PROVERBSS 3-14

"For the lips of an adulteress (strange woman) drip honey

And smoother than oil is her speech;

But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death,

Her steps take hold of Sheol.

She does not ponder the path of life;

Her ways are unstable, 

she does not know it.

Now then, my sons, listen to me

And do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her

And do not go near the door of her house,

Or you will give your vigor to others

And your years to the cruel one;

And strangers will be filled with your strength

And your hard-earned goods will 

go to the house of an alien;

And you groan at your final end,

When your flesh and body are consumed;

And you say, 'How I have hated instruction!

And my heart spurned reproof!

I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,

Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!

I was almost in utter ruin

In the midst of the assembly and congregation.

I was almost in utter ruin

In the midst of the assembly and congregation."

It is interesting that I come to this passage the week that Hugh Hefner has died.  Hollywood is moaning in grief and putting him up on a pedestal.  However, no one else has objectified women, has opened up the floodgates to glorifying prostitution as much as this man.  His reward, not his wrinkled old hide, is flaming hot!  Think of all the women he did harm to by putting her feet on a path to death of all that is good, clear down to the gates of hell.  She doesn't ponder the path to life; her ways are unstable, and she doesn't even know it.  Who profited?  Hugh Hefner, but only in a temporal, fleeting way.  He did not take any of his riches to the grave.

Not many young men were unexposed to his exploitation of women.  Even our little boys found magazines just over the fence in the field and were discovered looking at them at a very tender age; they were barely in school.  The smog of smut is pervasive in our society.  Whether finding a grandfather's or father's stash or sharing a buddy's contraband, it was easy to get.  Compound that objectification with crimes against women feeding rape and sex trafficking.  One thing always leads to another.  However, with the porn industry and every gadget offering access to the internet, it is almost impossible to oversee their use to keep innocent eyes protected.

In a more personal note, I met a woman who was almost thrilled to have a syphilis test this week. Why? It has been years since she had been married to a professing "Christian" who visited prostitutes on a regular basis.  However, all these many years later of fighting ill-health, after being treated by all kinds of doctors and specialists with one diagnosis after another, she came across the symptoms of syphilis.  It matches all her varied illnesses that confounded all her physicians.  So, since she had the likelihood of being exposed to the disease, she is waiting for the test results to come back.  It is treatable, to a great degree.  Sometimes we forget that not only the adulterer, but the innocent spouse also is left groaning with a flesh and body consumed.  I need not list here all the diseases that they could be exposed to.  Have you seen the pictures of treatment centers the military operated during war for the soldiers treated for syphilis?  The means by which they were exposed were not addressed, only the disease itself.  Sometimes it was winked at or encouraged for men to visit prostitutes in order to momentarily forget the terrible face of war.  

Excuse the language, but this is a picture of society today.

Oh, dear one, you are so much more valued by your Creator.

Sadly, adultery is so common place, prostitutes are not necessarily needed, only the "strange woman."  Yes, it takes two to tango, but women's bodies are abused the most.  Sex outside of marriage is so commonplace that it is hardly noticed any more, regardless of the devastation done to the innocent spouse and children.  Throw in porn and deviate behavior that is celebrated in society ,and it is out of control.  

But the good news is...

PROVERBS 5:1-2

"My son, give attention to my wisdom,

Incline your ear to my understanding;

That you may observe discretion

And your lips may reserve knowledge."

Give attention to my wisdom...

to my understanding.

It may seem that Solomon is unapologetically saying listen to me, give attention to me, as a father to son.  Yet it is wisdom speaking.  Do you understanding it?  If so, you will observe discretion, and have lips that reserve knowledge.  

