 This call is now being recorded. Okay, we'll go ahead. So yesterday we started the wisdom books, the books of poetry and we looked very briefly at Job. We looked at the overall summary of what exactly God was trying to convey through that particular book and today we will very quickly try to look at Psalms and Proverbs. We are almost reaching November. We are running out of time. So we will have to do two books at a time. So we will look at both Psalms and Proverbs today. So Psalms as you know was not written by just one author. It is true that David is believed to have written 73 of the Psalms but then there are 12 of them written by Asaf. There are nine Psalms written by the sons of Korah. Three Psalms have been written by Solomon and you have a Psalm written by someone named Ethan also a Psalm by Moses which would actually be a Psalm 90. So he too wrote a Psalm and then there are 51 other Psalms which nobody is very sure as to who exactly wrote those Psalms. So we have multiple authors writing these Psalms. They were written during different periods of time obviously because Moses Psalm would have been written when he was alive a long time ago and then there were even some one or two Psalms which were written in the post-exile era after the people have come back from exile. So you have a wide variety of Psalms covering almost 900 years. So originally when we look in the Hebrew scrolls the way the Psalms were arranged in the Hebrew scrolls they had divided them into five books. So you basically had five books of Psalms and I think that's mentioned in your textbook. Book 1 was chapters 1 to 41. Book 2 was chapters 42 to 72. Book 3 was chapters 73 to 89 and in book 4 you had chapters 90 to 106. So of course the last book 5 covered the chapters 107 to 150. So originally when the Israelites put the Psalms into their scrolls they made it into five sections five independent books or sections and there's no specific theme for each of the sections but I think that's just how they found it convenient to divide it you know whoever did the final editing and compilation chose to place it in those five different sections. Now there are mainly four kinds of Psalms some will say there are seven types of Psalms some will even say there are 10 types of Psalms but there are four main basic kind of Psalms which we need to be aware of the most popular of course are your messianic Psalms which talk about the messiah. Okay I mean would any of you know just like that you know out of memory or any one popular messianic Psalm without looking at your textbook which you know the one where it talks about how they divide his clothes among them and it just happens you know before your Psalm 23 which talks about you the shepherd and very very popular Psalm right so it's easy to remember Psalm 23 is about the shepherd. Psalm 22 talks about many things which completely you know are in line with what happened during the crucifixion time it talks about how his tongue was you know completely parched that it stuck to the roof of his you know of the mouth all of those things so Psalm 22 is one of the most popular messianic Psalms you have the pilgrim Psalms which are Psalm 120 up to Psalm 134 now these are Psalms which people sang even as they are traveling towards Jerusalem for the different feasts so during the time of the feasts you would have hundreds of people coming to Jerusalem because they want to celebrate it at the temple so even as they're making their journey from their various towns as they are traveling they would be singing these Psalms along the way which I think would have been very interesting because you would have grown-ups and children every and everyone joining in not because they have to sing but just for the fun of it you know because they're on the road they're traveling and it's going to take many days for them to reach and as they are traveling they are singing and preparing their hearts to come and celebrate so those are your pilgrim Psalms or the or what they call journey Psalms which are which were sung while the people were coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the annual feasts you have acrostic Psalms which you must be you know have heard of so which is the most popular acrostic Psalm where you have alphabetically the first alphabet of the Hebrew language you know Aleph so the first verse will begin with Aleph the second verse will begin with a bit which is similar to your B you know so then the third will be Gimel so let that be you know so you would have according to the alphabet Hebrew alphabet you would have each verse beginning with that particular alphabet those are called your acrostic Psalms and the most popular among them is if you your Psalm 119 you know the Lendvious Psalm so each begins with one alphabet so yeah it's written in that pattern and again once you have all the alphabets being covered it again starts with the first alphabet so in that way you have this very very lendy Psalm then you have the imprecatory Psalms these are the most controversial Psalms and I think your textbook actually gives you the some of the main ones these are not the only imprecatory Psalms there are many many more but what exactly is an imprecatory Psalm these are the Psalms where the Psalmist is crying out to God and saying Lord bring judgment upon these people for what they have done for your people so these are Psalms asking God to bring down judgment and the wording is strong you have wordings like