The Siren Song of Stupidity: The Invitation to Sheol Text: Proverbs 9:13-18
Introduction: Two Women, Two Houses, Two Destinies
The book of Proverbs, and particularly this ninth chapter, is a book of stark contrasts. There is no murky middle ground, no demilitarized zone between the warring kingdoms. There are two ways, and only two ways, to live in God's world. There is the way of wisdom, and there is the way of folly. To drive this point home, the Scriptures personify these two ways as two women, each issuing an invitation, each having prepared a house, and each promising a feast. In the first part of the chapter, we met Lady Wisdom. She has built her house on seven pillars, she has prepared her feast, and she sends her maidens to call the simple to come, forsake their foolishness, and live.
But there is another invitation. There is another woman. And we must understand that she is not merely an alternative; she is a parody. She is a cheap imitation, a tawdry knock-off of the real thing. Folly does not build; she just sits. She does not prepare a thoughtful feast; she offers stolen snacks. She does not offer life; she presides over a house of the dead. This is not a choice between two equally valid lifestyles. This is the choice between reality and a suicidal delusion. Our culture is absolutely saturated with the voice of this second woman. She is loud, she is ever-present, she is on our screens, in our music, and whispering in our classrooms. She promises liberation and excitement, but her house is the antechamber of Hell.
We are gathered here as those who have, by grace, accepted the first invitation. But the second invitation is still shouted at us every day. We pass by her corner on the way to work. We hear her call when we are supposed to be about our Father's business. And so we must have our wits about us. We must learn to recognize her voice, diagnose her tactics, and see the skulls beneath her makeup. We must understand the nature of the temptation she offers, so that we might, by God's grace, make our own paths straight and not turn in at her door.
The Text
The woman of foolishness is boisterous,
A woman of simplicity, and does not know anything.
She sits at the doorway of her house, On a seat by the high places of the city,
To call to those who pass by that way, Who are making their paths straight:
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here,” And to him who lacks a heart of wisdom she says,
“Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
But he does not know that the dead are there, That those she called are in the depths of Sheol.
(Proverbs 9:13-18 LSB)
The Character of Folly (v. 13)
First, we are introduced to the hostess herself.
"The woman of foolishness is boisterous, A woman of simplicity, and does not know anything." (Proverbs 9:13)
Notice the first thing we are told about her: she is "boisterous." She is loud. Wisdom speaks with authority, but Folly just shouts. She makes up for her lack of substance with sheer volume. This is the spirit of our age. It is an age of rage, of protest, of constant noise, of digital clamor. Folly cannot win a debate, so she tries to win a shouting match. She cannot persuade, so she intimidates. She relies on peer pressure, on the roar of the crowd, on making you feel like you are the only one who isn't going along.
Second, she is a "woman of simplicity." This is not the praiseworthy simplicity of a child's faith. This is the simplicity of being simple-minded. The word means she is naive, gullible, and easily seduced herself. Folly is not some master strategist; she is a victim of her own propaganda. She has bought into her own lies. She is an empty vessel, and as the old saying goes, empty vessels make the most noise.
And this leads to the third and most devastating description: she "does not know anything." This is not an exaggeration for effect. This is the plain, unvarnished truth. For all her confident shouting, for all her worldly swagger, she is utterly ignorant of reality. She doesn't know God. She doesn't know how the world works. She doesn't know the consequences of her actions. She doesn't know the difference between pleasure and joy, or between a thrill and a resurrection. She is a tour guide to a city she has never visited, selling maps she cannot read. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and since she has no fear of the Lord, she has no beginning of knowledge. She knows nothing.
The Strategy of Folly (v. 14-16)
Next, we see her method. It is a strategy of indolence and opportunity.
"She sits at the doorway of her house, On a seat by the high places of the city, To call to those who pass by that way, Who are making their paths straight: 'Whoever is simple, let him turn in here,' And to him who lacks a heart of wisdom she says," (Proverbs 9:14-16 LSB)
Wisdom built a house and then sent out her maids. Folly just sits. She is lazy. Sin is fundamentally lazy. It is easier to tear down than to build. It is easier to steal than to work. It is easier to complain than to create. She finds a prominent place, the "high places of the city," the same place Wisdom calls from, and she sets up her tawdry little sideshow. This is spiritual piracy. She doesn't create her own market; she preys on the traffic that Wisdom generates. The world always mimics the church, offering a corrupt version of what God offers. The world offers community, but it is a mob. It offers transcendence, but it is a drug trip. It offers love, but it is sterile lust.
And who is her target audience? "Those who pass by that way, Who are making their paths straight." This is crucial. She is not primarily interested in the reprobates who are already committed to wickedness. Her prize is the one who is trying to walk uprightly. She wants to corrupt the righteous. She wants to divert the pilgrim. The devil is not content to rule in Hell; he wants to drag as many down from the straight path as he can. The temptation is aimed squarely at the man who is minding his own business, heading in the right direction.