In our divisive age, we are surrounded by news, real or fake.  It takes discernment to find truth.  It takes wisdom to get the right understanding.  Not everything is what it appears on the surface.  I give you an illustration.  After living out in the orchards, we know what a fresh peach tastes like.  It's enough to make you salivate just thinking about it.  However, unless we go to the Farmer's Market, what we buy at the grocery store is not even close.  It may look like a peach, smell a wee bit like a peach, but when squeezed, it can't produce a drop of peach deliciousness.  It makes me think of a mealy-mouthed person, a term from a pest that destroys a crop.  It means what comes out of their mouth is devious, not straight forward.  A bite of a mealy peach is like mush, without texture or taste.  

Yep.  That's an illustration of the kind of information we are surrounded with.  The question is, what will be our understanding or observation?  What will be on our lips or reserved, better left unsaid?  Christ, wisdom Himself, warned us not to cast our pearls before swine.  I don't think he was speaking literally of hogs wallowing in their pens.  Hmm.  We need discretion and lip control.
  

"That you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge."

(English Standard Version)

The Pulpit Commentary says that the Hebrew means "to guard reflection."  The Vulgate translates it to mean, "That thou mayest guard thy thoughts or reflection."  This means, "Nothing shall pass them which does not proceed from the knowledge of God. (Delitzch) 

Gill's Commentary says, "That thy lips may keep knowledge; may be able to speak of things worthy to be known, and communicate the knowledge of them to others; by which means useful knowledge will be kept and preserved, and be continued in successive ages; even the knowledge of God and of Christ, and of the Gospel and its doctrines; and which will be a means of preserving men, as from false doctrines and error, and heresy, so from profaneness and immorality; and particularly from the adulterous woman, next described."

This kind of guarding of the lips or of reflection means there must be something in there to guard.  So the question is, what are we feeding our souls?  Is it sweet perfection or mealy?  What fills our heart and minds?  Has it ripened in the garden of God?  Is it worth passing on?  

PROVERB 4:24-27

"Put away from you a deceitful mouth

And put devious speech far from you.

Let your eyes look directly ahead
And let your gaze be fixed
straight in front of you.
Watch the path of your feet
And all your ways will be established.
Do not turn to the right nor to the left;
Turn your foot from evil."

We live by the choices we make.  Put away deceitful lips and words.  Choose. They have come from the heart:  "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart." (Matt. 12:34)  We have a choice, and if the heart is fixed, the words will follow.  However, like a painful discordant note, so are course, crude, swear words from the mouth of a Christian making me want to cover my ears.  It is like a toddler who is in a phase with a fascination of the poo-poo words (I can speak as a preschool teacher, a mother and grandmother.)  It's time to grow-up saints!  Put away potty mouth, deceit, and devious speech.  Put hot sauce on your tongue if you must or wash your own mouth out with soap!  Better yet, check what is in your heart.  Just because we are immersed in a society full of filthy, blasphemous speech, this should not be your language.  Christians, this is not your native tongue, the language of your heart.

For some reason, I love the next words: "Let your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze fixed."  This is what a good soldier looks like marching on, even if spit on, even if taunted, or even if standing alone.  Think of the soldiers on duty in London.  Think of the soldiers at Arlington Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Think of troops walking in lock-step.  Where should the eyes look ahead, the gaze be fixed upon?  We should look to our Commander in Chief, to the eternal goal.  

Not only this, watching, being strictly vigilant, stay on the right path.  Do not turn to the right or the left.  To do so would be to turn to evil.  There are I.E.D-like dangers lurking if we turn aside to go off the path.  We see the wounded all around us.  

"Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips."

Adam Clarke suggests a froward mouth means to "beware of hastiness, anger, and rash speeches."  Perhaps we should ask ourselves, "What would Jesus tweet?"  He goes on, "Do not delight in, nor acquire the habit the habit of contradicting and gainsaying; and beware of...backbiting your neighbor."  

"Ponder the path of thy feet."

"Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left."

"Weigh well the part thou shouldest act in life.  See that thou contract no bad habits.  Avoid all crooked ways.  Be an upright, downright, and straight forward man.  Avoid tricks, wiles, and deceptions of every kind.  To this the Septuagint and Vulgate adds the following verse: "For Himself will make thy paths straight, and thy journeyings will He conduct in prosperity."  

