Morning Reflection on Proverbs 5
This chapter illustrates how wisdom lives in the present with the future in mind. The consequences of a present course of action are always considered before embarking.
When I consider the personal, family, and spiritual destruction that follows those who heed the strange woman’s honeyed and oiled words (Pro. 5:3), I flee like I would flee the plague (cf. 2 Tim. 2:22).
Prov. 5:4 -- "sharp as a two-edged sword" is the strange woman -- to lick her honeyed words is to head down the path of suicide.
Trappers in Alaska's past occasionally discovered their lines raided by wolves. To rid themselves of the thieves, they would dip a sharp, double-edged knife in honey, allowing several layers to freeze onto it. Then they planted the knife, blade up in the snow near a trap the wolves have raided. The smell of the honey attracts the wolves who begin to lick it off the blade. As a wolf licks the frozen honey, the cold numbs their tongue. By the time they have licked the honey clean, their tongue is numbed to the razor edge that cuts their tongue. Now they taste blood, and lick with greater frenzy, not realizing they are licking their own blood. Eventually they lick themselves to death.
Father, help me and help my sons to acknowledge that we are susceptible to her alluring charms, and so fortify our souls with your wisdom, retain the prudence that comes from you, and remember the folly and doom of accepting her invitation.
Guard us from proud self-confidence that dabbles on the edge of danger for the thrills of risk. Grant me grace daily to model for my sons abhorrence of all sexual infidelity both internal and external.
Father, help us not to linger in considering the her beauty (Prov. 6:25). That she has it is not to be denied. Seeing it cannot be avoided it. But seeing, help us to instantly recognize it for what it is--the honey masking a double-edged knife which the enemy of our soul desires to use to destroy us (Prov. 5:5, 14).
When I consider the personal, family, and spiritual destruction that follows those who heed the strange woman’s honeyed and oiled words (Pro. 5:3), I flee like I would flee the plague (cf. 2 Tim. 2:22).
Prov. 5:4 -- "sharp as a two-edged sword" is the strange woman -- to lick her honeyed words is to head down the path of suicide.
Trappers in Alaska's past occasionally discovered their lines raided by wolves. To rid themselves of the thieves, they would dip a sharp, double-edged knife in honey, allowing several layers to freeze onto it. Then they planted the knife, blade up in the snow near a trap the wolves have raided. The smell of the honey attracts the wolves who begin to lick it off the blade. As a wolf licks the frozen honey, the cold numbs their tongue. By the time they have licked the honey clean, their tongue is numbed to the razor edge that cuts their tongue. Now they taste blood, and lick with greater frenzy, not realizing they are licking their own blood. Eventually they lick themselves to death.
Father, help me and help my sons to acknowledge that we are susceptible to her alluring charms, and so fortify our souls with your wisdom, retain the prudence that comes from you, and remember the folly and doom of accepting her invitation.
Guard us from proud self-confidence that dabbles on the edge of danger for the thrills of risk. Grant me grace daily to model for my sons abhorrence of all sexual infidelity both internal and external.
Father, help us not to linger in considering the her beauty (Prov. 6:25). That she has it is not to be denied. Seeing it cannot be avoided it. But seeing, help us to instantly recognize it for what it is--the honey masking a double-edged knife which the enemy of our soul desires to use to destroy us (Prov. 5:5, 14).
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