SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/16/2013 9:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Sexual Sin
Is Ultimately Deadly PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Proverbs 7: 10-27
Message of the
verses: As we again take a look at
Proverbs chapter seven I want to be reminded of what Dr. Wiersbe wrote at the
end of his introduction to Proverbs seven:
“This chapter vividly describes a naïve young man who falls into the
trap of the adulteress. Note the steps
that lead to his destruction.” We looked
at the first step in yesterday’s SD and will continue in this SD.
He is tempted by
the woman (vv. 10-20): “10 And behold, a woman comes to meet him, Dressed
as a harlot and cunning of heart. 11 She is boisterous and rebellious, Her feet
do not remain at home; 12 She is now in the streets, now in the squares, And
lurks by every corner. 13 So she seizes him and kisses him And with a brazen
face she says to him: 14 “I was due to offer peace offerings; Today I have paid
my vows. 15 “Therefore I have come out to meet you, To seek your presence
earnestly, and I have found you. 16 “I have spread my couch with coverings,
With colored linens of Egypt. 17 “I have sprinkled my bed With myrrh, aloes and
cinnamon. 18 “Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; Let us delight
ourselves with caresses. 19 ‘For my husband is not at home, He has gone on a
long journey; 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, At the full moon he will
come home.’”
We say yesterday that this young man was actually
tempting himself by being out at night and also by being in the places where he
should not be at. Now we see the woman,
the wife of another man, be just like a spider in a web waiting to trap an
unsuspecting insect. The young man walks
by her house where she is dressed like a prostitute standing at her window
looking for her next victim. He husband
had taken he to the temple to offer an offering so she had some of the meat
left over to feed her victims. We saw in
verse six that the woman was standing at her window, and in these verses we see
that she was also out in the streets looking for another victim. Either way she was in the process of tempting
a young foolish man into sleeping with her for both pleasure and for money, and
she does all this while her husband was off somewhere on a business trip.
He tempts the Lord
(vv. 21-27): “21 With her many
persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him. 22 Suddenly he follows her As an ox goes to the
slaughter, Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, 23 Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As
a bird hastens to the snare, So he does not know that it will cost him his
life. 24 Now therefore, my sons, listen
to me, And pay attention to the words of my mouth. 25 Do not let your heart
turn aside to her ways; Do not stray into her paths. 26 For many are the
victims she has cast down, And numerous are all her slain. 27 Her house is the
way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death.”
I don’t believe that Solomon is talking about a real
woman, but perhaps he is making up a story that happens all the time so that he
can continue to educate his son, and also all of those who will read this
story.
The story continues in verses 21-27. Dr. Wiersbe entitles this sub point “He temps
the Lord,” and writes the following about that:
“We tempt God when we deliberately disobey Him and put ourselves into
situations so difficult that only God can deliver us. It’s as though we ‘dare Him’ to do something.” This is a pretty sad position to be in, for
if we would first of all pray as Jesus told His disciples to pray in Mark 14:38
we would be protected by our prayers. “"Keep
watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak.’” How true those
words are that the spirit is willing, but our flesh is so weak. We must remember that God never temps anyone,
but we can tempt ourselves by first thinking about something that is sinful,
and then dwelling on it. I believe that
the easiest and best way to avoid temptation is when it first comes into your
mind. When perhaps we see a beautiful
woman who is dressed in a seducing manner and we don’t do like Job coveted to
do when he said “"I made a solemn pact with myself never to undress a girl
with my eyes,’” (Message) The image comes into your mind through your eyes and
then you don’t stop at that point, but continue to think more and more about
her until in your mind she is in your bed.
Jesus said “27 "You have heard that it was said, ’YOU SHALL NOT
COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28 but I say to you
that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.” The
next step is the actual act of adultery.
As Dr. Wiersbe writes we can surely tempt God by going so much further
than we think we should have gone and then daring God to rescue us. One more thing that we need to remember is
that Satan can act very quickly to entice us in the kind of situations we are
talking about now or other kinds of situations like making money in a way we
should not make it or other types of temptations, so we always have to be on
guard and protected by the Spiritual Armor found in Ephesians chapter six. The last two pieces of the armor are the
Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and prayer. We are to pray that we will not be led into
temptation, and we are to have the Word of God hid in our hearts like Jesus did
when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and He quoted verses to stop the
temptation of Satan.
The young man was now acting like an animal as seen in
the verses above, and animal who was going to the slaughter. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Human beings are the only
creatures in God’s creation who can choose what kind of creatures they want to
be. God wants us to be sheep (Ps. 23:1;
John 10; 1Peter 2:25), but there are other options such as horses or mules (Ps.
32:9), or even hogs and dogs (2 Peter 2:22).
When we live outside the will of God, we lose our privileges as human
beings made in His divine image.”
As we look at what this young man was doing we may ask
why God did not stop this situation, but we must remember that this young man
was acting foolishly in tempting himself first of all which resulted in being
tempted by the woman, and then finally he tempted God. When Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the
wilderness Satan took Jesus to a high tower and told Him to jump off and then
he quoted Scripture to Jesus stating that God would protect Him from being hurt
from the fall, but Jesus replied to Satan “You shall not tempt (put to the
test) the Lord your God.” (Matthew 4:7
which is a quotation from Deut. 6:16)
In our society today we see this story playing out
everywhere as I mentioned in an earlier SD.
It is on our TV’s, smart phones, I-pads, in the movies, and in the books
we read. Paul writes about how a person
or a nation will come to its downfall in Romans 1:18-32, and at the end he
writes that not only people will do these terrible things that he has described,
but will approve when others do them. We
are at that point in our country. Dr.
Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this chapter in his commentary with some
words for believers to keep in mind.
“But the Gospel is still ‘the power of God unto salvation’ (Romans 1:16)
and Christ can still change people’s lives (1Cor. 6:9-11). It isn’t enough for Christians to protest the
evil; we must also practice the good (Matt. 5:13-16) and proclaim the good news
that sinners can become new creatures in Christ (2Cor. 5:17).
“If the world had more light, there would be less
darkness.
“If the world had more salt, there would be less decay.
“If the world heard more truth, there would be less
deception.
“We have a job to do.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Continue to fight
the good fight as Paul wrote to Timothy to do when they both lived in a world
that was harder on believers than we live in inside the USA. To tell others the Good news of the Gospel,
and to continue to pray for a Holy Spirit Awakening in our country so that our
land would be changed in a way that only God can change it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to pray for revival in my life, the
life of my family, the church we go to, and the country we live in. Revival must begin with individuals so that
it will spread to others, and then to still others.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 121:1-6
1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where
shall my help come? 2 My help comes from
the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3
He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keep you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel will not
slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade on your
right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you
by day, nor the moon by night.
Turning Points Wisdom for
today: “If we ignore Divine directions,
we cannot enjoy God’s blessing.” “1 How
blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in
the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in
the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2)
1/16/2013 11:02 AM
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