I like that:

"Be an upright, downright, and straight forward man."

PROVERBS 4:20-23

"My son, give attention to my words;

Incline your ear to my sayings.

Do not let them depart from your sight;

Keep them in the midst of your heart.

For they are life to those who find them

And health to all their body.

Watch over your heart with all diligence,

For from it flow the springs of life."

From the mouth to the ears, eyes, and heart,  all together these words give life and health.

Words are important.  These words are defined by wisdom.  The clincher though, is that the heart is involved and must be guarded: the very springs of life.  KJV says, "keep them in the midst of thine heart."So what does the heart need to be guarded from?

"Keep them in the midst of thine heart." 

(KJV)

Adam Clarke says, "Let them be wrapped up in the very centre of thy affections; that they may give spring and energy to every desire, word, and wish."

"Keep thy heart with all diligence"

"'Above all keeping,' guard thy heart.  He who knows any thing of himself, knows how apt his affections are to go astray. 'For out of it are the issues of life.'  Is not this a plain allusion to the arteries, which carry the blood from the heart through the whole body, and to the utmost extremities.  As long as the heart is capable of receiving and propelling the blood, so long life is continued.  Now, as the heart is the fountain whence all the streams of life proceeded, care must be taken that the fountain be not stopped up or injured.  A double watch for its safety must be kept up."

"So in spiritual things: the heart is the seat of the Lord of life and glory; and the streams of spiritual life proceed from Him to all the powers and faculties of the soul.  Watch with all diligence, that this fountain be not sealed up, nor these streams of life be cut off.  Therefore, put away from thee a forward mouth, and perverse lips; and let they eyes look straight on.  Or, in other words, look inward--look onward--look upward."

"If the heart be pure and holy, all its purposes will be just and good.  If it be impure and defiled, nothing will proceed from it but abomination."

It all boils down to the affections, the passion, the faithfulness of the heart.  If one's eyes wander and are fascinated by a forbidden fruit,  if one's ears listen to the enemy of our soul's whisperings, then the heart is vulnerable, left unprotected.  We are in the midst of a society that bombards us with immorality.  Guard your heart.

PROVERBS 4:14-19

"Do not enter the path of the wicked

And do not proceed in the way of evil men.

Avoid it; do not pass by it;

Turn away from it and pass on.

For they cannot sleep unless they do evil'

And they are robbed of sleep 

unless they make someone stumble.

For they eat the bread of wickedness

And drink the wine of violence.

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

The way of the wicked is like darkness;

They do not know over what they stumble."

Wickedness and violence go hand in hand.  The caution tape surrounds the crime scene, and we need to walk around it.  Do not enter, do not proceed, avoid it, do not pass by it, turn away, pass on.  Does it bother you that a recent survey says that 20% of college students say that violence is called for when someone disagrees with what they believe?  Some are fed the bread of wickedness and have drunk the wine of violence.  In the darkness, they stumble over those who they have caused to stumble.

Adam Clarke says, "Never associate with those whose life is irregular and sinful; never accompany them in any of their acts of transgression.  Let it be the serious purpose of thy soul to shun every appearance of evil.  Never for the sake of worldly gain, or through complaisance to others, approach the way that thou wouldst not wish to be found in when God calls thee into the eternal world.  If, through unwatchfulness or unfaithfulness, thou at any time get near, or into the way of sin, turn from it with the utmost speed, and humble thyself before thy Maker.  Speed from it, run for thy life; and get to such a distance, eternally diverging so as never to come near it whilst thou hast a being."

How many Christians do this?  How many shun every appearance of evil?  How many Christians tell themselves they are rubbing elbows with sinners, joining them in their vices in order to be a witness?  There is unwatchfulness, then unfaithfulness, near or into the way of sin.  Either way, we must humble ourselves before our Maker and run for our life.  

