AP

Proverbs 7:6-9  At the window of my house I looked down through the lattice.  I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense.  He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in.

I try to picture what was going on in Solomon’s head as he wrote these words of warning to his son.  Is the ‘young man’ he ‘sees’ an image of his younger self?  Is it an image of his father, David, getting up in the night and walking on the palace roof and ogling at his neighbour’s wife, Bathsheba, who eventually became Solomon’s mother, bathing in the warm spring air, not expecting any ogling eyes to be on her at that time (2 Samuel 11)?

Solomon himself, who has become ‘famous’ for his ‘wisdom’, grew up in a tense household wih many half-brothers-and-sisters, with all that that entails in a fallen world, and he still ended up with 700 wives and 300 mistresses (concubines) of his own!

But what he is writing to his son in Proverbs 7 does not only apply to sexual temptation.  Satan, the Arch-Deceiver, knows very well which are the most effective ‘buttons to press’ for each individual.  As we read on in the chapter we see why Solomon refers to the young man in his vision as ‘having no sense’ and ‘among the simple’, and the mess he gets his life into.

It is especially sad in the Christian Church when a man who speaks out the loudest about the need for sexual purity is one who falls into sexual sin.  How important it is that we heed to advice given by Solomon here, and reinforced by the Apostles James and Peter in the NT:  “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. … My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this.  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:13-15, 19-24); “Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, …” (1 Peter 5:8-9a).  Let us be constant in prayer for one another, and especially for young people in our care who can be so easily influenced by our current culture through social (and other) media.

– Bruce Christian