Proverbs 7:1-27 (NLT)
1 Follow my advice, my son; always treasure my commands.
2 Obey my commands and live! Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes.
3 Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.
4 Love wisdom like a sister; make insight a beloved member of your family.
5 Let them protect you from an affair with an immoral woman, from listening to the flattery of a promiscuous woman.
6 While I was at the window of my house, looking through the curtain,
7 I saw some naive young men, and one in particular who lacked common sense.
8 He was crossing the street near the house of an immoral woman, strolling down the path by her house.
9 It was at twilight, in the evening, as deep darkness fell.
10 The woman approached him, seductively dressed and sly of heart.
11 She was the brash, rebellious type, never content to stay at home.
12 She is often in the streets and markets, soliciting at every corner.
13 She threw her arms around him and kissed him, and with a brazen look she said,
14 “I’ve just made my peace offerings and fulfilled my vows.
15 You’re the one I was looking for! I came out to find you, and here you are!
16 My bed is spread with beautiful blankets, with colored sheets of Egyptian linen.
17 I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning. Let’s enjoy each other’s caresses,
19 for my husband is not home. He’s away on a long trip.
20 He has taken a wallet full of money with him and won’t return until later this month.”
21 So she seduced him with her pretty speech and enticed him with her flattery.
22 He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter. He was like a stag caught in a trap,
23 awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life.
24 So listen to me, my sons, and pay attention to my words.
25 Don’t let your hearts stray away toward her. Don’t wander down her wayward path.
26 For she has been the ruin of many; many men have been her victims.
27 Her house is the road to the grave. Her bedroom is the den of death.
A bit of swaying and wandering is necessary for arrival at the perilous destination of the seducing woman’s home. It’s like the flowing of water. It will naturally go the way of the opening, the lower level where it is allowed to flow. Until there is an obstruction, it just wanders in search of whatever is the available route. With seduction, gravity is already built into a young man’s system, drawing the body toward the craving for physical engagement. Visual and auditory stimuli work to further activate the natural downward trend of the sex drive, creating a very forceful flow that becomes increasingly difficult to hold back the further it is allowed to flow. The most effective deterrent against the devastation of its final destination is the blocking off of any wandering from the very start. By placing wisdom and the revelation of where enticements really lead strategically before the eyes and in the ears, the passage to pursuing the deception can be sealed off and rendered ineffective. In this cessation of lust’s flow, there can be the discovery of the true purpose for the drive in the development of a relationship that becomes a commitment to a life-long companion. Trading the treasure of a thriving family that lasts into old age for the temporary flood of perversion can be averted in the building of wisdom’s dam. While the world desperately strives to minimize the disaster at the end of lust’s wanderings, the way of wisdom found in the Word and the presence of the Father reveals it for what it really is: nothing to be allowed in the least. Every alluring image, post, website, video, and imagination can be shut off from its swaying power by the maintenance of wisdom’s meditation and obedience.
When reading, I hear, “come out from among them…be holy, separate- for the purpose of God for our lives”. I am reminded of the church as bride, awaiting the return of the bridegroom,or an image of Isreal waiting for the promised Messiah and becoming engaged with the enticements of the world, allowing them to capture the heart rather than a heart that remains faithful to the bridegroom. Drive and desires can become focused on all that the world dangles before us like the “oh, just stay awhile, he’s not coming back any time soon” image of the alluring woman in Proverbs 7. What an intentional commitment we are called to, to remain faithful to the One who has called us to Oneness, such a heart dedicated to Him that the enticements of the world grow strangely dim
Todays adulterous ‘’woman’’ can be:
*A phone screen
*A private message
*A toxic relationship
*An addiction
*A secret habit
*A compromising opportunity
Anything that seduces the heart away from God fits the pattern.
Where wisdom says,
’’Keep my commands and live,’’
Jesus says,
’’I have come that you may have life.’’(John 10:10)
Wisdoms warnings point us to:
*The need for a Savior
*The power of the Holy Spirit
*The grace that restores the fallen
*The strength to resist temptation
*The purity that comes through Christ