The enemy of our soul has tried to destroy the peace between us and one of our neighbors.  However, God had a greater plan.  I invited one of them, an adult young man, to an event this past weekend that our son was involved in.  Though shy, he came early so he could hear my husband give his "speech," the story of Gideon.  Afterwards, he opened up and talked freely to us.  This young man remembers his Greek grandmother reading him the Bible.  Though he could not understand the words, they were imbedded into his soul.  More recently while alone at lunch time, he found a Christian radio station and began listening to a preacher there every day.  He repeated the sinner's prayer quietly across the radio waves.  He said, "You wouldn't believe it but my life was instantly changed!"  He said how he longs for Christian fellowship and wants to join a church.  However, he has a habit that he constantly brought up in conversation, which usually means God is convicting someone to change.  Should we join him in the habit in order to make him more comfortable or gently show him a different path for the sake of his soul?  Instead, my husband witnessed to him why he ran for his life away from this habit.  We trust God will do the rest and as his Shepherd to do what He sees best in leading His lamb, even chasing wolves away that would seek to devour.

Adam Clarke goes on to remark, "The night is their time for spoil and depredation.  And they must gain some booty before they go to rest.  This I believe to be the meaning of the passage.  I grant also that there may be some of so malevolent a disposition, that they cannot be easy unless they can injure others; and are put to excessive pain when they perceive any man in prosperity, or receiving a kindness."

But there is a shining light in the midst of these verses that glows....

"But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

That shines brighter and brighter until the full day."

The Christian knows that even in darkness, the dawn is coming, that a brighter day will come.  We sometimes find ourselves in the gloaming, yet there will be a daybreak.  If I find myself betwixt unquiet in the dusk or the deep of night or in the darkness before the rising sun, I find it a time for prayer, waiting for a dawning.  Sometimes that dawning comes through reading Scripture, as a new understanding brings new light.  Sometimes the dawning comes through hope for a better day.  Sometimes it is a deeper trust, resting in His arms until the new day comes, an earthly one as well as a spiritual one.

Adam Clarke says, "The path of the wicked is gloomy, dark, and dangerous; that of the righteous is open, luminous, and instructive.  The verse contains a fine metaphor.  It refers to the sun rising above the horizon, and the increasing twilight, till his beams shine full upon the earth.  The original may be translated, 'going and illuminating unto the prepared day.'  This seems plainly to refer to the progress of the sun towards the horizon; and the gradual increase of the light occasioned by the reflection of his rays by means of the atmosphere, till at last he is completely elevated above the horizon, and then the prepared day has fully taken place, the sun having risen at the determined time.  So, the truly wise man is but in his twilight here below: but he is in a state of glorious preparation for the realms of everlasting light; till at last, emerging from darkness and the shadows of death, he is ushered into the full blaze of endless felicity.  Yet, previously to his enjoyment of this glory, which is prepared for him, he is going, walking in the commandments of his God blameless; and illuminating, reflecting the light of the salvation which he has received on all those who form the circle of his acquaintance."

You may ask why I almost daily quote from Adam Clarke.  It is because it is as close to listening to one of the holiness outdoor preaching services in the day of John Wesley, those that turned England from dark days to light, into true revival.  Coal miners came out of that deep darkness and were able to hear a message of light that transformed them.  These men preached even when persecuted, even when riots arose up against them, even when the plague threatened.  How easy I have it sitting in my recliner reading these words.

One day, the day will dawn, and no night will follow.  We will take one breath here and the next, in heaven.  When we enter into His kingdom come, He will be the only light, no more night.  Shouldn't we follow the light He gives us here below and walk in it?  The other path leads to darkness.  Don't be like those bad guys.  Don't even get close enough for them to cause you to stumble.  Stick to the light.  Get used to the light that will be ours for all eternity!  Open your eyes.

PROVERBS 4:10-13

"Hear, my son, and accept my sayings

And the years of your life will be many.

I have directed you in the way of wisdom;

I have led you in upright paths.

When you walk, you steps will not be impeded;

And if you run, you will not stumble.

Take hold of instruction; do not let her go.

