Proverbs 7: Do Not Let Your Heart Turn Aside.
Proverbs 7 starts out very much like the first six proverbs, and one may wonder, “Why the repetition?”. But one must remember that Solomon was writing to his sons, and as king, to his people. If anything, the repeated exhortation shows his love and his concern.
Parents and Grandparents will watch their young sons and/or daughters and smile at their happiness and innocence. There is also the wish for they be able to avoid the trials and troubles of life as they grow older.
Of course, such a wish is fanciful, because there will be trials, troubles, hurts, and pains. But there is also the desire to give them teaching that may help minimize the trials that are in the future.
Proverbs 7: Do Not Let Your Heart Turn Aside
This seems to be the motive for Solomon’s words in the first verses when he wrote, “My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ and call understanding your intimate friend;”
There is a common expression that says, “He is the apple of his Father’s eye”, and it usually means that a son shares, or reflects, the character and actions of his father.
Few people realize the age of that expression. Solomon wanted his reader to make Godly teaching and wisdom the core of his very attitude and belief system.
And the reason for Solomon’s admonition was to ensure that his son, and his readers, would be able to avoid the dangers and pain of immorality and immoral living. Verse 5 states, “That they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.” Solomon uses the image of a woman to describe both wisdom and the adulteress.
Proverbs 7: Do Not Let Your Heart Turn Aside
At some point, immoral living and actions always involve physical, carnal pleasures. Solomon described an event that he may have witnessed. In verses 6-8, he wrote “For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naive, and discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense, passing through the street near her corner; and he takes the way to her house…”.
The young man was not simply naïve, but was apparently drawn to the adulteress woman. The word used for “street” was describing a narrow side street and not a main thoroughfare, As James wrote in James 1:14, this young man was tempted when he was enticed by his own lust.
So, the young man was walking near the adulteress’ house and…”So she seizes him and kisses him And with a brazen face she says to him: I was due to offer peace offerings; today I have paid my vows. Therefore, I have come out to meet you, to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.”
When a peace offering was made, part of the sacrificial animal was offered to God, part was given to the priests, and the rest was given back to the one that took the offering. According to the Law of Moses, that person was to take the meat and eat it that day in a Solomon ceremony.
Proverbs 7: Do Not Let Your Heart Turn Aside
Yet, the complete lack concern for the religious nature of the meat was obvious. She had kissed the young man, told how she earnestly searched for him, and now offered him food to eat. Each step pulled the him closer and closer to the trap.
Not only was she enticing him, but she said in verse 19, “For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a long journey; he has taken a bag of money with him, at the full moon he will come home.” Here was a woman that was married, but she was quick to reassure the young man that her husband was gone on a long trip, and they would not be disturbed.
She continued to try to persuade the young man. What was going on in his mind? Was a small part warning him of the consequences of his actions? Was he excited and scared at the same time? There must have been some hesitation at first, but then he made the fatal step into the trap.
Centuries later, James 1:14-15 would echo the same warning, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
Proverbs 7: Do Not Let Your Heart Turn Aside
Solomon’s words are blunt and vivid, “Suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him his life.”
This was Solomon’s warning. A worldly, immoral, godless life leads to only one thing. “25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths. 26 For many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain. 27 Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.”
Each day the adulteress, the servants of the Devil are present. Each day a person will make hundreds of decisions. Some will be small and some may be more important; but the basis for every single decision in life must be based of the teaching and wisdom of God. That will lead to life eternal through Jesus Christ. But any other path will lead to one destination….Death!
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