Proverbs 7

A Call Back to the Word of God—This is a matter of life and death.

Intro — Riding my bike and being pursued by a man...

Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”

1. (vv.1-5) A call to keep the Father’s teachings.

Treasure them (apple of your eye)

Cherish them (write them on the tablet of your heart)

Value wisdom and teaching like family.

Like a sibling who is there for you at all times and in ever circumstance.

2. (vv.6-23) A caution to being taken in by the temporal temptations of Sin (adultery)

(v.6) The father begins by addressing something he sees through his window.

The boy, rather than distancing himself from temptation as warned to do in Prov. 5:8 (“Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,” ) he gets as close as possible.

A. Flirting with Sin (vv.1-9)

(Getting as close to sin as you can)

(v 6-7)The simple, youths, young man lacking sense.

(v.8) Getting as close as possible.

(v.9) Doing so as not to be detected.

Matt 5:29-30 “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

B. Approached by Sin (vv.10-20)

(v.10) The woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily at heart.

wily = secret seductive heart. A hidden heart for destruction.

Like David seeking out Bathsheba.

(v.11) Much like wisdom in Prov. 1:20-21 (“Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:”) the woman cries out in the streets and the market.

However, unlike wisdom, this woman is like the Folly in Prov 9 “The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.

The young man should take Paul’s words to the Church at Corinth to heart and “flee sexual immorality.”

(v.13) However, the woman seizes him, using all she has to pull him in.

This would have caught the young man off guard! Hebrew culture did not think highly of PDA.

(v.14-15) And her words would have been shocking to him too. She speaks “boldly” as a way to flatter him.

(vv. 18-20) She offers him what he thinks he wants, satisfaction and secrecy.

Satisfaction - “let us take our fill of love till morning.”

Secrecy - My husband is on a long journey...

Sin always over promises and under delivers.

C. Giving Into Sin (vv.21-23)

He stays around long enough to hear her give “much seductive speech,” so much that he was drawn in.

(vv.22-23) He follows her (not his fathers teaching), as it were, to her house that leads to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death” (v.27).

In her clutches many have fallen, so the father gives two helpful tips to his sons plural in v. 25.

Do not turn aside to her ways.

This is to purposefully go looking.

James 1:14-15 “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Lured and enticed” is a fishing metaphor for drawing prey away from shelter in order to trap them with a deadly hook.

We are often our own worst enemy. Our flesh entices us to find shelter in sinful behavior.

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

1 Timothy 6:11 “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.”

Do not stray into her paths.

This is to live carelessly and without caution.

Guided trail walk in CR

1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”

This is an active resistance, fighting, defending, fleeing Satan who wishes to lure us away from the promises of God to the temporary trappings of this world.

This proverb is a call back to the word of God, to treasure the word of God, and to resist sin

But what if you’ve pursued sin rather than the Father, s word?

1 John 1:7-9 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin… [and] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”