How Distracted are We?

I kind of sum up Proverbs like this: Read them, hear the principled instructions, accept the teachings, and apply what you’ve learned.


“Give me your heart, my son,
And let your eyes delight in my ways.
For a harlot is a deep pit
And an adulterous woman is a narrow well.” (Prov. 23:26-27)


Some have translated the Hebrew here to read more like “let your eyes approve of my ways”, to be taken more like “keep to the teacher’s paths”. And then the harlot, or the prostitute, is used as a metaphor of the distractions that compete with that path of the teacher.


While I did not list verse 28 here, the summary of the results of living the distracted life, as opposed to the wise “proper path” life, is seen as a moral decline in society. When people take their eyes off God and His ways, they (we) do what we do best when left to our own devices – we’ll do whatever looks and feels good, taking the sinfully attractive paths. As in the above example, the harlot seeks to look attractive, just as a lure or bait is attractive to aimless fish. The Christian, then, needs to be ever-careful in chasing after the lures we encounter regularly.


A major distraction that is very real to us and our society is addressed in verses 29-35 of this chapter. Go and read that as you can today. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=prov%2023:29-35&version=NASB.


Verse 30 mentions “those who linger long over wine”. In essence, in our terms today, this speaks of someone who desires to use alcohol, drugs, etc. as a means of security and comfort, believing that some relief from the world’s struggles and stress is close at hand. Rather than turn to the Creator and God of all comfort (1 Peter 5:7), we tend to turn to vices to calm our anxiety.


So then, when I couple the verses that speak about competing paths with those that describe our tendency to drown our sorrows with earthly pleasures, such as alcohol and drugs, it is not hard to see how we can quickly spiral out of control when we respond improperly to what life throws at us.


Praying today for contentment, resistance of temptation (1 Cor. 10:13), and a genuine turning to and dependence on God in times of uncertainty and trial.