Tag Archives: Proverbs

I die devotionals

Seductress is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword | P5-V4

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I die devotional

Proverbs 5:4

3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, And her speech is smoother than oil; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol.

Four months ago I didn’t think myself equipped to pull the speck out of my reader’s eye (Matt. 7:2-4) regarding these verses –  if indeed there is a speck of lust? I was still in combat training against the lips of an adulteress; her speech is smoother than oil, which makes grappling against her batting of the eyes and biting of the lip impossible to resist for turning into some perverse fantasy. It wasn’t that I was involved in a physical affair or looking at porn—that demon departed—but that the idea of being unfulfilled in some lustful way…was my battle ground; self-control is developed through the discipline of resistance.

Matthew 7:2-4
2 For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, the log is in your own eye?

That battle ground I mentioned, it’s a place you and I are sharing in my writing and your reading. It’s only natural for the mind to think about our subject at hand, but how the information of the topic affects us… intrigues me.

I had judged what I was up against four months ago as worse than committing the act of adultery because I lived in “death” for the experience of “Sheol”. In other words not looking at porn or resisting masturbation will not solve the deeper problem of lust although it is a step in the right direction. The feet of a seductress goes down to death and her appetite is the devil’s bed, or restroom perhaps? Because you know the places of your vices, they’re home to you and the devil. It’s a deal bargained for your soul unless confessed and repented of. The mind is so powerful that it has the capacity to stronghold you into unbelief by keeping you in your sin that Jesus Christ saved you out of; the choice on whether you want to live in sin or escape is purely psychological and spiritual in nature, the choice is made by how you behave! So how do you behave in secret?

The question is simple: 

Do you want to escape from the will of the devil (2 Timothy 2:24-26)?

The answer is not so simple; discipline is suffering. 

2 Timothy 2:24-26
24 The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, skillful in teaching, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

In my case I lived in the adultery of my mind because of insecurities and pride that the Church couldn’t cure because it was too personal, beyond human intuition and perception. And until I faced what that meant in order for that part of me to die, I would continue to give myself over to the seductress of my soul—thinking I didn’t want that attractive person to look at me the way they did by which invoked sexual fantasies, but it happened because of sin… “So I must be safe, right?” Wrong! As innocent as it might be to experience the chemical and neurological processes of my reproductive and intellectual organs doesn’t mean I’m not guilty of committing adultery in my heart by turning what was innocent into a conscious fantasy where pleasure is performed until release, a proclivity to doing it over and over and over again.

The seductress of your soul might look like a number of different things: perhaps it is wanting something that someone else has, or perhaps fulfilling something that someone else doesn’t have or hasn’t experienced, or perhaps it’s the fact that the conscience convicts what is off limits and not understanding why will drive you absolutely insane until you find it out? I think we could go on and on in addition to scenarios, but I don’t think that wise, said facetiously. I think—or at least hope—you get the idea.

If you want to escape from the seductress of your soul you’ll need to first confess to the Church, that’s the first act of repentance and it might be multiple times, but don’t underestimate your faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. By “Church” I mean two or three witnesses of a congregation in the Body of Christ. These people will be governed by the Holy Spirit for the sake of your forgiveness and accountability moving forward in your new life. 

Without genuine christian accountability in your life you’ll fall all the harder into your sin you’ve just escaped from, so do not think you can win against evil without God, it is impossible without God!

I’ll be praying for you, reader.

MORE CONTENT & RESOURCES

P5-V3

Proverbs 5 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org | biblegateway.com

Matthew Henry (P5-V4) Commentary

  • (1.) How fatal the consequences will be. What fruit will the sinner have of his honey and oil when the end will be,
    • [1.] The terrors of conscience: It is bitter as wormwood, v. 4. What was luscious in the mouth rises in the stomach and turns sour there; it cuts, in the reflection, like a two-edged sword; take it which way you will, it wounds. Solomon could speak by experience, Eccl. 7:26.
    • [2.] The torments of hell. If some that have been guilty of this sin have repented and been saved, yet the direct tendency of the sin is to destruction of body and soul; the feet of it go down to death, nay, they take hold on hell, to pull it to the sinner, as if the damnations slumbered too long, v. 5. Those that are entangled in this sin should be reminded that there is but a step between them and hell, and that they are ready to drop into it.
I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

My son | P5-V1

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Pitfalls of Immorality

Proverbs 5:1

I die devotional.

27 Do not turn to the right nor to the left;
Turn your foot from evil.
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom,
Incline your ear to my understanding;
2 That you may observe discretion
And your lips may reserve knowledge.

Wisdom, although from the mouth of Solomon, a man given over to the lust of his flesh that no man can overcome void the fear of God; these proverbs are of God our Father, not kept by Solomon, and given for our understanding. God means what He says, and we will do well to listen as David did.

1 Kings 11 —But King Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women—the [a]daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. 2 They were of the very nations of whom the Lord said to the Israelites, You shall not mingle with them, neither shall they mingle with you, for surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Yet Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart from God. 4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect (complete and whole) with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abominable idol of the Ammonites! 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father did.

