Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Reflections on Proverbs 7

 Proverbs 07 (Contemporary English Version)
  1. My son, pay close attention and don't forget what I tell you to do.
  2. Obey me, and you will live! Let my instructions be your greatest treasure.
  3. Keep them at your fingertips and write them in your mind.
  4. Let wisdom be your sister and make common sense your closest friend.
  5. They will protect you from the flattering words of someone else's wife.
  6. From the window of my house, I once happened to see
  7. some foolish young men.
  8. It was late in the evening, sometime after dark.
  9. One of these young men turned the corner and was walking by the house of an unfaithful wife.
  10. She was dressed fancy like a woman of the street with only one thing in mind.
  11. She was one of those women who are loud and restless and never stay at home,
  12. who walk street after street, waiting to trap a man.
  13. She grabbed him and kissed him, and with no sense of shame, she said:
  14. "I had to offer a sacrifice, and there is enough meat left over for a feast.
  15. So I came looking for you, and here you are!
  16. The sheets on my bed are bright-colored cloth from Egypt.
  17. And I have covered it with perfume made of myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
  18. "Let's go there and make love all night.
  19. My husband is traveling, and he's far away.
  20. He took a lot of money along, and he won't be back home before the middle of the month."
  21. And so, she tricked him with all of her sweet talk and her flattery.
  22. Right away he followed her like an ox on the way to be slaughtered, or like a fool on the way to be punished
  23. and killed with arrows. He was no more than a bird rushing into a trap, without knowing it would cost him his life.
  24. My son, pay close attention to what I have said.
  25. Don't even think about that kind of woman or let yourself be misled by someone like her.
  26. Such a woman has caused the downfall and destruction of a lot of men.
  27. Her house is a one-way street leading straight down to the world of the dead.

Solomon followed the same pattern as before in his instructions to his son. Hold my teaching near to your heart, he said, and treat wisdom as you would your sister. By so doing, the son could avoid the treachery of the forbidden woman and the deadly results.

The father's instructions are accompanied this time by a story. It may have been a fictitious story used to illustrate or it may have been a real one. Both serve the same purpose. One evening Solomon was watching the young people from the window of his house as they gathered idly in the street. Among these inexperienced youth he notice a particular young man who was obviously "lacking sense." How did Solomon know he lacked sense? By what resulted if by no other signs.

The young man wandered down the street without purpose and "crossing the street near her corner, he strolled down the road to her house." Did he realize where he was headed and what might transpire or was it just aimless wandering? Again, the outcome was the same. What were the signs Solomon was wanting to convey to his son? Wandering aimlessly? Doing so alone? Wandering into a known area of town for such women? As the young man approached the woman's house she grabbed him and kissed him immediately throwing him off guard.

What seductive wiles did she use with the young man? She grabbed him and kissed him immediately communicating her intent. Then she quickly lowered his defenses by telling him she had just that day made her fellowship offerings. She was a religious woman with only good intent. Next she told him she had been looking for him and had now found him making him feel special. Supposedly she had not just grabbed anyone, but had looked just for him. He was special. Then she described the preparation of her bed for what was to come, further giving him the impression that she had prepared something special just for him. Then she drew the net, inviting him to a night of lovemaking. Before he could raise any concerns, she assured him it was okay, for her husband was away on a trip and would not be home until the full moon. The trap was set.

This was how it works, Solomon was saying to his son. But then he described the sobering reality of this story and all those like it. This young man was drawn into the woman's trap as a deer bounds unsuspectingly toward a trap and is then stopped by an arrow that pierces its liver. His inattentiveness to what was happening cost him his life. And then the father said to his son, "Don't let your heart turn aside to her ways; don't stray onto her paths." The road to her house is the road to the grave. Solomon's instruction was not just to be aware of the wiles of the forbidden woman. It was to avoid altogether any encounter with the woman. Don't go near her house.

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