The Scripture passages are identified with bold upright font and the author’s notes are identified with italic regular font.

Another Exhortation

This piece will cover the entire chapter seven of the Book of Proverbs, as only one principle is focused on in the entire chapter. Once again, the author and God are warning his child against the use of worldly wisdom, no wisdom, foolishness, and against ungodly practices.

As you read this chapter keep in mind that godly wisdom and/or godliness is represented by the good woman and foolishness, worldly wisdom, and/or ungodliness is represented by the harlot. You might ask why a harlot so often represents sin, ungodliness, worldly wisdom, or foolishness in the bible; it is because to sin, to use worldly wisdom, to practice ungodliness or behave foolishly is to adulterate yourself with the things that are opposed to God when you belong to God, you are created by Him, and in covenant relationship with Him.

¹ My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. ² Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. ³ Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. ⁴ Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: ⁵ That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

⁶ For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, ⁷ And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, ⁸ Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, ⁹ In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: ¹⁰ And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. ¹¹ (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: ¹² Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) ¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, ¹⁴ I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. ¹⁵ Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. ¹⁶ I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. ¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. ¹⁹ For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: ²⁰ He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. ²¹ With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. ²² He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; ²³ Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

²⁴ Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. ²⁵ Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. ²⁶ For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. ²⁷ Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

In verse seven and eight we are given the visual of a person observing another person who does not use wisdom. How that individual is led astray into a life where they cheat on God; they cheat themselves out of being who God created them to be by going into a harlot aka ungodliness, sin, worldly wisdom, and foolishness. The folly of such a person often comes with the pretense of being satisfied with their self and okay with their conduct, however, self-loathing and shame are often cloaked in a nonchalant attitude.

Any conduct that goes against God’s Will, God’s Ways, God’s Commands, God’s Principles, and God’s Purpose is the ‘attire of a harlot’ in your life (v.10). The lure of what is opposed to God’s Way for you is very strong; it comes with false promises, the allure of fun, often in some manner pandering to your ego (v.21), yet in the end the results are horrible (v.23).

Worldly ways and worldly wisdom are extremely seductive (v.21). However, once they are done with you, they bring about a death blow to your life (v.23). Why did they choose the phrase of having one’s liver pierced? If the liver is pierced, you will most likely bleed to death from internal bleeding. The wound on the outside might be small without much or hardly any blood, but the damage on the inside can be fatal. Such is the way when we indulge worldly wisdom, sin, foolishness, and ungodliness; some area of our life ends up being killed, a part of us dies with each sin, we leave vials of blood at the resting place of each foolish action, and ungodliness erodes the good things in our life, relationships, work, our health, etc. (v.26).

Thanks be to God there is a cure, a way to avoid such a fate; the use of godly wisdom (v.25).

Throughout this study if you need the wisdom of God on a matter, and you wish to receive the counsel of another Believer in Christ, please use the “comments” link to send your question to me.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.