“My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep 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 insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey; he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home.” With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.” — Proverbs 7:1-27
That father continues to instruct his son and strongly urges him to listen. The father’s words of wisdom are to be treasured and kept as the son’s most prized possession. They are to be committed to his memory, ready to be applied to every situation in life. The son’s relationship with wisdom is to be as close as that of a sibling or a best friend.
Then the father presses the point of all this instruction: if the son is in an intimate relationship with wisdom, he will avoid an intimate relationship with a woman who is not his wife. The closer wisdom is to your heart, the further away temptation will stay, especially sexual temptation, which threatens every young man’s life.
If you want to walk in sexual purity, pursue a relationship with God’s word and the wisdom he has given us in Proverbs and the rest of the Bible! Pursue this relationship and flee from temptations! Run like Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39), and “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11). This is the path to life.
Wisdom Keeps You from Walking Down the Wrong Street
There is another path that any of us can choose at any time, and that is the path to death. In this section of Proverbs, the father illustrates this with the story of the young man who walks down the wrong street near the house of the adulteress.
Pay attention because this is a master class in how both wisdom and sin work. The person who is “lacking sense” (lacking in wisdom) does not think through his actions. Instead, he mindlessly goes about life, following his desires. So here he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. At night, he wanders towards temptation. Eventually, he follows his sinful desires and is seduced by the allure of this forbidden woman.
The lesson here is that if we want to avoid sin, we must be careful about the situations we place ourselves in. Wisdom teaches us to see danger coming and avoid the suffering it will cause if we thoughtlessly wander into it (Proverbs 22:3). A wise person understands situational threats and works not to be caught in any scheme of the enemy (Ephesians 6:11). The wisdom we learn in the word of God protects us from these schemes as we treasure it in our hearts.
The Cost of Not Listening Is Your Life
The father describes this young man who gave in to his desires as an ox going to the slaughter or as an animal that had been trapped. He’s being led to his death, and he doesn’t even know it! This is the end of those who ignore God’s wisdom: they willfully, yet ignorantly, walk down to the place of the dead. This is precisely what James refers to in his letter: “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” (James 1:14-15).
When God tells us not to do something, he is lovingly trying to hold us back from the pain, suffering, and death that come from sin. The fences God has placed around our sexuality are for our good, the good of our families, and the good of society. So when temptation comes, remember God’s words of wisdom warning you not to walk down the wrong street. Instead, pursue the righteousness won for you in Christ, flee temptation, and walk in the light!
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