Lady Wisdom And Lady Folly: A Contrast Of Life And Destruction

When reading the Old Testament, we come across the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament alongside Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Job, and The Song of Solomon. 

In Proverbs, we learn how to live by the Wisdom of God. The Hebrew word for wisdom is “chokmah.” Chokmah is defined as wisdom, reason, prudence, and insight. Proverbs teaches us how to have the reason and insight on how to live in this broken world. This book shows us the way in which we ought to live by personifying this wisdom as Lady Wisdom.

The book of Proverbs opens with the author, personified as a father, who is calling out to his son, the reader. He implores his son to, “Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck,” (Proverbs 1:8-9).  

He is telling his son to seek wisdom. 

This is where we are introduced to Lady Wisdom. He tells his son, and by extension us, that wisdom cries out on the street to all who will hear her.

She asks us how long we will ignore her.

She asks how long we will take delight in our mocking.

She tells us that if we turn to her, she will pour out her spirit, or her insight, onto us.

She then makes a very grave statement:

Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you.

Proverbs 1:25-26

She is offering humanity the options of choosing wisdom and reaping the rewards or choose our own wisdom and reap our destruction. 

The father tells us that those who find her are blessed. Lady Wisdom is like that of a loving mother, or of a perfect partner. If we have her, we are blessed. We are told that if we have her, that she will be life for our soul, peace for our frightened soul, and that we will not have to be afraid of ruin. 

When we have the wisdom of God, we have peace. Wisdom then tells us about herself. She tells us that, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old,” (Proverbs 8:22).

God used His wisdom to establish creation. In His wisdom, He used her to form all the order in in His vast and beautiful cosmos. And Lady Wisdom shows us how we may live according to God’s wisdom.

We are also told of another lady. She is referred to as “the forbidden woman,” or as Lady Folly. 

Lady Folly is in direct contrast to Lady Wisdom. She is described as, “For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword,” (Proverbs 5:3-4). She gives us advise that is opposed to Lady Wisdom. She is seductive and alluring to us. 

Like Lady Wisdom, she also calls to us, not from the street, but rather from her house. Instead of being virtuous and telling us to follow after God’s wisdom, she is dressed as a tempting prostitute, and she tells us that we should “Drink from our own cisterns,” (Proverbs 5:15). Or rather, to rely on our own understanding. 

We know this in the modern “Disneyfied” way of following your heart. She tells us to believe in ourselves and to trust our own wisdom, not the wisdom of God.

The father describes following after Lady Folly as adultery. 

As God’s people, we ought to be married to Lady Wisdom. We must cleave to God’s wisdom as a husband and wife cleave to each other. We are to find our only satisfaction in Him and His wisdom. 

But Lady Folly is tempting to us. 

The father says in Proverbs 6:29, “So is he who goes into his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.” To go after Lady Folly is like going after another’s spouse. It only leads to the destruction of your home, and the destruction of another’s home.

The path of Lady Folly is the way that leads to destruction. 

The father, and ultimately God, are compelling us to listen to His wisdom. The wisdom of the world will only lead us to look like the world. The wisdom that comes from our own broken heart will lead us to heartache and calamity. 

To leave our Lady Wisdom for Lady Folly is to commit adultery against our own creator for a fling with a cheap whore. These are harsh words for a harsh reality.

How dare we, as the creation of the Wisest God, turn our backs on His wisdom? How dare we believe that our ways are greater than His?

The book of Proverbs shows us the stark reality between true wisdom and false wisdom and it pleads with us and commands us to follow and to trust only in the wisdom of God. For she will be our greatest companion in learning the fear of, and lover for God our creator.