Proverbs 7

While proverbs leading to this have instructed purity, this one really drives home the allure of adultery as a mask covering the bondage and death underneath.  Eve saw that the fruit in the garden was good to eat, pleasing to the eye and useful for gaining knowledge and wisdom.   I won't delve into Adam's sin of omission in the event, but often we, as men, get onto Eve for falling for something shiny and pleasing to the eye.  How could she trade Heaven for a bite of forbidden fruit and death?


We men should be a bit more introspective and examine our own tendencies to lust over forbidden fruit.  Satan is prowling like a lion, seeking to kill and destroy.  Swimsuit models, billboard images, waitresses at establishments with provocative names--pleasing to the eye; but Jesus spoke of the heart.  If we lust after these images in our hearts, we have been led in chains by fools who are opposed to God.  We are led to the slaughter, facing arrows from Satan defining beauty based on image.  God judges the heart, not the art of the photoshop brush.  


Do not be ensnared by the sex sold through the images from the TV, billboards, magazines and the culture.  They draw attention from the love of your youth.  They draw attention from your leading that beauty to see her beauty in Christ!  They draw attention from leading your sons to value their mothers and your daughters from valuing their own beauty in Christ.  What are the young women in your life learning from you in regards to how she should interact with men?  How should she expect men to treat her? 


What seems to be a simple indulgence in looking at images that may be 'pleasing to the eye' may ensnare you to bring death and pain to your family.  Why choose the harlot over your wife, your family?  Who is the 'apple' of your eyes?


Proverbs 7

My son, keep my words
And treasure my commandments within you.
Keep my commandments and live,
And my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers;
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom, "You are my sister,"
And call understanding your intimate friend;
that they may keep you from an adulteress,
From the foreigner who flatters with her words.

For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,
And I saw among the naive,
And discerned among the youths
A young man lacking sense,
Passing through the street near her corner;
And he takes the way to her house,
In the twilight , in the evening,
In the middle of the night and in the darkness,
And behold, a woman comes to meet him,
Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.
She is boisterous and rebellious,
Her feet do not remain at home;
She is now in the streets, now in the squares,
And lurks by every corner.
So she seizes him and kisses him
And with a brazen face she says to him:
"I was due to offer peace offerings;
Today I have paid my vows.
"Therefore I have come out to meet you,
To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.
"I have spread my couch with coverings,
With colored linens of Egypt.
"I have sprinkled my bed
With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
"Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with caresses.
"For my husband is not at home,
He has gone on a long journey;
He has taken a bag of money with him,
At the full moon he will come home."
With her many persuasions she entices him;
With her flattering lips she seduces him.
Suddenly he follows her
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
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.

Now therefore, my sons, listen to me,
And pay attention to the words of my mouth.
Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways,
Do not stray into her paths.
For many are the victims she has cast down,
And numerous are all her slain.
Her house is the way to Sheol,
Descending to the chambers of death.