you know Lord smash their babies against the rocks and it sounds very horrifying and chilling so most people say that oh these are very unchristian Psalms should never should not be you know using them anymore then why is it that God allowed those Psalms to be part of the scriptures okay so the way we need to see these imprecatory Psalms is that the Psalmists are not taking the vengeance into their own hands they are saying Lord you are the just judge so in your time you because of your righteousness you bring judgment upon these nations due to them what they have done to us to our families to our children the same things that you have seen them do to us now Lord you judge them for that and so God in his perfect timing he will wait he will wait generations for them to repent and change their ways and when the time comes he will unleash the judgment upon them so in these imprecatory Psalms they are not saying I am going to go out and take revenge they are saying Lord you do it in your time in your way so you see they are these are healthy ways to express one's anger the Psalms are not taking matters into their own hands they have clearly understood Eutronomy chapter 32 verse 35 where the Lord says it is mine to avenge I will repay so the Lord will do it in his time according to his plan and the Psalms is only crying out to the Lord and asking the Lord to do that also another thing that we need to understand about the imprecatory Psalms is that it's not just selfish self-centered anger in most of those Psalms if you look the main complaint which is being made is that the innocent people are the ones who are being oppressed it is the innocent who are suffering it is the weak and helpless who know who are being taken advantage of and so the psalmist's heart is wounded he is grieved to see what is done to the helpless and so he cries out and says Lord take action against this wicked who think that God can do nothing that God is not able to see but Lord you who are seeing what is being done to the weak and the helpless you or Lord fight on their behalf so it's not just selfish anger but rather it is anger which is being expressed because of the horrible injustice which is being done and also in some of the imprecatory Psalms you know the psalmist cries out and says Lord you know glorify your name you know because the wicked are mocking God they are thinking that God cannot see that God is helpless that God cannot do anything to them and so the psalmist cries out and says Lord show them who you are show them your might let them know you know so these are not just words of selfish self-centered anger but rather they are righteous anger which is being expressed against the wrong that is being done and another thing that we should see is that even in the New Testament you have godly righteous anger being you know expressed we'll just look at one example Galatians chapter 1 verses 8 to 9 oh yes we had some people responding here thank you so much I'm just seeing it now you know if the laptop was were at eye level I would have been able to see so yes Psalm 2 is a declare in fact maybe if we have time we will look at Psalm 2 and of course Psalm 22 talks about the messianic prophecies of Jesus Christ yeah baby yes Galatians chapter 1 verse 8 and 9 if someone could read out okay so here which version is that uh yeah so let them be accursed in a in an IV it gets very more plain because you know it's you know English used today's English used and so it says so they let them be under God's curse okay so even in the New Testament you do have writers calling down curses upon people and it's being done out of a desire for righteousness because these people are preaching a wrong gospel and people who innocent people who believe in this wrong gospel are going to think that they are saved but tomorrow they will end up in hell because of these devious corrupt evil preachers who are preaching something wrong and so over here very plainly and openly Paul says let them be under God's curse because knowingly they are manipulating the truth and they are presenting a wrong gospel and so he expresses his anger against them so righteous anger is justified and righteous anger is good when it is expressed in line with God's will and it is carried out if God says you know that he will use you as an instrument of discipline or correction then if you walk in leading with him and carry out the disciplining or correction according to his will and his guidance then yes it is justified it is correct uh yeah you had put up your hand for something yes some one I would say it would be a didactic psalm for because it's talking about how the person should live their life so I would like I said there are many types of labels given just depends on the scholar who is giving the labels so I would personally call it a didactic psalm because it's teaching us to live in a particular way but then there would be many many other labels given you too can come up with a commentary of your own give your own labels as long as you're doing it wisely you can actually come up with your own labels yeah someone else was saying something uh in in the um no no it's given in the textbook oh cool okay yeah um okay yes um oh I think Nina meant to say psalm 22 and then she wrote psalm 2 I suppose oh yeah the anti-reference okay that would be Galatians 1 versus 8 to 9 you also have 2nd Peter 2 12 which also you know talks about righteous anger um yeah coming to psalm 2 psalm 2 is