REWARD OF THE FOOLISH WOMAN

Proverbs 9
Wisdom and foolishness are personified as women in the Bible.  They both have prepared their houses and both openly compete for mankind.  They both call from the gates and the high places of the city.

Could a "house" mean a place where you can go, a sheltered place? where she resides? a school?  Could a "high place" or “city gates” mean a prominent place, a public place, a place of government, a place of worship?

Wisdom for most people, through readily available, takes time to acquire, it takes persistence and discipline.  In short: it comes by work. 

By contrast foolishness, or the foolish woman promotes the shortcut.  Verses 13 through 16 explain her well.  She calls the simple, those who want (lack) understanding (v16).  They have not taken the time to increase their bank of knowledge, nor are practiced in the use of it.  There has been too much TV and too little books.  The Foolish Woman says, "Stolen waters are sweet" (v17)  That which is stolen takes no labor to obtain.  She says, "Have it now, why should you wait?  You don't want to spend labor on it." 

"Bread eaten in secret is pleasant" she says.  Why would anyone want to eat bread in secret unless you want none to see you eat it?  It must be bread you should not have.  Somehow the wrongness of taking it makes it “sweet”.  She encourages you to want that pleasantness and to get it even if it is wrong.  She makes it seem it's OK if someone else works for it and you take it. 

The ones who the foolish woman calls, are those that want things that they have not earned, things that do not belong to them, things they should not have.  But the foolish woman's ways are the ways of death.  Verse 18 warns, “But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.”  The quickness and the easiness and the pleasantness lead to death.

LOVE WRATH ENVY

Proverbs 27:1-6
Open rebuke is better than secret love.  It is better to know where you stand, to know how someone feels than to not know it - even if that feeling is against you.  However, unexpressed love is as if there was no love at all because there are no words or actions to demonstrate the love.  But while there the words that come from a friend are faithful because they are intended for good; the kisses from the enemy are deceitful .because they are intended to disguise ill wishes.

"A stone is heavy, but a fool’s wrath is heavier".  It is difficult and bothersome to carry around the oppression that comes from another.  Wrath is difficult but envy is more dangerous.  Who can stand against it - one can defend against wrath; you cannot defend against envy.  Wrath you can answer with evidence and logic.  Wrath has been expressed by words and actions.  There is no evidence or logic in the expression of envy.  It has to do with the inward personal state of the one who envies, rather than anything you did.  How can you control what is in the mind of another?