A Feast with a Choice . . . Proverbs 9:5-6

"Come, eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed.  Forsake your folly and live, And proceed in the way of understanding." Proverbs 9:5-6

God places a feast of wisdom before us in this verse.  We read of how wisdom has worked hard to place a wonderful table before us with God's sumptuous fare upon it.  The invitation is very simple, "Come eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed."  This kind of spread is not something that took place in the home.  What is being spoken of here is the preparation of a feast.  Each day we awake, God has that kind of feast awaiting us.  There is an open invitation given to us to come and partake of that feast.

The feast offered to us has conditions on it though.  And if we will not meet the conditions, we will not enjoy what God has prepared.  To partake of wisdom, we must forsake folly.  That is what God says to us in this passage.  Forsake your folly and live.  To forsake something means to leave it behind and have nothing more to do with it.  When we forsake folly - we are leaving behind the foolish ways of this present world and choosing instead to eat what God puts before us. 

Note here that when we forsake folly we will live.  The foolishness that men embrace is a foolishness that has far more dire consequences that we think.  It is a foolishness that will not listen to God or embrace what He says.  It is a foolishness that makes us think we are just fine like we are - in need of no great change.  It is a foolishness that does not see the dangers of sin and selfishness and proceeds from sin to sin day after day.  Stay like this and you will find yourself in hell for all eterntiy.  That is why wisdom calls to us to forsake such folly and live. 

We are also told that we need to proceed in the way of understanding.  We leave folly and also embrace the way - the road - the path - the lifestyle of understanding.  The word for understanding means not just to understand something - but also to comprehend it, to be able to discern the right action and then walk in it.  We proceed in the "way" of understanding.  This points us to a path and a lifestyle.  This is not just a one time choice, but something we do over and over again.  God leads us and teaches us and we add it to the other things He has taught us in the past.  As He does this - a lifestyle - a highway is laid out before us.  That is how God wants to lead us.  He wants to show us those ways over time until walking in His way becomes like walking in a highway.  We don't have to be concerned about tight turns - because we are on a highway that is wide and spacious.  That only comes about as we forsake win and stupidity and embrace God's ways from our heart!

There is a feast awaiting us every single day we live.  But it is a feast that is found by the man who forsakes sin - and who embraces truth.  He walks in this way - with many failings and with many sins.  But as he does so - he begins walking in a broader and broader path uutil he sees things clearer than ever - and until choices which may have been difficult at first become successively easier.  May God grant us that kind of meal - that results in that kind of maturity each and every day we live.