something that you know we are is very popularly quoted it is a messianic psalm and if someone could read out psalm chapter 2 verse 7 okay so psalm 2 the psalmist is writing that God has said you are my son today I have become your father you can take it at two levels where God is talking directly to the psalmist and saying to him you know I am now your father on the other hand you can also take it at a second level where it is not only being spoken directly to this psalmist it is also being spoken as a word of prophecy of something which will happen many many years later to the messiah so it's not just referring directly to the psalmist but also to the coming messiah so or the messianic psalms will have two levels it will talk about incidents which are currently happening in the time of the psalmist but it will also refer to things which will happen much later on in the time of the messiah so here uh it's referring to Jesus Christ as well and why do we say that this psalm is connected to Jesus Christ simply because in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 5 again in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 5 they are taking quotations from this psalm you know maybe we can just read out one of those yeah Hebrews chapter 1 verse 5 if you could read out oh yeah yeah Psalm 2 is very much messianic because I mean we're talking about that right now but I was just wondering whether you meant Psalm 22 and then you wrote Psalm 2 just a thought in my head sorry um yeah um so yeah I didn't quite listen to what you were saying because I was busy reading here yes okay so here in the book of Hebrews the writer of Hebrews is pointing out that when God spoke these words in Psalm chapter 2 he was not just referring to the psalmist he was also referring to something that would happen later and so he says God never said the statement angels but he was saying it messiah about the high priest which you know the book of Hebrews talks about again in Psalm chapter 2 verses 8 to 9 um you have things which are mentioned and those get repeated in the New Testament as you know fulfillment of what was prophesied so if we could just read out Psalm chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 please so exactly and so we see the fulfillment of that in Revelation chapter 12 verse 5 where it says it's talking about this vision and then it says she gave birth to a son a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron skeptor okay so in Psalm chapter 2 verse 9 it said you will break them with a rod of iron and the same thing is repeated over here about this male child who is born where it says he will rule all the nations with an iron skeptor then we have Revelation chapter 7 verse 9 where what is mentioned in Psalm 2 is again repeated over here so um maybe we can have one person read out Revelation chapter 7 verse 9 okay so Revelation chapter 7 verse 9 talks about a great multitude that no one can count you know made up of people from every nation tribe people and language and it is a fulfillment of the prophecy made in Psalm 2 verse 8 where it says I will make the nations your inheritance what is the inheritance of a king it is the kingdom that he's going to be ruling right so his kingdom are these people people from every tribe people language and nation so they are his inheritance the Messiah will receive all of these peoples as his inheritance and then it says the ends of the earth your possession so who are the possessions of God they are all his servants he possesses them he owns them and they choose to you know glorify him and live for him so whatever has was prophesied in Psalm chapter 2 we see the fulfillment of that happening in Revelation chapter 7 verse 9 um how much time do we have maybe we could just very quickly look at another Psalm or is that too risky okay we'll just try to look at one more Psalm and then you know get into Proverbs this is going to be very tricky trying to do two books at one time but it has to be done so Psalm 18 verses 1 to 2 you have a lot of images being used because yesterday we were talking about metaphors you know things which were very familiar to the Hebrew people so if someone would say God is like a rock they would immediately understand what that means but for us it sounds very strange that God should be compared to a lifeless chunk of stone okay so um this is the way they understood these things so very quickly if we can look at Psalm 18 verses 1 to 2 um yes it's a good translation because they have translated it as the Lord is my rock which is correct then it says my fortress which is also correct and when you move on to the next phrase my God my rock which is actually correct because in some translations they changed that second rock into strength but actually the literal wording over there is rock my God my rock in whom I will trust so there are two different words used over there for rock at the very beginning of the verse where you have the Lord is my rock you know the first phrase um it's talking about rock um it's talking about something which is the very top of a mountain it's like a cliff it's like at a very great height and to reach it you will have to pass through very narrow you know gorgeous very narrow cuttings in the mountain and the person who is standing up there on the top is in a very safe position if any enemy tries to come up you know going through those narrow cuttings in the rock this person can already see him from above and he