want some candy? -- part 1

The Word for today:

Proverbs 20:14-22:1

mark this:  

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, 

        from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths 

        to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong 

        and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked 

        and who are devious in their ways.  (Proverbs 2:12-15)

and this: 

 It will save you also from the adulteress, 

        from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth 

        and ignored the covenant she made before God.  For her house leads down to death 

        and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return 

        or attain the paths of life.  (Proverbs 2:16-19)

You're being watched, and sought after.

Certainly (in the Orwellian sense of the novel "1984") if you have a credit card and  a personal computer your every transaction  and click are being recorded by somebody out there somewhere.  But those aren't the lurkers the Bible is concerned with.

Two shadowy figures--the evil man and the strange woman--appear, disappear, and re-appear throughout the chapters of Proverbs.  They are not incidental characters.  In fact, if Proverbs could be said to have a  plot, it would  center around the efforts of the evil man and the strange woman to lure the young man (to whom the book is addressed)  from the ways of wisdom to the paths of folly:

My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,
Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair--every good path. 

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths
to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways. 

It will save you also from the adulteress,
from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth
and ignored the covenant she made before God. 
For her house leads down to death
and her paths to the spirits of the dead. 
None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.  (from Proverbs 2:1-19)

***

My study of scripture and the experiences of my life lead me to believe that the evil man and the strange woman represent secular and spiritual enticement, respectively.  

The evil man seeks to lure the young man with common bait--wine, women, and ribald song.  He makes his appeal to the young man's flesh.  Many are ensnared by these carnal appetites.  I testify as an authority in this regard; my own tales of temptation are too tawdry to tell.

But should the young man not succumb to these generic allurements, the strange woman (who is the far more menacing of the two) enters the scene...

Tomorrow, we'll see what she has to offer.

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