Guard her, for she is your life."

Life insurance or life assurance? There is one thing we all have in common: death.  In the meanwhile, there is something inside us that propels us to cling to this life, even when we know something better is coming. Healthy choices are the best way to add many years to enjoy life. In the meanwhile...

"Hear, my son..."

As for me and my house, we daily listen to "Give me Jesus," as sung by Danny Goke.  Also we listen to the song of our hope, "Jesus I will cling to you, come what may," "Even If" by Mercy Me.  Another song says, "If grace was a kingdom, I stand at the gate.  I'm just a beggar in the presence of a King. Grace is a kingdom with gates open wide.  There's a place at the table, so come inside," by Matthew West.

One of our new favorite songs we begin our morning with is by Micah Tyler, "Move this heart to be set apart...I wanna be different, I want to be changed. Until all of me is gone, and all that remains is a fire so bright that the whole world can see that there is something different.  Come and be different in me.  I don't want to spend my life stuck in a pattern.  I don't want to gain this world and lose what matters..."  

Music is the best avenue to the soul.  Adam Clarke says, wisdom harmonizes the soul...

"'The years of thy life shall be many.'  Vice and intemperance impair the health, and shorten the days of wicked; while true religion sobriety and temperance, prolong them.  The principal part of our diseases springs from indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions.'  Religion excites to industry, promotes sober habits, and destroys evil passions, and harmonizes the soul; and thus, by preventing many diseases, must necessarily protract life."

He goes on to describe on to describe the way of wisdom, her upright paths, how to walk in unimpeded steps and running without stumbling:  "True wisdom will teach thee to keep out of embarrassments.  A man under the influence of true religion ponders his paths, and carefully poises occurring circumstances; and as the fear of God will ever lead him to act an upright and honest part, so his way in business and life is both clear and large."

Wisdom is no casual passer-byer.  Cling to her.  Do not let her go.  Guard her for she is your life.  

Protect her with your life, for she is your life.  Your life is every beat of your heart.  Let it beat for her, O, God.  

PROVERBS 4:7-9

"The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom

(Or the primary thing is wisdom);

And with all your acquiring, get understanding.

Prize her, and she will exalt you;

She will honor you if you embrace her.

She will place on your head a garland of grace;

She will present you with a crown of beauty."

Verse 7 was beginning to sound like Proverbs for Dummies:

#1 The beginning of wisdom is to get wisdom.

#2 With all your acquiring, get understanding too!

Then the next verses rise up once again with wisdom as the beautiful personification of God's love.

#1 Prize her.

#2 Embrace her.

If you do that...

#1 She will exalt you.

#2 She will honor you.

#3 She will give you a garland of grace.

#4 She will give you a crown of beauty.

"Nothing is so universally respected,
provided the learned man be
a consistent moral character...
A tiara, diadem, or crown,
shall not be more honorable
to the princely wearer, than sound wisdom."

Sounds like a win-win situation. 

It also sounds like the best kind of love,

one that each gives the other 100%. 

Love is not divided up 50-50%.

God does not say, if you give me 50%

I'll give you back 50%.  

God is love, and He gets to define it.

He chose to give 100% when He gave His son.

That's what a garland of grace looks like.

That is the crowning beauty of it all.

Adam Clarke says of wisdom,

"...to know the true God,
and what He requires of man,
and for what He has made man...
to know Jesus Christ whom He hath sent,
and for what end He was sent,
the necessity of His being sent;
and the nature of that salvation
which He has bought with His own blood...
Wisdom points out the thing requisite;
understanding sees to the accomplishment.
Wisdom sees; --but understanding feels.
One discovers, the other possesses."

Coverdale translates...

"The chefe poynte of wyssdome is, 
that thou be wyllynge to opteyne wysdome;
and before all thy goodes
to get the understandynge."

In his oldest transation, Adam Clarke quotes, 

"Begynnynge of wfsdam, welle thou widam:
in all thi wisdam, and in all thi possfoun,
purchas prudence."