Day 183. Proverbs 4-7

The voice of Solomon in the Book of Proverbs is that of a concerned parent, a fatherly teacher passing along to a student the "insight" (4:1) he himself received from his parents and teachers (4:3-4). Insight is an excellent word for what is being imparted—it is practical knowledge about how to get along in the world. The voice is both stern and affectionate, like a father giving his son advice about women and other "facts of life."
The voice contrasts two women in our passage. There is the good woman—who is associated with Lady Wisdom herself (1:20-33)—and there is The Loose Woman, who is associated with all manner of reckless and wicked behavior. The student is advised to be faithful to the good woman—Lady Wisdom—and avoid the other kind. "Keep hold of instruction; do not let go," the voice says. "Guard her, for she is your life" (4:13). Two different and mutually exclusive ways are presented here—the way of wisdom, which is associated with light (4:18), and the way of wickedness, which is associated with darkness (4:19). The call of wisdom is to walk in the light, and avoid the darkness—(see the words of the Risen Christ in John 3:19-21). Foolishness and wickedness have all the charms and allurements of The Loose Woman—she is not what she seems. She drips honey and yet in reality she "is bitter as wormwood" (5:3-5). Consider the consequences before
acting upon your impulses, the voice of Solomon tells his young student. Do not be seduced and drawn into a disastrous lawsuit; do not act without due consideration and see your promising future destroyed (5:13-14).
To avoid this outcome, the young man is instructed to remain faithful to Lady Wisdom and do as she teaches: be wise and prudent in his financial affairs (6:1-5), work hard and like the ant be provident, not lazy (6:6-11). By doing these things he will remain faithful to Lady Wisdom and resist the wiles of the seductress. Foolish and wicked actions have disastrous, self-destructive consequences for those who do them, just by being caught in the act of adultery with another man's wife. "He who commits adultery has no sense," the voice of Solomon says. "He who does it destroys himself '(6:32). He loses wealth, honor, respect-- everything of value that he has.
Chapter 7 paints a colorful picture of a young man is being snared by the adulteress. This passage is lurid. The seductress knows her power. The young man succumbs, acting without counting the cost of his foolishness. "He is like a bird rushing into a snare," the voice says, "not knowing that it will cost him his life" (7:23). The Loose Woman is a representation not just of sexual sins but of all those thoughtless and irresponsible actions that lead to ruin, shame, and death. She is alluring but deadly. "Her house is the way to Sheol," the voice warns, "going down to the chambers of death" (7:27). Stay away from that kind, the fatherly voice says, and he calls upon the student to "say to wisdom, 'You are my sister,' and call insight your intimate friend, that they may keep you from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words" (7:4-5).