Day 5
Lisa Sheffler, author
Yesterday we saw the Wise Father using vivid imagery to warn his son against sexual sin. The image of burning coals falling in your lap is a tough one to forget! In the speech in chapter 7, he’s going to make his point by telling a story.
Read
Proverbs 7:1–27
My son, keep my words
and store up my commands within you.
2 Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and to insight, “You are my relative.”
5 They will keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the wayward woman with her seductive words.
6 At the window of my house
I looked down through the lattice.
7 I saw among the simple,
I noticed among the young men,
a youth who had no sense.
8 He was going down the street near her corner,
walking along in the direction of her house
9 at twilight, as the day was fading,
as the dark of night set in.
10 Then out came a woman to meet him,
dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
11 (She is unruly and defiant,
her feet never stay at home;
12 now in the street, now in the squares,
at every corner she lurks.)
13 She took hold of him and kissed him
and with a brazen face she said:
14 “Today I fulfilled my vows,
and I have food from my fellowship offering at home.
15 So I came out to meet you;
I looked for you and have found you!
16 I have covered my bed
with colored linens from Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed
with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning;
let’s enjoy ourselves with love!
19 My husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey.
20 He took his purse filled with money
and will not be home till full moon.”
21 With persuasive words she led him astray;
she seduced him with her smooth talk.
22 All at once he followed her
like an ox going to the slaughter,
like a deer stepping into a noose
23 till an arrow pierces his liver,
like a bird darting into a snare,
little knowing it will cost him his life.
24 Now then, my sons, listen to me;
pay attention to what I say.
25 Do not let your heart turn to her ways
or stray into her paths.
26 Many are the victims she has brought down;
her slain are a mighty throng.
27 Her house is a highway to the grave,
leading down to the chambers of death.
Ask Yourself
- The Father has warned the son that the wayward woman would use her words to entice him. In the story he tells, he gives some examples. How does this smooth-talking woman try to lure the young man? Do you think people still use the same tactics today? How so?
- How does the Wise Father describe the young man who ends up following the woman? Why are those powerful images?
Read what others say
From John Goldingay:
How do you get people to change? Maybe it’s the pastor’s most far-reaching question. It’s always tempting to assume that change comes about because we exhort people to change, and to operate on that basis, but a moment’s reflection reminds us of the uncomfortable truth that it’s not so.
Proverbs 7 implies this awareness. It has issued a series of exhortations to young men not to get involved with a married woman. Now it moves to painting a picture or telling a story, in seeking to get them to write its teaching on the tablets of their mind. It wants it always to be in front of them like something on a whiteboard, or to be inscribed into the neural patterns that shape their behavior. Once again the woman is compared with a whore, but the description that follows implies that the word is used in the loose sense. She’s not someone in the sex trade but a woman who is lonely. She would settle for any lover but will give him the impression he’s the only one…
Proverbs knows she’s inviting him to his death. Previous chapters have implied two reasons why this is so. Adultery tends to get found out, and the woman’s husband will then come after the young man; within the terms of this story, it would be wise to allow for his coming back from his business trip earlier than expected, a recurrent motif in fiction and in real life. Lying behind this reason is the fact that the very nature of the universe’s moral order means that wrongdoing tends to get its reward.[1]
From Ellen Davis:
The woman’s speech (v. 14–20) is framed on either side by the teacher’s instruction. The frame serves to connect this vignette with several of the sages’ recurrent themes.
- First and most importantly, in light of the continual emphasis on the need to discern between wise and foolish speaking, there is an implied competition between the teacher’s “words” (vv. 1, 24) and those of the “strange woman” (v. 5). Life for the sages is a marketplace of discourse, where many persuasive speakers compete for our attention and allegiance. If you want to “buy wisdom” (4:7), then you must learn to turn a deaf ear to much else that is hawked on the streets.
- Second, the narrative lends vividness to the time-worn phrase, “the way of the wicked” (Prov. 4:19; see also Psalm 1:6). It suddenly becomes real in our imaginations through the description of the woman’s house as “the way to Sheol” (v. 27); her basement has a trap door to the Underworld!
- Third, the image of the house with the absent man as a place for infidelity and disaster inverts the traditional Israelite ideal of the “father’s house” as the center of social and economic stability (see the comment at Prov. 2:16–22).
The perspective of the book is not biased against women, as shown clearly in the feminine representations of wisdom. On the contrary, the corrective to this negative picture is provided by the powerful concluding portrait of “the woman of valor” in Proverbs 31:10–31.
The fact that the later passage picks up some of the imagery of this chapter indicates that the corrective is highly deliberate. In view of the frequent charge that the Bible’s perspective is “patriarchal,” it is very interesting that the answer to the danger posed by the femme fatale is not a reassertion of male domination. Rather, it is a strong woman who speaks in a wise and faithful manner (31:26), who runs “her house” (31:15, 21, 27) in a way that models what it means to live according to “fear of the Lord” (31:30).[2]
Pray
Father, I commit myself to you, wholly, fully, and completely. I trust in your good and live-giving ways. Teach me how to understand my sexuality as you do. Give me ears to listen to your wise sages and the discernment to ignore clamoring voices of culture that have corrupted what you designed for my joy. Keep me from temptation and convict me when I step off the right path.
Thank you for your mercy and grace. I believe that you love me and embrace me, no matter what my sexual past. Thank you, Jesus for your sacrifice that covers all my sins. Lead me to be honest about any sexual sins I haven’t dealt with. Forgive me.
Restore what has been lost and broken. You are the great physician. Bring healing to my wounds, old and new. To those caused by my own choices, and those inflicted on me by others.
Thank you Father, for your great and unending love. Amen.
Talk about it
- How can we attune our ear to God’s wisdom so that it drowns out other voices? Discuss some practical things.
Coming next week
We’re coming to the end of our Fool Proof series! Next week will pick up on a theme we began this week. We’re going to focus on marriage. So, whether you’re in one or just want to support one, be sure to study along.
[1] John Goldingay, 32–33.
[2] Ellen F. Davis, 61–62.
