At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)
For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: All they that hate me love death.
Proverbs 8:35–36
Most of the book of Proverbs is made up of stand-alone proverbs, most of which are not even arranged thematically. But this is not the case in the first portion of the book, where the grand theme is the contest between Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly.
These two verses provide us with a wonderful summary of the first part of the book of Proverbs, as well as a solid background to the wisdom found throughout the rest of the book, not to mention Scripture.
The speaker here is Lady Wisdom, and she is the one who says “he that sinneth against me . . .” To sin against her is to prefer the company of that woman Foolishness. To find wisdom is to find “life,” which means that wisdom is our life. To find wisdom is to find life, and is also to obtain favor from the Lord. The person who sins against Lady Wisdom by consorting with Dame Folly is doing nothing but hurting himself. He is wronging his own soul. It comports with what Paul says about sexual sin being a sin that is aimed against one’s own body (1 Cor. 6:18). To sin this way is to sin against God, against Lady Wisdom, and against yourself.
And the last comment here puts the lie to the idea that secularism can be anything other than a death wish. In order to have wisdom, you must have the Lord. And those who turn the other direction, despite whatever Lady Folly might have promised, engage in a love affair with death.
This is why our secular culture has disintegrated in the way it has. We have become obsessed with death, and we deal out death as though it were our dearest treasure. This is why some think that unlimited abortion is a constitutional right. Wisdom says that that all who hate her love death. Whether or not they say they love death, Scripture says that they do.
