Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we continue our progress through Proverbs, and we're still in the dad's advice to his son. He has more warnings about adultery. He wants these words to be in his son's line of sight and on his hands and in his heart. All three of those areas—eyes, hands, and heart—are important aspects of walking in holiness and purity.
If the son has this wisdom at the forefront of these places, he won't be drawn to the adulteress. By the way, it's easy to hear the words the adulteress and think of someone who's out to intentionally seduce this young man. And that's definitely possible. But it's not exclusive to that scenario. It could be someone he seeks out and pursues as well. Proverbs 7, 8 talks about the young man going out at night and walking to her house. She meets him on his way there, but he seems to go of his own volition.
And as this particular woman lays the flattery on thick, the fool falls for it. The dad warns his son repeatedly in all these chapters that this is the path to death. It's not a subtle warning. He repeats it over and over using different language and even violent language throughout the passage, just to make sure he gets the point across. In chapter 7, the dad describes the adulteress as a loud woman who sidles up to the son and probably lowers her voice to seduce him in the streets.
And in chapter 8, the dad illustrates another woman who also cries aloud in the street. This is wisdom personified. She raises her voice to call out too. She appeals to the fool and the simpletons to listen to what she has to say. She begins to describe herself, maybe like you would on a dating profile. Here's what she says. Her roommates are prudence, knowledge, and discretion, so she clearly keeps good company. A few of the things she hates are pride, arrogance, evil, and perverted speech.
She talks about the benefits she would offer to anyone in relationship with her. Counsel, sound wisdom, insight, strength, leadership, justice, love, riches, honor, enduring wealth, and righteousness. The person who matches with this woman has hit the jackpot. She does spill the beans that she's pretty old. In fact, she's been around forever, basically. She was a tool in the hand of God when he created the earth.
And just like the man who pursued the adulteress by going down the path to her house, the woman wisdom can be pursued in the same way. In chapter 8, verses 34 through 35, she says, Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. She doesn't tackle the son like the adulteress does or make a sneak attack. She asks to be pursued.
And while the adulteress is the path to death, wisdom promises, whoever finds me finds life. The juxtaposition is obvious and intentional. She also makes it clear in 8.13 that to love God is to hate evil. The dad is laying two options out for his son here, and he's clearly indicating which path is the right path. In chapter 9, we see wisdom and folly both personified. They both cry out to the simple-minded person.
In this chapter, folly sounds a lot like the adulterous from chapter 7. Wisdom offers the son something lasting, and the adulterous takes something lasting from him. Today, the father's advice is concluded, and it's interesting to realize what portion of his counsel was centered around encouraging the son to avoid sexual sin and pursue wisdom instead. It's also interesting to note how he juxtaposes those pursuits. You can't simultaneously pursue them both.
Not only that, but the results of those pursuits are juxtaposed too. The dad seems to know a lot about this. It almost makes me wonder if he's made this mistake in his own life, and that's why he's so emphatic about it in his advice to his son. Or maybe the dad pursued hard after wisdom and realized how beneficial it was to him. Or maybe both. Because Solomon is the one who wrote this. Solomon, the man who asked God for wisdom, and the man who had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
In his life, it seems like he learned both lessons, the value of wisdom and the foolishness of sexual sin. He's tested the world out, and he's come away with some advice based on his own experiences. He's hoping to spare his son from making the same mistakes he did. What was your God shot today? I was intrigued by some of the words in 8, 30-31. They describe wisdom, but some people believe they also point to Christ. So I did a little digging. First, here's what the passage says.
The Hebrew words used for rejoicing and delighting carry the connotations of playing and frolicking. Just as wisdom delights in mankind and creation, God delights in wisdom.
I'm trying to imagine what it's like for God to frolic, honestly, and it kind of makes me laugh. I picture Him giddy at creation. One of the commentaries I read even described Him as smiling with affection and amusement. Can you imagine that? That's how God feels about us and about wisdom and how wisdom feels about us. I love picturing how happy God is, jumping up and clicking the heels He doesn't have and smiling from non-existent ear to non-existent ear.
He's where the joy is.