Selection Sunday arrives every March, and sports fans eagerly fill out their college basketball brackets to try to pick the winners. In the history of what has become known as March Madness, no one has ever selected every winner of every NCAA tournament game.

This Sunday, our destination is Proverbs 9, which provides our own Selection Sunday. We see selections to accept an invitation to competing feasts, and invitations are extended to both. Which bracket will you choose? One invitation is to folly. The other invitation is to wisdom.

Easy selection? Which invitation does our deceitful heart wish to accept? Which does the world that surrounds us urge us to grasp? May the fear and admonition of the Lord, through His grace and mercy, empower our welcoming of the invitation to wisdom. That invitation leads us to Christ and his wisdom, and a banquet that is beautiful and eternal.

In preparation for our service this Sunday morning, outdoors at 8:30 am, read Proverbs 9. Invite neighbors, friends and family to come to OBC with you so they may also hear the Word of the Lord and the invitation to wisdom and Christ’s banquet. And pray for your OBC family and our time together.

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Discussion & Response Questions for Proverbs 9
1. Look at how Proverbs 9 is organized with two contrasting feasts and hostesses. Wisdom offers invitations to her feast (vv. 1-6), and Folly offers hers (vv. 13-18). What is central to this text, and why is that significant (vv. 7-12)?
2. Compare and contrast Wisdom (vv. 1-6) and Folly (vv. 13-18). What is similar and dissimilar?
a. What is laid out for the guests? How is this different between feasts?
b. What does each feast ultimately provide?
c. Notice how the same group (the simple) are receiving both invitations. What does this reveal?
d. What is noteworthy between the two invitations (vv. 4-6, 16-18)?
e. How is this invitation communicated? What strategies are employed?
3. How does the center of this chapter (vv. 7-12) instruct us? What is the end of the scoffer and the wise?
4. Do you reprove/correct/instruct others? If so, how do you see this played out? (vv. 7-9)
5. How can one who is simple or a scoffer come to the fear of the LORD and knowledge of the Holy? How should we understand this in light of the gospel?
6. Consider the world’s macabre feast, and the feast that Christ offers us as He invites us to eat and drink of Himself. How should we respond?