Wisdom Lesson 9 ~ Everything is Dark
Reflective Reading: Proverbs 7
My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
When I first started to study Proverbs 7 I felt sick to my stomach. This will not be an easy lesson to share. The warnings and wisdom within are vital to young and old alike. Let’s review first so you can see why the father holds nothing back with this lesson.
First, the father reminds his son to:
Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind
them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. Say unto wisdom,
Thou art my sister; and call discernment thy kinswoman: That they may keep thee
from the strange woman, from the stranger which flatters with her words.
The truths above are to be understood with the following structure in mind:
Keep my commandments and live;
Keep my Torah/Word as the apple of thine eye.
Wisdom,
Discernment
keep thee from the strange woman
Keep from the stranger which flatters with her words.
Once again, the Scriptures reveal truth, not just in what it says, but how it says it. This beautiful theological structure highlights Wisdom and Discernment at the center. They are the primary themes of Proverbs 1-9. Additionally, those who possess Wisdom and Discernment will not be possessed by the strange woman or stranger who flatters with her words and entices with her touch. The father is emphasizing an important truth. He knows that if the son holds on to the Torah, the Word of God, then he will not be held by the strange woman.
It is important to know that the strange woman and the stranger who flatters are not the same person. The original Hebrew shows just how deadly these two women are. The first stranger is the Zur (זוּר), which was mentioned in Proverbs 5 and 6. She is enticing, exciting, and exotic. Her goal is to get as much out of the son as she can. Once she’s had her fill, she moves on to someone new and undiscerning. The second stranger, the nokrı̂y (נָכְרִי), carries the idea of foreigner, adulterous, different, alien, wonderful, and outlandish. She flatters with her words, beguiles with her beauty, and entices with her touch.
We see in this Wisdom lesson that Folly is coming after the son in full force—and she’s holding nothing back! Rather than sending one strange woman after him, Folly sends two. The father knows that his son will be vulnerable as he enters young adulthood, therefore he needs to present clearly what kind of enticement he can expect:
For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, and beheld among
the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of discernment.
Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
The father’s warning is clear—stay away! Stay away from anything that might entice you, whether it be movies, the internet, bars, clubs, alcohol, or questionable characters—stay away! Notice who she is looking for: the simple, the youth, the undiscerning. This is reminiscent of the characters listed in Proverbs 1, starting with the simple who are thoughtless, naïve, and gullible. They are the perfect target for the Zur and the Nokrîy. If our children remain simple and do not grow in knowledge and wisdom, then they will lack the discernment needed to stay away from these two enticing forces.
The father’s next warning is not so subtle. He writes,
[the simple went the way to her house] in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart.
The father gives his son seven dark descriptive terms to emphasize what he can expect if he gives in to the strange woman’s enticement. Again, the Scriptures are creative in the way truth is communicated; not only do the words describe darkness but that is what the son can expect if he gives in to their enticements—darkness.
The father goes on to describe what type of girl the son should stay away from:
loud and stubborn; whose feet abide not in her house
Young adults looking for their soulmate need to keep this teaching in mind. Beware of girls who are so free-spirited that they have no accountability. Beware also of boys who are loud and stubborn. Though the text is mainly dealing with enticing women, the Hebrew words can also refer to a man who is full of himself, stubborn, fallacious, and salacious. At first glance it can be difficult to discern the true character of the stranger, the Zur and Nokrîy, because they can appear to have class, they’re confident, and exhibit a courageous personality type. But they are all show. They talk a lot to defer attention from their true nature.
Let’s jump back into the text here. In the past, the father has cautioned against the strange woman’s flattering words and beguiling beauty. He has warned his son about sexual enticement. But this time it’s different. The strange woman is coming after him stealthily. She is a hunter. If she can lure him away from his security, from his family and friends who would warn him, and get him near her domain, she’ll have him. She has prepped him with her flattering words and attracted him with her beguiling beauty. Now, to seal the deal with her most treacherous of techniques—her enticing touch:
Now she is without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner. So she caught
him, and kissed him…
So many young adults long for what they believe is that final fulfillment—physical sexual pleasure—only to discover that it is a trap that leaves them empty in the end. How many young people try to maintain sexual purity only to give in because they believe that as long as they are going to marry this person anyway, it is okay if they experience intimacy early. Sadly, they are blinded by lust rather than love. Those who experience more before marriage will experience less on their honeymoon.
Here in the text, we see that the stranger has two more tricks up her sleeve. When she sees the son, she tries to disarm his fears by suggesting that she is religious like him:
With an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows. Therefore, came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
Do not be deceived. The strange woman may seem religious, but she is positively dangerous. She enters the scene, sneaks around, sees her prey, seizes him, seduces him with false promises, and then proclaims she has been looking for someone like him all her life—her soulmate. She plays on his emotions, and now that he’s received her kisses, she can take him to the next level—the invitation to the bedroom.
I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon are Egyptian embalming spices. Need I say more? Again, she has one goal for the son—to destroy his life. She has taken him from the street to her house, then to her bed. Notice how she describes the carved woodwork on her bed frame, her fine Egyptian linens, and her beautiful bedspread. His heart is racing, and he doesn’t know what to do. He’s never been in a position like this, and before he is able to express any sense of caution, she disarms him by saying:
Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Folly never gives up.
She calms his racing heart and shares that her husband is away on a long trip. “He’s always gone! He abandons me all the time,” cries the stranger. “Come and stay with me, please. I finally found someone who understand me—you are the closest to a soulmate that I have ever met…please, I hate being alone.” She reaches for his hand, disarming him:
He goes after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hastes to the snare, and knows not that it is for his life.
The father doesn’t give up either:
Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my
mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For
she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong have been slain by her.
Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
In His creative Wisdom, God gives us three chapters (5-7) filled with warnings about sexual enticements and how to protect ourselves. The tiresome nature of this saturated emphasis is exactly what the father wanted his son to feel and what God wants us to experience—to fall into the hands of the strange woman is draining, tiresome, dark, and deadly. The father ends this lesson in the same way he began it; by commanding his son to be held by the Words of his mouth—the very Words of God. If he is held by God’s Word, he will not be held by the stranger.
To guard against temptation and build up a defense for the future, I will recommend some of my favorite books and audios. These are not ordinary stories. These are stories that are immersed with godly inspirational character, woven with biblical truths, who model faith, virtue, manly valor, knowledge, self-control, godliness, perseverance, brotherly kindness, and love. Dads and moms and grandparents, we are in a battle for our children’s souls. These resources will powerfully reinforce the truths that are so vital in this present culture of confusion.
Blessings,
Dr. Mark Hamby
Recommended Resources:
