As you read this today begin to see the differences between Sister Wisdom and the Spirit of an Immoral Woman. Proverbs is constantly showing us the opposites of following God and following the ways of the world - or our own ways - or listening to the voice of the enemy.
vs 1-5 Follow the advice of wisdom
a. treasure the commands of wisdom
b. obey wisdom
c. write them on your heart (how many times have we read this already? Must be important!)
d. make wisdom part of your family - like a sister
e. let wisdom protect you from the immoral woman's flattery
vs 6-9 Empty headed, empty hearted young man lacks common sense.....
a. he is unoccupied and looking for trouble
vs 10-23
b. she (the immoral woman) is brazen and brash and rebellious
c. she doesn't stay home where she belongs
d. she flatters him with words - "I have been looking for you"
e. she persuaded him with flattery - to overcome his conscience and his fears
f. he never realizes the cost - he is like a bird flinging into a snare and it costing him his life
vs 24-27 Listen, be attentive to the words of sister wisdom
a. don't let you heart stray away from wisdom, toward the immoral sister
b. don't wander down her street - stay where you belong (at home, in church, with Christian friends)
c. realize she has ruined many others and you are no different
d. her house is the way to hell
e. her bedroom is the den of death
This chapter is full of widom for those who have a desire to just try the "other" life. Immorality can be so tempting and wisdom calls out "don't" but the flattery we receive is so tantalizing that we drawn like a fly to a spider's web. As I read this I had such a burden for the youth who have grown up in church and who get caught in this deceit of the enemy so many times. Even you couples who get married and then realize they have to work at this relationship and keep being pulled to a "free" life. God help them!!!! They don' t see that it all leads to death until it is so late that the consequenses are something they will have to life with forever. God is merciful and forgives but it can never be like it was. Those of us who are older and have learned wisdom the hard way or seen the work of the enemy so many times need to find ways to speak into the lives of those being deceived. Don't be afraid or hold back but if you have a relationship with someone who is being pulled into that web of deceit let God use you to expose the work of the enemy by your testimony or others who have been restored. God always makes a way to come to Him but the scars of our own way may be with us until we get to heaven!!!
Take time today to pray for someone you know who may be traped or just leaning toward the voice of the Immoral Woman. Pray their eyes are opened and they ears begin to listen to that still small voice of reason they have shoved to the back of their minds and hearts. God can restore and He has many times. He loves us so much He will wait until He knows we have had enough and our heart is ready to turn back to Him.
2 comments:
This is such an admonition to us....to keep his Word written on our hearts (they keep talking about that....like pastor susan said, it must be really important) so we don't get drawn in by the enemy (the sin the immoral woman represents). Sin is just so enticing....but what this says to me in verse 7-8 is that it starts with a lack of understanding, but then we actually have to walk down the path to her house. That word "understanding" means our "will, our mind, our inner man, our determination, our resolution of will, our conscience, the seat of our appetites, the seat of our emotions and passions, the seat of our courage" (from the strong's concordance). Sin doesn't just "happen". It's a process. It starts when we lack understanding, when we are unguarded, when we haven't made a determination in our heart to run and avoid sin at all costs. Sin just looks so good sometimes. But, in verse 23 it says "he did not know it would cost his life." Our destiny is determined by choices of obedience or disobedience. Disobedient choice after disobedient choice can really affect our destiny. Obedient choices lead to reward. I really believe we have to determine within ourself to be ones that will keep eyes on Jesus and be ones that willfully obey God (not that we won't mess up.....God is a restorer and we are able to obey BECAUSE of the grace of God). Otherwise, we will be enticed by the enemy. I experience this enticing everyday in my thoughts, attitudes, etc. I sometimes have to get myself centered back on the Word, confess the Word and hope of God,etc, and set my heart to cast down wrong thinking, wrong attitudes, etc, so I don't walk down the road to the enemy little step by little step....it is like a little here, a little there, and all of a sudden we find ourselves walking down the road to the home of the immoral woman (sin that entices us). It looks so harmless! But, it can cost of our life b/c those little thoughts lead to little habits that little to little choices that lead to wrong decisions, etc. It says in verse 25 "do not let your heart turn aside to her ways." I think this is so much more than the blatant things we think of "sin" --drunkeness, fornication, murder, etc. This is not letting our heart turn aside to disobedience. We have to determine to obey God before giving the opportunity to disobey Him. We have to determine in our hearts to be ones that hold fast to Him, so when sin comes to entice, we can discern it and we can run from it. It goes on in verse 26 that "all who were slain by here were strong men." She doesn't take down the ones that just don't know....it says here that ALL were strong men. It is no joke! Her power is strong, and unguarded we can fall. I'm thinking of that verse in 1 cor 10:12 that says "let him who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall." What a reminder. We are never out of the woods, it is a daily determination to obey God. I want to be a woman that obeys God in my thoughts, attitudes, in my "understanding", that can repent and get my heart set back on get when I mess up before I end up down that road. What a good admonition from sister wisdom! Wisdom is to guard, guard, guard! Guard your heart, your walk, your thought, your attitudes, your marriage, what comes in your home, etc etc. What an admonition to listen to sister wisdom!
That's what i was thinking too, Pastor Kirsten, about how this particular young man ended up like he did. Definitely little steps and little choices that eventually lead to the ultimate action. And, yes Pastor Susan, it makes my heart hurt for young people, in particular, who are "mindless... without any sense" (v. 7) --- they don't have a vision of what God wants for their life, a vision of who they are in God, that HE CAN forgive and love and bring change and wholeness to them.
This chapter is a good reminder to me to always guard my heart and mind in everything, asking God daily to clothe me with the full armor of God!
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