can take action against him so over here when he says the Lord is my rock he's saying I'm in such a safe place as long as I'm in him as long as I'm at the center of his will obeying him taking shelter in him believing in him and putting my faith in him it's like as if I'm there on that cliff even before the enemy comes I will know because God will tell me when there is danger and then I can pray against that I can claim his security and his help so he says when I'm in the Lord it's like I'm on that cliff I'm almost untouchable nobody can come no enemy can come near me okay so that is the phrase that is used over there coming to the second uh phrase where it says my God my rock in whom I will trust now over there it's a different word that is being used here it's talking about an open plain which is there on the mountain you know you must have seen a lot of pictures of these things in national geographic and stuff you have mountains but sometimes in the mountain somewhere at a high level you have open plains you have grass growing and you have you know you have this incant civilization very popular for tourists nowadays Peru you know in Peru they have that machu pichu you know so you know so those are plains right and those plains are not down in your valley the plains are up there but you have grass over there and you have houses which which those people built in those days so so the second word that is used over there in the second phrase my God my rock in whom I will trust against the same meaning it's like as if you know I'm on this plain nice greenery around me water supply is there and I've made my home over there and I'm safe you know if any enemy wants to come they'll have to come all the way from the valley up over here on top to attack me so in the Lord it's like as if I'm in the rock in the Lord it's like I'm if I'm on that high plain where no enemy can come so for them these wordings would have carried such deep meaning and we who are now we know in a completely different context we don't catch the beauty of those terms okay I'm just getting risky I should move on but just to explain the other phrase over there because it's so beautiful the Lord is my rock and my fortress it says right so over there that word fortress it literally is that word Matsud which which can mean just a fortress or a palace but it can also mean a particular geographical spot because in the Judean desert you have this mountain which is called Matsuda or Matsud you know however you pronounce it and it's a very high steep kind of a mountain and right on the top and if you if you were to type in your google m a s a d a you would find pictures of that right on top add on on the very summit you have this large space and that was considered a very strong place to have a fortification so they say that in yeah in first Samuel chapter 22 verses 3 to 4 they say that most probably David took shelter over there on the Masada over there up there on the top you know when he was being chased by Saul and later on this Herod builds a strong fortification over there much later when the Maccabees are making their last stand against the enemy they they also you know go and hide themselves over there and then the Romans come and they try to not the Romans was that Antioch Syrian so they also come and attack try to attack the Masada so it's talking about that fortress a summit right on top of the mountain summit an open plain which was over there so here he says the Lord is like the Masada we're not very easy for you to approach it not very easy for you to capture it so these are all the terms which they used in their Hebrew poetry because those things held special meaning and significance for them okay let's not neglect for Proverbs because Proverbs is also an excellent book of the Old Testament and in Proverbs again we see there are multiple authors we have Solomon who's who has written you know many of the Proverbs but we also have another two writers Lemuel and Agur they also have written some of the Proverbs and the thing to understand about Proverbs and I think this is mentioned in your textbook don't know whether it's mentioned in your textbook or not they generally say that Proverbs are truisms that's a term that is used truisms they are called truisms in the sense what is being said in the Proverbs is true and it and it and we see it working out as true on many many occasions but it doesn't mean it's a promise and that will happen to you in that particular way every single time let me take an example and then we can you know discuss this further if someone could read out for us Proverbs chapter 12 verse 11 oh my do I have the wrong one Proverbs chapter 12 verse 11 about a farmer okay so it's talking about a farmer who tills the land very faithfully okay he's looking after his farm very very faithfully such a person he will be satisfied with bread now this is true right I mean 99% of the time you know you work hard you put fertilizer in your in your in your farm you grow the crops it works you are satisfied with bread because you're not being lazy you're using honest hard work and you will get the benefits but what if it's a year of famine then you will also face hardship what if there are invaders who come and burn up your crops then you would get into hardship so the Proverbs contains truisms which are true because that is the way God fashioned the world to function but you cannot say that it will always work in that particular way because