danny Fourie

Wisdom has built her house; she has set upits seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, ‘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.’  Proverbs 9:1-5

Wisdom here is portrayed as a person, a godly person. From the earliest of times the church connected this wisdom with the Son of God. Isaiah, for instance, said that the Spirit of wisdom shall rest on the Messiah (Isaiah 11:2).

God’s Son is wise in word and deed. He even outsmarts the sly wisdom of Satan. Jesus’ wisdom shines in his substitutionary sacrifice for us. Paul writes about this: 'Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!' (Romans 11:33)

Wisdom built her house on seven pillars – a perfect house. A holy house as well. Wisdom prepared a table filled with delicious food and wine mixed with herbs. This table is an image of the spiritual salvation that God has prepared for humankind. It contains all the gifts of Jesus Christ, especially his sufferings for sinful people. Christ let himself be slaughtered as the lamb – had his body sacrificed and his blood let. Now his body is truly food and his blood truly drink (John 11:55). Every time the Gospel of the Wisdom is preached – in word and sacrament – this meal is being presented.

Wisdom calls out loudly: ‘Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.’It resembles the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22:1-14. When the people who were invited did not turn up, the servants went out in the streets and invited everyone who wished to come. God, too, calls out: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ (Matthew 11:28) And: ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17) Christ presents himself as an offering in all of this.

He is still doing this today. Let us repeat this invitation from the most visible places. Let us recommend the meal that is presented by wisdom. This meal is the food of life – this is the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for inviting us to sit at this table daily. Teach us and others who do not know you to understand that we will only be saved through your reconciliatory blood and body that was sacrificed for us. Amen.