Proverbs 7 Devotional Study

How to avoid getting pulled in again

Few things are as terrifying as being swept up by a riptide or strong current. Before you realize what’s happening, you are out of control, at the mercy of the ocean current. Caught in the current, a person can get sucked away 10 feet per second — far too fast to swim back to shore. If you are fortunate enough to be rescued, expect to be badly shaken and possibly injured.

Riptides are dangerous. They are also completely avoidable. At beaches where riptides happen frequently, signs warn swimmers and surfers not to venture into certain areas. Meteorologists can predict weather conditions that create strong currents and advise us about when and where swimming could be dangerous.

Temptation often comes at us like a riptide. We’re swimming along just fine, when all of a sudden something tugs us in another direction. We’re swimming hard, but we’re getting nowhere.

Thankfully, the Bible provides us with warning signs and instructions on how to avoid the pain and destruction of giving in to sin (Proverbs 7:21-23). The same way a meteorologist understands the weather, God is the expert on sin and the human condition. He made us, and one of the best ways to protect ourselves from temptation is to immerse ourselves in the truth of His Word (Proverbs 7:1-5 and Proverbs 7:24-25).

We protect ourselves from temptation by immersing ourselves in the truth of God’s Word.

A high regard for Scripture is the best protection against sin. That’s the warning the father gives his son in Proverbs 7 when he says to love wisdom like a sister and make insight a beloved member of the family. We can choose to ignore warning signs and make excuses, or we can steer clear of temptation entirely.

Learning by experience is effective, but often painful. Wouldn’t you rather stay out of the water out of Scripture-based empowerment rather than being driven by the crippling fear of past experience?

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Reflect:
	Warning Against the Adulteress
Proverbs 7:1	My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
Proverbs 7:2	Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
Proverbs 7:3	Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
Proverbs 7:4	Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
Proverbs 7:5	That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
Proverbs 7:6	For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
Proverbs 7:7	And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
Proverbs 7:8	Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
Proverbs 7:9	In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
Proverbs 7:10	And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
Proverbs 7:11	(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
Proverbs 7:12	Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
Proverbs 7:13	So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
Proverbs 7:14	I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
Proverbs 7:15	Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
Proverbs 7:16	I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
Proverbs 7:17	I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Proverbs 7:18	Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
Proverbs 7:19	For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
Proverbs 7:20	He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
Proverbs 7:21	With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Proverbs 7:22	He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
Proverbs 7:23	Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
Proverbs 7:24	Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
Proverbs 7:25	Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
Proverbs 7:26	For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
Proverbs 7:27	Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

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