there would be times when God would permit something negative to happen but that doesn't mean that in the end God is not victorious he will bring about his purposes he will work things out for good for his people but generally I mean because you know you have one proverb which always used to get on my nerves it says a wife is like a you know dripping roof constantly the water is dripping dripping constantly creating frustration now that is not universally true right so it's a truism yes it is true that if her wife is you know someone who goes on troubling her family and always is you know constantly troubling her husband it's like a dripping roof but it doesn't mean that that's the case always so these are truisms which express universal truths which can be observed in the world but it doesn't mean that it applies to every single case and it will always happen in one particular way okay so that is something that we just kind of need to understand about all the Proverbs which are mentioned chapters one to nine mainly discuss Proverbs for the young people chapters because then it talks about I know follow the instruction of your father and listen to your mother and all of that there are many instructions for young people in chapters one to nine chapters 10 to 24 talk about there is a lot of contrast being done between the righteous man and the wicked man so chapters 10 to 24 it talks about different issues of life talks about you know trade and commerce talks about morality different issues are discussed but also there are many many Proverbs in this particular section contrasting the righteous and the wicked then you have chapters 25 to 31 which are mainly written for leaders they they are trying to impart wisdom to leaders on how exactly to govern and how to rule and in fact it says in Proverbs 25 verse 1 you know it says these also are Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied so during Hezekiah's time he has his people write down these particular Proverbs in a new set of scrolls because Hezekiah cared about ruling correctly he cared about being a good godly leader it was important to him and so it specifically says that he took the effort of making new copies of this section of Proverbs you know during his time so these are just some very brief facts about the Proverbs coming to maybe one important aspect that we can you know touch upon we can read out these two verses and then discuss them because they are the most popular verses in our you know in our Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7 if someone could read out Proverbs 9 10 so in Proverbs 1 7 it says fear of the Lord is the beginning of norm in Proverbs 9 10 it says fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and there are two separate words being used okay so in your Hebrew knowledge would be that and your wisdom on the other hand would be Kokma they're two completely different things so what is being expressed over here the fear of the Lord when it says in Proverbs 9 10 is the beginning of wisdom it's not talking about some deep philosophical profound knowledge Kokma is a word which is talking about very practical very simple everyday wisdom which you need for life it's we can translate it in this way Kokma is basically the ability to live well and the ability to do things well very simple Kokma that wisdom is basically ability to live well and to do things well in the sense how do you live well you are able with the help of God to separate the good from the bad so you choose to make the correct choices you choose to live in the in a way which God has designed and so when even as you do it according to God's way separating the good and the bad you are able to live well and you're also able to do things well you're no longer a shabby worker your work is no longer substandard because you love the Lord you want to honor him you want to please him you do things with excellence and he helps you to be excellent so this is a very practical wisdom it's the ability to live well and to do everything that you put your hands to to do it well it is simple everyday Kokma okay that's the word over there that is wisdom and how does this wisdom come it starts off with fear of the Lord because you honor him because you love him and want to give him your best you are choosing all those choices you know in your everyday life how you treat people you know what you choose to do and what you choose not to do these are all decisions which are coming out of your fear and respect for the Lord and so automatically in the process of fearing him and honoring him you automatically find yourself living well and doing everything well and you will stand out from the rest of the crowd the other verse probes 1 7 is talking about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge that is the word that now your knowledge over here is not talking about just head knowledge it's talking about how you have examined something in great detail you have spent time looking at it examining it understanding how it functions and now at a personal level through experience through everyday experience now you know okay this particular thing functions like this you maybe you can use you can use this dhaat you know for a farmer a farmer who really now knows his land he's been working on that land for 30 years 40 years he knows exactly you know in which season it will grow which crop best he has examined it he has literally you know worked with it now he knows