I don’t know if I’m the only person who sometimes scratches his head when he reads Proverbs. Especially when it gets to chapter 7. Here’s why I scratch my head. I read the story of Solomon. Son of David to Bathsheba. Bath, as she was obviously known for short, and evidently not one to be found dirty all the time was the wife of Uriah. David killed Uriah so that he could have Bath all for himself. It’s not as if David was a bit short on women, to that point he’d had at least three wives and as God mentioned later if the brother needed some help in the area all he had to do was ask. David’s action seriously affected not just his family relationships but the course of the country he was called to lead.
Of immediate effect was the boy that Bath was pregnant with by David who died. Understanding how devastating that would be for his new wife, David did his duty and from their union came forth Solomon. I remember watching a film of Solomon which gave the impression that David’s link to Bathsheba was out of guilt so when Adonijah tries to usurp power, David in his dying days does his political move to ensure Solomon gets the throne. The point is it’s not surprising that women played a vital role in the life of David and they say like father like son.
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. (Proverbs 7:21)
Here he is though, this the wisest man in the world, he fully well knows the importance of faithfulness and what not doing it can cost. He even writes this ode to faithfulness through this graphic portrayal of the young fool who is beguiled by the seductress and takes all her sweet talk only to find out that it is taking him to a place he does not want to go from which he will not return.
You read this tale. You’re captivated by it. You are warded off the wiles of the woman, or at least aware of the dangers that lie should you be foolish enough to still go down that path. Then you see what happens to Solomon. The brother with all the wisdom at his disposal gets lured away from faithfulness and obedience to God by what? Women. No he doesn’t have to be beguiled into adultery in the obvious sense, because as king he can have as many concubines as he wants and he’s initiated a peace-keeping policy of marrying significant members of the royal family of neighbouring countries.
Is it any wander that his heart is led astray into committing spiritual adultery? Yet he himself wrote of the perilous consequences of such an exercise and extolled the virtues of faithfulness.
It should make you wonder, but in a very real sense for all the head-scratching it underlines one of the typical realities of the human experience. What we need is not more moral codes and exhortations to carry on with better will-power. What we have always needed is the heart and desire to live out the outcome of the wisdom spoken of. I cannot condemn Solomon anymore than I’d have to condemn my own heart. Knowing something is one thing, understanding it takes us further, but wisdom as application is a matter of the heart.
When the heart is wrapped up with the first love constantly, it remains unmoveable. How can any seductress move a man whose heart remains firmly in the love of his life? That’s why we guard our hearts, that’s why we remember what god does on our hearts – He writes His love on our hearts. That’s the miracle of Pentecost – the Resurrection offers us the chance to live as Jesus lived even as we die to ourselves and the lusts that would lead us to follow the seductress and that happens when the Holy Spirit is poured in our hearts. Without that, all the wisdom in the world cannot stop even the wisest man in the world from falling … God help us all.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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