We are nearly coming to the end of our series through the first 9 chapters of Proverbs. These last chapters are like the closing arguments in a debate. Today, we are going to hear again from the seductive lady. Next week, we will hear from Lady Wisdom, and then in chapter 9, both give their closing arguments, for you to decide which way you want to live.
And today, it may feel like we are covering the same ground we have seen before. In chapter 5, it said adultery is wrong, and here again we have another adultery story. Why do we have to do this again? It’s already one of the ten commandments. It's like the teacher is trying to make a point. Solomon thought this was a key lesson for his son to learn. Repetition is good education so that this point can stick. Solomon himself came out of an adulterous relationship; maybe he knew first-hand what trouble this causes.
The main difference in this chapter to Chapter 5 is that we get to see more of the temptation, so we might be able to see how we can avoid it. So today, we are looking more at temptation and the heart.
Temptation is more than an intellectual problem. People know that adultery is wrong and yet they still do it. This contradiction in behaviour is trumped by certain assumptions about self-fulfilment, and being true to your feelings and self-entitlements to unmet needs. This is not just in the realm of sex, but we also can justify our actions and behaviours through this self-frist grid all the time.
This is not how society has always thought. Rousseau from the 18th Century has dramatically shaped the West’s way of thinking about ethics. His basic idea is that humans are naturally good and free and uncorrupted. He championed the native and indigenous people in primitive conditions, having escaped the corruption of society. Yet he still desired to live out the rest of his life in France.
You may see this today. Peer pressure is a real thing, which is why any good parents ask their teens two very important questions when they are about to go out. They ask, “Where are you going?” and “Who are you going with?”. You might also find the corrupting nature of society in the workplace. You might be doing something just fine, but when someone comes along doing the same thing, then there may be envy, comparison or competition between the two. The effect of having more people around can corrupt your mindset and actions. But the problem with Rousseau and this dominating idea we have today is that it is foolish. I’m not just talking about the obvious observational bias he - and everyone who agreed with him - had about how good and pure they are. Of course, everyone wants to think that left to themselves, they will be good; Rousseau just said what everyone wanted to think. But the main problem with Rousseau was that he was ripping off Augustine.
Augustine, in the late 4th century, wrote a book called Confessions, and in that, he talked about stealing apples when he was a youth with some mates. He didn’t even want apples, and they didn’t even taste that good, but there was something inside of him that just enjoyed the thrill of eating stolen apples, which is why he did it. Rousseau blamed society for corrupting people, as he thought that deep down, people are good. Augustine blamed his own internal desires for corrupting him and saw that he needed an external change for him to do good. Ethics in a Christian context begins with a belief in the depravity of humans and their need for repair and restoration. Because Adam took God’s credit card and put it in the negative, we are all born into his debt. We all need new external help, for we can not do it on our own.
And Proverbs is all about living, how can we live a new life. We are reminded of this in the opening verses
Path of Wisdom (v1-5)
My son, keep my wordsTo live we, are to keep these commands, we are to guard and bind and write them in our eye, and fingers and heart.
and store up my commands within you.
Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings 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 to insight, “You are my relative.”
They will keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the wayward woman with her seductive words. (Proverbs 7:1–5 NIV)
Wisdom is to be kept in the family. We are to keep her close because this family member will protect. And in particular, they will protect from seductive words.
We are in a battle for words here; we need the words of the teacher and their commands - that is how we can combat the many seductive words around us. We need the right words bound in our heart. We need to know that the seductive words promise much, but deliver only death. Before we hear these seductive words, the teacher sets up the story.
Path of Deception (v6-13)
At the window of my house
I looked down through the lattice.
I saw among the simple,
I noticed among the young men,
a youth who had no sense.
He was going down the street near her corner,
walking along in the direction of her house
at twilight, as the day was fading,
as the dark of night set in.Then out came a woman to meet him,
dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
(She is unruly and defiant,
her feet never stay at home;
now in the street, now in the squares,
at every corner she lurks.)