from his personal experience he knows his field okay so over here knowledge is about something which you have examined and which you just don't know as practical information in your head it is something which you really know through personal experience and this kind of a knowledge it says also comes from a fear of the Lord and here in probes verse 1 7 it's specifically talking about knowledge of the Lord how to have a personal knowledge of the Lord even the demons have a intellectual knowledge of God in fact maybe if you were to if you ask if you were to ask the demons to write an essay on the character of God they would give you an essay you know because after all they've been alive for centuries and they know everything about God you know of course no one can know everything about God but at least in their limited understanding but we believers we have a practical experiential knowledge of him which has been gained by walking with him with suffering with him sharing in his sufferings we have learned what it feels like to obey it we have learned what it feels like to submit we have seen the joy of you know receiving his rewards we have seen the the surprises that he you know releases into our families we have an experiential knowledge of him and that's the kind of that which is being talked about over here so how do you gain that intimacy with him how do you gain that kind of knowledge of him it happens when you have reverence for him when you you know walk with respect towards him on a day-to-day basis and so in Deutronomy okay let's just drop that and how much time do we have okay all right so maybe we can just you know I'll just give you two references Deutronomy 113 where it says choose some wise understanding and respected men from each of your tribes and I will set them over you so here it's talking about wise people in the sense these are people who have been making the right choices they have been separating the good from the bad and they know how to live well they know how to live right that would be your Deutronomy 113 on the other hand in 2 Chronicles chapter 2 verse 7 where you know you have it translated like this send me therefore a man skilled to work in gold and silver so here to the same word for wisdom Kokma is being used but over here it's not talking about someone living well it's talking about someone who is able to do things well okay so these are two aspects of Kokma the two aspects of wisdom coming to the knowledge of the Lord some 9 10 could be one example where it says those who know your name trust in you for you Lord have never forsaken those who seek you those who know your name trust in you because you see they have spent examining him getting to know him learning through experience how he is with them in different situations what are the things which he allows into their lives and why he allows it and how he brings you through it this is knowledge which has been gained through personal intimate walking with him and such people trust in him why because experience they've been with him they've experienced him they've tasted him now they know that they can totally stand on him no matter how big the you know storm no matter how strong the enemy doesn't matter because they have experienced him they know him so that is what it talks about in some nine uh uh verse 10 okay so these are the two important phrases uh wisdom and knowledge Kokma and that which are used in your book of Proverbs uh okay we are almost out of time anyone has any questions okay uh there's no question at the moment maybe we could just look at one another thing you know from the book of Proverbs um talks about wisdom as a person in chapter nine okay Proverbs chapter nine it talks about two women now these are imaginary women not actual historical physical persons but you know just two concepts wisdom is presented as a lady and foolishness is also presented as another lady so you have two ladies you have lady wisdom and you have lady foolishness and this there's a contrast between both of them now many scholars have been debating and arguing and saying why were wisdom and foolishness portrayed as women why not as men is there some reason no so they could have very clearly said no man wisdom and man foolishness why are they being called lady wisdom and lady foolishness uh and uh people come up with different kinds of answers for that i think the simple answer for that is that whenever a feminine imagery expresses something best god uses that imagery whenever you have a masculine imagery being you know able to express some part of him or you know some part of some concept he just uses that for instance you know there are many occasions where god uses feminine images to describe himself right for instance Jesus in Matthew chapter 23 verse 37 he says how often i have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks so here Jesus uses a feminine imagery of a hen which looks after its chicks you know when it's raining it it spreads out its wings and brings those little ones under its wings to protect them and Jesus says i am like that hen that's what i wanted to do for you Jerusalem but you Jerusalem were not willing to come under my wings we're not willing to come under my um shelter and then in um Hosea chapter 13 verse 8 um god describes himself to a mother bear he says you know what happens when you when you try to you know take away the cubs from a mother bear that's it all fury and rage and anger and nothing