I think what happens to Solomon in 1 Kings 11 is a perfect parallel to this chapter in Proverbs because not even the wisest man that walked the face of the planet—until Christ our Lord—could resist the temptation of perverse beauty, a beauty that this chapter of Proverbs describes so well as a “…strange woman” (or “loose”, “foreign”, “adulterous”, etc.). Now, since the Lord our God, the God of all, has come, died, and resurrected in the Name of Jesus Christ so that the world might be saved through His Name; I’ll refer to this “strange woman” as, Seductress.

When you look at the featured photo you’ll see feminine hands, and the minds’ eye, undercover of night or… rather, more appropriate, under the covers of another god. Seductress might appear as beautiful as the stars shining bright like diamonds in the sky (don’t tell me you don’t know that song), but the pleasure she intends to experience is at the cost of our souls, the cost is death. The true God, the God of Wisdom, warns the consequences of such behavior. Wisdom, like a mother, a woman of honor and dignity, calls for our attention as sons, “My son…”. So it’s important I/we listen, and listen with application.

RESOURCE

Proverbs 5 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org | biblegateway.com

COMMENTARY

Chapter 5

Matthew Henry (P5-V1) Commentary
The scope of this chapter is much the same with that of ch. 2. To write the same things, in other words, ought not to be grievous, for it is safe, Phil. 3:1. Here is,

  • I. An exhortation to get acquaintance with and submit to the laws of wisdom in general (v. 2).
  • II. A particular caution against the sin of whoredom (v. 3-14).
  • III. Remedies prescribed against that sin.
    • 1. Conjugal love (v. 15-20).
    • 2. A regard to God’s omniscience (v. 21).
    • 3. A dread of the miserable end of wicked people (v. 22, 23).

And all little enough to arm young people against those fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

Pro 5:1-14

Here we have,

  • I. A solemn preface, to introduce the caution which follows, v. 1, 2. Solomon here addresses himself to his son, that is, to all young men, as unto his children, whom he has an affection for and some influence upon. In God’s name, he demands attention; for he writes by divine inspiration, and is a prophet, though he begins not with, Thus saith the Lord. “Attend, and bow thy ear; not only hear what is said, and read what is written, but apply thy mind to it and consider it diligently.” To gain attention he urges,
    • 1. The excellency of his discourse: “It is my wisdom, my understanding; if I undertake to teach thee wisdom I cannot prescribe any thing to be more properly called so; moral philosophy is my philosophy, and that which is to be learned in my school.”
    • 2. The usefulness of it: “Attend to what I say,”
      • (1.) “That thou mayest act wisely-that thou mayest regard discretion.” Solomon’s lectures are not designed to fill our heads with notions, with matters of nice speculation, or doubtful disputation, but to guide us in the government of ourselves, that we may act prudently, so as becomes us and so as will be for our true interest.
      • (2.) “That thou mayest speak wisely-that thy lips may keep knowledge, and thou mayest have it ready at thy tongue’s end” (as we say), “for the benefit of those with whom thou dost converse.” The priest’s lips are said to keep knowledge (Mal. 2:7); but those that are ready and mighty in the scriptures may not only in their devotions, but in their discourses, be spiritual priests.
I die devotionals, Nathan Dooley

Turn your foot from evil | P4-V27

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A Father’s Instruction

Proverbs 4:27

I die devotional.

26 Watch the path of your feet
And all your ways will be established.
27 Do not turn to the right nor to the left;
Turn your foot from evil.
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom,
Incline your ear to my understanding;

Much like someone walking into a gym for the first time to workout does not start out by repping their max, but first discovers what their max is and builds from there; the goal is not (only) to increase their max, but to develop form and will power to enter the gym again, and again, and again…

So too is that someone who first believes in Christ and Christ reveals the truth to being a Christian, that someone does not start out doing anything righteous, but discovers what the truth is and means; the goal is not (only) to increase in the knowledge of the truth, but to develop form and will power to obey the truth by dying, again, and again, and again…

Matthew 10:39 Whoever finds his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], and whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity].

Matthew 16:25 For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity].

Mark 8:35 For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake and the gospel’s will save it [from the consequences of sin and separation from God].

Luke 9:24 For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake, he is the one who will save it [from the consequences of sin and separation from God].

Luke 17:33 Whoever seeks to save his life will [eventually] lose it [through death], and whoever loses his life [in this world] will keep it [from the consequences of sin and separation from God].

Do not settle for what this world has to offer, turn your foot from sin.

RESOURCE

Proverbs 4 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org | biblegateway.com

COMMENTARY

Chapter 4

Matthew Henry (P4-V27) Commentary
VI. We must act with steadiness, caution, and consistency: “Let all thy ways be established (v. 26) and be not unstable in them, as the double-minded man is; halt not between two, but go on in an even uniform course of obedience; turn not to the right hand not to the left, for there are errors on both hands, and Satan gains his point if he prevails to draw us aside either way. Be very careful to remove thy foot from evil; take heed of extremes, for in them there is evil, and let thy eyes look right on, that thou mayest keep the golden mean.” Those that would approve themselves wise must always be watchful.