Her call is the same as Wisdom's: "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here." But she means something entirely different by it. Wisdom calls the simple to make them wise. Folly calls the simple to confirm them in their simplicity. Wisdom calls the naive to teach them discernment. Folly calls the naive to exploit their naivete. She is looking for those who lack a "heart of wisdom," those who are not thinking, those whose guard is down. Temptation's greatest victories happen not in moments of high rebellion, but in moments of low vigilance.
The Allure of Folly (v. 17)
Now we come to the bait on the hook. This is the sales pitch, the central lie of all sin.
"'Stolen water is sweet; And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.'" (Proverbs 9:17 LSB)
This is the very essence of temptation. Notice she does not deny God's law; she leverages it. The thrill comes from the fact that it is forbidden. The water is sweet precisely because it is stolen. The bread is pleasant precisely because it is eaten in secret. Sin promises a pleasure that obedience supposedly denies. This was the serpent's line in the Garden. God is holding out on you. He knows that if you eat this fruit, you will be like Him. He is trying to keep the best stuff for Himself.
The allure is twofold. First, there is the sweetness of the forbidden. This appeals to our pride, our desire for autonomy. To steal the water is to declare that my desires are more important than God's commands or my neighbor's property rights. It is a little declaration of godhood. I will be the one to decide what is good for me. Second, there is the pleasure of secrecy. This appeals to our cowardice and our pride at the same time. We want the thrill of the sin without the shame of the exposure. The secret creates a little world where I am king, where I make the rules, and no one can see me. It is a counterfeit sovereignty.
But it is all a lie. The water is not sweet. It is poison. Ask David after his affair with Bathsheba if that stolen water was sweet when his infant son lay dead in his arms. Ask Samson if the secret bread was pleasant when his eyes were gouged out in a Philistine prison. The sweetness is a momentary chemical reaction in the brain, followed by the bitter aftertaste of guilt, shame, fear, and death. The pleasure is a phantom, and the secrecy is a delusion. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. You may keep your secret from your spouse, your pastor, or your friends. But you cannot keep it from God. And what is whispered in secret will one day be shouted from the housetops.
The Reality of Folly (v. 18)
The final verse rips the mask off Folly and shows us the true nature of her house and her feast.
"But he does not know that the dead are there, That those she called are in the depths of Sheol." (Proverbs 9:18 LSB)
This is the great tragedy. The simpleton, the one who lacks a heart of wisdom, "does not know." He is blind. He sees a party, but he does not see that the other guests are all corpses. He hears music, but he does not hear the screams from the basement. He is so fixated on the promise of sweet water that he fails to notice he is drinking from a cup of hemlock.
Folly's house is a tomb. Her guests are the Rephaim, the shades, the dead. To accept her invitation is to RSVP to your own funeral. This is not hyperbole. The wages of sin is death. Not just physical death, eventually, but spiritual death, immediately. The moment you turn in at her door, a part of you dies. Your conscience is seared. Your fellowship with God is broken. Your joy evaporates. You become a walking dead man.
And the destination is "the depths of Sheol." Sheol is the realm of the dead, the grave, the pit. To follow Folly is to walk down a path that leads only and ever downward. It is a descent into darkness, decay, and damnation. She sits in the high places of the city, but her foundations are in the lowest parts of Hell. She promises a thrill, but she delivers an eternity of regret.
Conclusion: Fleeing Folly for Christ
So what is our defense against this loud, lazy, and lethal woman? It is not enough to simply say no. We must be captivated by a greater beauty, a truer sweetness, and a more profound pleasure. We must have our hearts captured by Lady Wisdom, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Christ is the one who truly built a house, the Church, and He has built it upon the rock of His own confession. He is the one who has prepared a true feast, this table right here, where the bread is His body broken for us, and the wine is His blood shed for us. This is not stolen bread; this is gift-bread. This is not water drunk in secret; this is the cup of the New Covenant, drunk in the open assembly of the saints.
Folly says, "Stolen water is sweet." But Jesus stands and cries out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37-38). Why would you steal a cup of brackish water from a polluted cistern when you are being offered an infinite river of living water, freely?
Folly says, "Bread eaten in secret is pleasant." But Jesus says, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). Why would you sneak crumbs in a dark alley when you are invited to a wedding feast?
The choice set before us in Proverbs 9 is the choice that is set before every man every day. It is the choice between the boisterous lies of Folly and the authoritative truth of Christ. It is the choice between a house of the dead and the household of God. It is the choice between the depths of Sheol and the heights of Zion. Do not be the one who "does not know." You have been warned. You have been told. Flee the harlot, and run to the arms of your Savior. For her house is the way to death, but in His presence, there is fullness of joy, and at His right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.