Choices

The battle rages on between what God says and what the world says; what God wants, and what I want. The first nine chapters of Proverbs vividly shows this picture, God vs man, wisdom vs foolishness. And there is only one winner.

I really need to count how many times in these chapters the stress is on “listen”, or “pay attention”, or “remember”, and so on. There is a danger in believing we are living wisely and then putting our lives on auto-pilot. Temptation, the lure of the world, the attractive side of earthly living is always there, literally lurking while we live life.

Words of wisdom, God’s Word that is, really does need to be written on the “tablets of our heart”. We have those words in print, in our Bibles, on our computers, on all sorts of devices, and all of that makes no difference in the lives of believers if those words are not “on our hearts”. Do those words govern how we live our lives? Do those words even factor in when we have decisions to make. It is clear that when we sin, we have purposefully chosen to set those words aside. And when we have aimed to please God, then we have chosen to heed the advice of those words.

So we go about our daily lives. If we are not careful, we will walk about just like the young man in Proverbs 7. He is naïve, lacking sense. He is walking too close to where he should not be, basically, wrong place, wrong time of day. In verse 10, “behold” does not mean “suddenly”, but more accurately it means “meanwhile”. The adulteress is out there, always active, and she offers what seems to be so wonderful, what doesn’t seem to come from anywhere else. She looks and smells better than anything else. She talks like no other, almost too good to be true, and for good reason. It is.

For this man to give in to these desires is to willingly turn from the wise teachings available to him. His naïveté is not without excuse. We have already seen from earlier chapters that wisdom calls loudly, makes herself available and noticeable. It is not hard to see the wise choice, it literally “sits at the gates” for anyone passing by to see and listen to.

But so often we take the easy road, we take the choice that feels good NOW, and in the end, we find ourselves further away from the path we know we should be on. This adulteress and her house leads to death. When this young man figures that out, it is too late. And such is the teaching lesson for us. Rather than wait to find ourselves mired in sin, let’s be proactive, and avoid those sinful places altogether. The sinful places will always be there. Those sinful appetites, regardless of what they are, will remain with us while we are here. So will God’s Word. We have the cure for our sinful flesh, and that is the power of God’s Holy Spirit. If we will only listen, He’ll keep us in His Word and make available to us His teaching, His wisdom, His guide for us to live skillfully for Him.

The choice is ours. Wisdom is out there, clearly visible. Let’s pursue her!