can stop that mother bear it'll come after you right until it drops down dead it'll just keep coming after you because you have touched its cubs and the lord says that's the way i will defend my people like a so over here wisdom is being compared to a woman simply because uh you know women bring out that nurturing aspect if you notice it's usually the mothers and the wives who place the rest of the family members first and then they tend to place themselves last when it comes to you know feeding them if you observe lunchtime the rest of the family gets served and only after everything is you know done then the mother sits down and then she eats it's just a very natural thing i mean nobody ever told you know um you know little girls when they were born you know nobody gave them a book of rules and said you know what when you grow up this is how you should be you should put yourself last and put the others first no it automatically comes from inside when they become wives when they become mothers they automatically start you know that so that nurturing nature which is there is brought out by this wisdom and the other thing about wisdom i mean about this imagery of a woman is that um they also give birth to new things you know because it's not the men who give birth but it's the woman who gives birth so the imagery used over here is of uh of wisdom as a woman because when you walk in wisdom you are able to birth new things okay so it's just because of that that wisdom is personified as a woman rather than as a man and in this uh Proverbs chapter nine a very nice contrast is brought out between these two women do you want to be someone who will follow lady wisdom or do you want to follow someone uh you know or do you want to be someone who will follow lady foolishness why because you need to think about it because these two ladies are very very different and this is a description given what does lady wisdom do it says that uh you know versus one and two she builds up her house she sets up with seven pillars it says she has prepared her meal and mixed her wine she has set the table she has made all the preparations and now she's saying come come there's a feast which i have prepared and you can partake of it you can enjoy it you know you can have a wholesome good life so she has gone put in a lot of hard work and now she's inviting you on the other hand when you look later on in the chapter and you look at lady foolishness what is this woman doing then bother to make any preparations nothing she's just sitting over there at her doorstep and she's making false promises she's come inside nice things are there waiting for you inside but actually what is waiting inside um it says in chapter nine versus 16 to 18 if someone could read out this please yeah and then 18 yes so she actually lady foolishness is being compared to a prostitute she's sitting over there on her doorstep and saying you know you come inside there's something nice awaiting you you know stolen goods are inside and you can enjoy them but it says over here the people who are getting invited little do they realize that inside is literally hell the mouth of hell you know that's the that's the actual literal wording over there if you look at the Hebrew it's like the jaws of hell are opened and waiting for you and when you go inside you're going to get swallowed up that is all that's waiting for you inside so um here the writer of proverbs is presenting these two women and saying now home do you want to follow isn't it better to follow lady wisdom who has put in all the hard work and made the preparations for you to feast your way through life how do you want to follow lady foolishness who's making brilliant promises sitting over there on her doorstep but inside there's nothing there nothing there except death awaiting you okay so you have all this beautiful imageries which are brought out in the book of proverbs yes may it be a short question are they lady wisdom and lady foolish they are some have followed lady wisdom and kept their oil burning on the other hand some the other virgins were following lady foolishness and they were unprepared so I would not say that they were lady wisdom and lady you know virgin wisdom and virgin foolishness no I would say they were followers of some of them are followers of lady wisdom some of them are followers of lady foolishness I mean someone I know in the class just making a comparison between the ten virgins story and this well okay um yeah so many things that could have been discussed but that'll this is supposed to be Old Testament survey so we're just surveying we don't we cannot get into the details okay so we'll just finish with the word of prayer let's pray Lord we just thank you so much that there's so much richness and depth in each of the books of the Bible O Lord through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit you have put in things over there which we need for life for abundance for prosperity and shalom and Lord if we choose to study these books if we choose to really spend our time meditating on your scriptures we will open our lives to an entire world of shalom and prosperity and and abundance O Lord help us O Lord to create the time to spend in your presence so that your Holy Spirit can start teaching us these things and revealing these things to us thank you Lord in Jesus name amen amen thank you so much for all of you who know who contributed online as well as those of you in the class