Throughout the Scriptures, we frequently read about the Two Ways, a simple yet powerful way to teach about the basic choice that confronts each one of us in life. Moses used the Two Ways to teach the Israelites in their day: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live…” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a). Jesus also used the Two Ways to teach his followers about the narrow gate that leads to life and the wide gate that leads to destruction. 

Proverbs makes use of this same teaching method. Proverbs 9 personifies the two ways with two women—Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly—each of whom invites guests into her home. Interestingly, the call of the two ladies is the same: “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” (Proverbs 9:4 and 16). Their invitation may be the same, but the ends that their guests come to could not be more different. Lady Wisdom’s invitation is to “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight” (Prov. 9:6). Furthermore, her invitation to the simple has a distinctly moral tone. Her invitation is not to secular wisdom but to true, Biblical wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov. 9:10). Thus verse 10 clarifies that Lady Wisdom’s call to walk in the way of insight in verse 6 is a call to know the Lord. And the reward for walking in the way of wisdom and the fear of the Lord is life: “For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life” (Prov. 9:11).

Lady Folly’s invitation is entirely different. Far from being an invitation to come to know and revere the Lord, her invitation is to moral laxity. “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Prov. 9:17). The Way of Folly is so called precisely because we follow it when we suppress our knowledge of what is right and pursue our own desires. It is the Way of Folly not because we accidentally made a mistake, but because we long for what is forbidden and choose to do what we know is foolish and wrong. But what we seldom think about is where the Way of Folly will lead us. In the words of the Proverbs, ‘He does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol [i.e. the place of the dead]” (Prov. 9:18). Two ways: the way of life that leads to blessing or the way of death that leads to the curse. Two ways: the narrow way that leads to life or the broad way that leads to destruction. Two ways: Lady Wisdom or Lady Folly. Two ways; two very different results. Two ways; your choice.