She took hold of him and kissed him
and with a brazen face she said: (Proverbs 7:6–13 NIV)
There were a group of youths who were described as “simple”. They might be young, and they don’t know much; they are directionless. The issue with the simple in Proverbs is whether they are teachable or not. The teacher then sees one who breaks away from the group to walk down the street, in the dark, at twilight. Not to go home, but in the direction of her house. He is perhaps testing the waters or putting himself in harm's way.
This is tieing a few things we have already seen in Proverbs, the warning of the wrong company, being idle, not fleeing and going down a different path, nor listening to the teachings of parents.
This simpleton, perhaps, might like the cover of darkness, hoping that no one else will see, but the lady sees and comes out to him. Exposing much, but not who she really is. She is dressed in a revealing way, and yet with her crafty intent, her heart is not revealed.
The young man doesn’t flee at this point, the complete opposite of Joseph in Genesis, who, when put in a tempting situation like this, fled right out the door, leaving his coat behind. There is something in this young man that is keeping him where he is. He perhaps likes her assertiveness and or her attention, so he stays to hear her out.
This is tieing a few things we have already seen in Proverbs, the warning of the wrong company, being idle, not fleeing and going down a different path, nor listening to the teachings of parents.
This simpleton, perhaps, might like the cover of darkness, hoping that no one else will see, but the lady sees and comes out to him. Exposing much, but not who she really is. She is dressed in a revealing way, and yet with her crafty intent, her heart is not revealed.
The young man doesn’t flee at this point, the complete opposite of Joseph in Genesis, who, when put in a tempting situation like this, fled right out the door, leaving his coat behind. There is something in this young man that is keeping him where he is. He perhaps likes her assertiveness and or her attention, so he stays to hear her out.
Path of Destruction (v14-23)
Her seductive words are now said:“Today I fulfilled my vows,
and I have food from my fellowship offering at home.
So I came out to meet you;
I looked for you and have found you!
I have covered my bed
with colored linens from Egypt.
I have perfumed my bed
with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning;
let’s enjoy ourselves with love!
My husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey.
He took his purse filled with money
and will not be home till full moon.”With persuasive words she led him astray;
she seduced him with her smooth talk.
All at once he followed her
like an ox going to the slaughter,
like a deer stepping into a noose
till an arrow pierces his liver,
like a bird darting into a snare,
little knowing it will cost him his life. (Proverbs 7:14–23 NIV)
Here we see the bait and the hook.
Her words are the enticing bait. She comes forward with a little religiousness; she has been to the temple and made sacrifices. Back then, if you made the fellowship offering, you could take the meat home with you, and you had to eat it that night. She was saying, “Come, I have meat, eat with me, it will be tasty.” She then moves from the dining room to the bedroom. She has luxury linen from Egypt, and it has been prepared for all the senses. She says, “Come and experience all of this, and then we can enjoy ourselves together till morning”. And she reassures there is nothing to fear about being caught, for her husband is away on business for the whole month.
This is enticing, arousing a fantasy of pleasure and enjoyment. She has meat, clean sheets, promises of sex, and it’s risk-free. There will be no consequences. But that is not true. God always sees, and sin always entangles and complicates things. What she is offering is only for marriage; it is all a lie. She has compartmentalised her religion and her marriage, and her inner desires, so these things do not have to relate to each other.
And so we see here that the bait works, and the young man doesn’t know what it is costing him. The hook is spelt out. It is like an ox going to the slaughter, it is like having a noose around your neck, or an arrow in the liver. It will cost him his life. This sin leads to death.
In verse 21, we are told again, it is her persuasive words, and not her appearance, that has led him astray. She seduced him with her smooth talk, and he took the bait.
This enticement that plays on the heart is as old as human history.
In Genesis 3 we are told how our first parents fell. There is one line about the attractiveness of the fruit
And then after her answer, the serpent again just rejects out of hand what God said
These persuasive words are how sin works. It reframes the situation, it rejects God’s word; it questions the character and wisdom of God.
We sometimes can get ensnared by the bait of sin, thinking it will be pleasurable, it will be easy, it will not cost anything, no one will know.
