Proverbs 1:10-19 - The Enticement of Sinners

Proverbs 1:10-19
¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
¹¹ If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause;
¹² Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, even whole, as those who go down to the pit;
¹³ We will find all kinds of precious wealth, we will fill our houses with spoil;
¹⁴ Throw in your lot with us, we shall all have one purse,”
¹⁵ My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path,
¹⁶ For their feet run to evil and they hasten to shed blood.
¹⁷ Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net in the sight of any bird;
¹⁸ But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.
¹⁹ So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; it takes away the life of its possessors.

Message: The enticement of sinners

Time: It seems that Proverbs was written and then compiled sometime between the tenth and sixth centuries B.C. Proverbs was probably written during the reign of Solomon, 971-931 B.C.

What the Lord is Saying:

I have remembered reading this passage several times. It is a warning from a father, it seems to a son. But, in actuality, it is Solomon warning his pupils. It is a good warning. There are people that come into our life, especially at a young age, when we are more impressionistic and working to become not what we were raised, but our own person. And the lure from those who are at a similar place in their life, also breaking away from their parents ways, and being their own person, is certainly enticing. I know this first hand or rather, even more so, second hand, I witness it, as my children grow up and hit the high school age. They all have gone in different directions at that age, with the latest, having a slight desire to go down that wrong path. 

Verse 13 stands out because it speaks of the lure that is present and often praised in these times, to get wealth. We are about acquisition and having something that will keep us entertained. "We will find all of precious wealth" is a telling sign and one that is tempting. And then the idea of verse 14 and let's not do it alone, but "throw in your lot with us." The idea I read yesterday stating that two are better than one from Ecclesiastes can obviously be used for the wrong reasons as well.  

There are 3 clear warnings in this text: (1) Do not consent, (2) Do not walk in the way with them, and (3) Keep your feet from their path. I like what this says because each of these statements is a little different. 

Do not consent
Just don't do it. It is a clear and concise statement which is the command that children especially often need. It is quick word of "don't" like don't touch the hot iron. We need these quick warnings at times. They speak the truth. Do not go along. This is the first warning. It is the one that you would hope the children immediately do because you have trained them previously that you can be trusted because your warnings in the past have worked. 

Do not walk in the way with them
Do not hang around them. Do not go along with them. Do not say that you can be associated with them but will not do what they do. We think we are mightier than we are. We think we can hang around people and they won't affect us. We say this about what we listen to, watch, are entertained by; all the time we are saying it is innocent and it won't affect us. But, their is a danger, The verse of "do not be unequally yoked" takes on the meaning that those who are in bed with others of different ways than them will be a chameleon and will start looking differently. We must stay clear of these people.

Keep your feet from their path
Join a different company. Join a different group. Have a different belonging. It is not that we simply don't do it or that we don't walk with them, but our path is different. To be free from any enticement, I must stay free of any association. Before I can swim with the sharks, I must first learn to swim. I am always intrigued by people that minister to serious sinners, like prostitutes, strip dancers, drug addicts, but they can only do this if they are well grounded. The former homosexual who ministers to homosexuals must be very careful. This is why it is so important to stay grounded in God's word because we are called to minister to the lost, but we do not want to be swayed in their direction, so we must start each day on our knees and focused on God's word first. 

Promise: The enticement of sinners is deception. It lures us into thinking that we need "this" to be a part of our life and it will make us more complete, when in actuality, it will strip away what is in our life and replace it with something that will be to our detriment. This is everywhere present and is the basic understanding of sin and being tempted.