Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars.

She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city.

"Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment.

"Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding (Pro 9:1-6). “

The Bible teaches that wisdom existed before the creation of this universe, and all things were made by this wisdom (cf. Pro 8:22-31). According to John’s gospel, this wisdom is called “Word (logos)”, and it is Christ himself, the very source of God’s life and creation (John 1:1-4). The book of Proverbs says:

She (wisdom) is a tree of life to those who embrace her;

those who lay hold of her will be blessed (3:18).

If you eat from this tree of life, and feed yourself with wisdom, you will live. And this wisdom calls and shouts, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.” Here, the Hebrew word for “food” (lehem) literally means “bread.” Note that two things are served in this meal—bread and wine.

Try to see how this comes to be linked with the bread and wine we take as communion—the body and blood of Jesus. He said:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:54).

Jesus is the bread of life coming down from heaven. His “fresh” and “blood” are the food and wine that the personified wisdom in the above passage of Proverbs offers. Christ is the wisdom through which the universe was created, and the tree of life to those who embrace him.

It should be remembered, however, that beside the tree of life, there was another tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, the above passage in chapter 9 of Proverbs goes on to say:

The woman Folly is loud;

she is undisciplined and without knowledge.

She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city,

calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way.

"Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment.

"Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!"

But little do they know that the dead are there,

that her guests are in the depths of the grave (Prov 9:13-18).

The woman Folly also calls and shouts, “Let all who are simple come in here!” She, too, is offering some kind of wisdom to those who come to her: “But little do they know that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the deaths of the grave.” What kind of wisdom is this? In fact, it is not wisdom, at all. It only looks “desirable for gaining wisdom.” Be careful. It teaches you how to steal water and how to eat food in secret. If you learn from her, you will end up paying a very high price—painful toil, the sweat of your brow, and death. Instead, God’s wisdom shouts:

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;

and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost (Isa 55:1).

The bread and the wine that the true wisdom offers are all free. You legally buy them “without money and without cost.” In fact, somebody has already paid the price for you—his own life. So, come and eat this meal! He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemy—no more dishes of defeat, regrets, worries, sickness, poverty, or death. This meal will keep you going in the lifestyle of creation.