Temptation to sin is as old as the creation story, but while it is old, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. We still haven’t got rid of it, and that is because we do not pay attention to how to avoid it.
What websites do we visit? What shows do we binge-watch? How much money do we hold on to, and how much do we give away? What is going on in our hearts when it comes to ourselves? How do we try to justify what paths we slowly walk down, only to get enticed and then ensnared?
This simple guy is not an innocent victim in this story. The women didn’t corrupt him and make him do it. The adultrous woman has her own things going on, but the guy is persuaded because he wants to be. His heart wanted to go down that path. The fault is not with a problem out there, but it is with his heart inside.
It sounded good, so he went that way. He didn’t think about anything broader; he may in principle think cheating is wrong, but when the woman put it in her words, he thought it was ok for him to cheat.
The external temptation exploits an internal condition. And we all face this.
We do the things that we love, and today in the West, we even elevate our own self-love to define who we are. We are proud of what we love. Whether it be our nation or who we are attracted to. Our culture says your attractions are your identity. It says that who you love is who you are. It says “Love is God”, but they have it backwards because we know “God is Love”.
If we base our identity on something from within, we are at the whim of our own fickleness and our own hearts, which can be deceitful. Instead, we should base our identity on something beyond us. John, the Apostle, identifies himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. His identity was based on who was loving him, not who he loves. This is a more stable and comforting identity based on who we are, for it is not based on something within, but from something external. If we are in Christ, we are dearly beloved.
In writing to the messed-up church in Corinth, Paul says:
(I didn’t fact-check this, but) I think it was C.S. Lewis who said to picture society as a lake with a bunch of large boats on it. And on this lake, we generally think, if we are not bumping into others, we can do what we want on our own boats. We can add this modification here, we can use the sail as a bedsheet, or even use the mast for firewood if we want to. If it isn’t harming others, then we are free to do what we please. We can board other boats, as long as they consent to it, but doing anything by force is bad. Lewis said this seems very true, but what happens if we find out we don’t actually own the boats, that we are all renting them from the owner? Then we can’t do anything we want on the boats, we can’t tweak it how we want, it doesn’t belong to us. And that is our bodies. We have been given these, and will be judged by what we do with them.
If you are a Christian, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God has come and dewlls in you. He has given you a new heart, and an external one has come internally.
When you become a Christian, you become joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, in body and spirit, through his finished work on the cross. He gives himself to you completely by grace, and you give yourself to him completely by faith… From head to toe, all that you are is not only for Christ but also of Christ. That includes your sexuality, married or single, because you are married—to Christ. You have been joined by grace to the Lord. (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works Where to Find the Love We Long For)
Elsewhere in the Bible, married couples are considered to be one flesh, but here, with Christ, we have become one spirit, which is even more profound and deeper and richer.
God has sent His Spirit to renew our hearts from the inside, so that we can walk in His ways that keep us from giving in to temptation. May we not listen to the seductive words of the world, or go to be put in situations that might entice us, but instead listen to Jesus’ voice, knowing that it is in Him that we have our identity and that He loves us and wants what is best for us.
This is enticing, arousing a fantasy of pleasure and enjoyment. She has meat, clean sheets, promises of sex, and it’s risk-free. There will be no consequences. But that is not true. God always sees, and sin always entangles and complicates things. What she is offering is only for marriage; it is all a lie. She has compartmentalised her religion and her marriage, and her inner desires, so these things do not have to relate to each other.
And so we see here that the bait works, and the young man doesn’t know what it is costing him. The hook is spelt out. It is like an ox going to the slaughter, it is like having a noose around your neck, or an arrow in the liver. It will cost him his life. This sin leads to death.
In verse 21, we are told again, it is her persuasive words, and not her appearance, that has led him astray. She seduced him with her smooth talk, and he took the bait.
This enticement that plays on the heart is as old as human history.
