Don’t Follow Her!
On to Proverbs chapter 5. Here are verses 1-6 in the NET Bible:
My child, be attentive to my wisdom,
pay close attention to my understanding,
in order to safeguard discretion,
and that your lips may guard knowledge.
For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,
and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil,
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave.
Lest she should make level the path leading to life,
her paths are unstable but she does not know it.
“Her paths are unstable but she does not know it.” OH NO I DATED HER!!!
Ahem. Although they appear on every entry, I’ll go ahead and pose the questions again:
- What happened in the text?
- What do I learn about God?
- What should I do about it?
Here are my responses.
- What happened in the text?
The writer requests attention again, and warns about the adulterous woman. - What do I learn about God?
He gives us chances to learn from others without experiencing every pain firsthand.
He wants to preserve us from distractions that will ruin us. - What should I do about it?
Keep away from Runaround Sue? This might have been good for me to take more seriously when I was younger. But it’s not something to be ignored at any time – there are so many examples of this being how people destroy their families and their lives.
So I guess the takeaway today is that (A) even though I have fewer opportunities to run into the adulterous woman than I used to, that every relationship requires examination and appropriate boundaries; and (B) I have a son, and if he’s to avoid some of the pitfalls I took headers into, I need to make sure he understands what makes a person good company.