The young man down the street corner never imagined he would end up like a bird, with a pierced liver, fighting for his life, in a location to hell.
Proverbs 7: 1-27 displays the naivety that is likely to nip the spiritual bud of the gospel-apathetic.
And this is the way sexual sin works. It blinds the (seemingly) best of us from the entanglement of it all.
You’d never have imagined for example that the young man strolling down the street in Proverbs 7 was going to end up like an “ox to the slaughter. ” (22)
Same as King David on the balcony, few foresaw his adultery as a curtain-raiser to a family disintegration that would lead to a divided kingdom and an idolatrous Israel.
Plus, well…
A son with 300 concubines, about whom scripture says that because of this, “his wives led him astray. ” (1 Kings 11:3)
Maybe this is what James saw when he described the pattern of sin in chapter 1, in his own words.
“..but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:14-15)
Desire to enticement, enticement to sin, and sin to death. One thing seems to lead to another, there is no telling the end from the beginning when the curtains are closed.
On another day we can argue that this is the way all sin works, but looking at Proverbs 7 specifically reminded me that when it comes to sexual transgression, a simple stroll, (or glance) often leads to venues unimagined, consequences unanticipated.
Thank God the warning in Proverbs 7 starts with an encouragement to befriend wisdom(4).
And thank him even more that those in Christ carry inside them “the one greater than Solomon.” (Luke 11:31) The one whose power we rely on to say no when smooth talk or coloured eyelashes tempt at twilight.
Without this power,, the coming hour of temptation may be worse. Just like in Proverbs 7, Christ, “our wisdom from God” (1 Cor 1:30), is available to also keep us from such folly.
Got him?
MULEEFU 