In Genesis 3 we are told how our first parents fell. There is one line about the attractiveness of the fruit
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:6 NIV)But before this act, there was a conversation, and there we see the enticement from the serpent.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1 NIV)The serpent, like the woman, was crafty. He simply asked a question, Did God really say what it was that he said? He is just asking, just checking and perhaps throwing a little bit of doubt. Are you sure that is what God said?
And then after her answer, the serpent again just rejects out of hand what God said
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4–5 NIV)The serpent rejects and reframes the situation. He says, even though you are made in the image of God, God doesn’t want you to be like Him. God is holding back on you. He is mean. He doesn’t really know what you want. God has His own agenda that He is keeping from you.
These persuasive words are how sin works. It reframes the situation, it rejects God’s word; it questions the character and wisdom of God.
We sometimes can get ensnared by the bait of sin, thinking it will be pleasurable, it will be easy, it will not cost anything, no one will know.
Temptation to sin is as old as the creation story, but while it is old, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. We still haven’t got rid of it, and that is because we do not pay attention to how to avoid it.
What websites do we visit? What shows do we binge-watch? How much money do we hold on to, and how much do we give away? What is going on in our hearts when it comes to ourselves? How do we try to justify what paths we slowly walk down, only to get enticed and then ensnared?
Path of Deliverance (v24-27)
The teacher ends their warning about thisNow then, my sons, listen to me;We are told that this is not a one-off; many people have gone on this highway that leads to death. The key issue here is that the son is to pay attention to what the father says, and not to let their heart turn to these stray ways.
pay attention to what I say.
Do not let your heart turn to her ways
or stray into her paths.
Many are the victims she has brought down;
her slain are a mighty throng.
Her house is a highway to the grave,
leading down to the chambers of death. (Proverbs 7:24–27 NIV)
This simple guy is not an innocent victim in this story. The women didn’t corrupt him and make him do it. The adultrous woman has her own things going on, but the guy is persuaded because he wants to be. His heart wanted to go down that path. The fault is not with a problem out there, but it is with his heart inside.
It sounded good, so he went that way. He didn’t think about anything broader; he may in principle think cheating is wrong, but when the woman put it in her words, he thought it was ok for him to cheat.
The external temptation exploits an internal condition. And we all face this.
We do the things that we love, and today in the West, we even elevate our own self-love to define who we are. We are proud of what we love. Whether it be our nation or who we are attracted to. Our culture says your attractions are your identity. It says that who you love is who you are. It says “Love is God”, but they have it backwards because we know “God is Love”.
If we base our identity on something from within, we are at the whim of our own fickleness and our own hearts, which can be deceitful. Instead, we should base our identity on something beyond us. John, the Apostle, identifies himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. His identity was based on who was loving him, not who he loves. This is a more stable and comforting identity based on who we are, for it is not based on something within, but from something external. If we are in Christ, we are dearly beloved.
In writing to the messed-up church in Corinth, Paul says:
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 6:18–20 NIV)
If you are a Christian, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God has come and dewlls in you. He has given you a new heart, and an external one has come internally.
When you become a Christian, you become joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, in body and spirit, through his finished work on the cross. He gives himself to you completely by grace, and you give yourself to him completely by faith… From head to toe, all that you are is not only for Christ but also of Christ. That includes your sexuality, married or single, because you are married—to Christ. You have been joined by grace to the Lord. (Proverbs—Wisdom that Works Where to Find the Love We Long For)
Elsewhere in the Bible, married couples are considered to be one flesh, but here, with Christ, we have become one spirit, which is even more profound and deeper and richer.
God has sent His Spirit to renew our hearts from the inside, so that we can walk in His ways that keep us from giving in to temptation. May we not listen to the seductive words of the world, or go to be put in situations that might entice us, but instead listen to Jesus’ voice, knowing that it is in Him that we have our identity and that He loves us and wants what is best for us.
Faithful God,write your commands upon our hearts,that we may love your wisdom as our closest companion.Keep us from the snares of temptation,and deliver us from voices that would lead us astray.Turn our eyes from fleeting desires,and fix them on your ways that bring life.Grant us purity, steadfastness, and joy in you,until we find our eternal rest in Christ. Amen.
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