Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn out its seven pillars . . .
Leave your simple ways and you will live;
walk in the way of understanding.
—Proverbs 9:1,6
God’s wisdom is the adhesive that binds the holy structure built with stone and on stone and supported by seven pillars. This is the house that Jesus describes at the end of His Sermon on the Mount. It is a house that can withstand the worst storm: “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blow and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matthew 7:24–25).
But the foolish person often chooses not to seek the house built on a solid foundation. Instead they seek out a house that ensnares and destroys. “At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house.... All at once he followed her... little knowing it will cost him his life” (Proverbs 7:6–8, 22–23).
God invites each of us to enter His house of seven pillars. Other houses, of which there are many, are like prisons filled with sorrow and regret. Will we have the wisdom to take God’s way or will we choose the other path?
—Eric Kampmann, Signposts