There are treacherous waters that we must steer clear from. Why are they so destructive? They give control of our lives over to evil forces and evil people. In Proverbs 6 these four treacherous waters are: 1) financial entanglements (6:1-5), 2) laziness (6:6-11), 3) mean troublemakers (6:12-19) and 4) adultery (6:24-35). Fear the Lord above everything else and avoid unwise investments, a lifestyle of apathy, divisive people and infidelity.
Solomon says there is a war of words happening in the secret, hidden parts of your heart. It’s God’s life giving words of wisdom in your heart verses the seductive words of the tempter or temptress. Solomon’s plea is to internalize the loving Father’s truth. Drink the Father’s words in deeply so that it becomes the fabric of your life.
Solomon says to guard your heart with all vigilance, because there is so much ugliness in this world. And if we look on ugliness too long, it impacts our fragile hearts. Our hearts were not designed to be tough and calloused; they were designed to be protected and guarded. There is so much out there that can harden our fragile hearts. We hate it at first, but then it comes familiar and finally we embrace it. Our first responsibility is to preserve and guard the citadel of our life, which is our heart.
In Proverbs 3, Solomon says the goal is “discretion” and “sound wisdom”. When the world and all her pleasures try to seduce us, we have the inner power to navigate what is front of us. We can anticipate and traverse through the traps. Solomon says there is a lot to lose – life, safety, peaceful sleep, courage and confidence. Ultimately the Lord is our confidence and the guardian of our safety. As we trust Him, He is the only one who can secure the outcomes He wants us to experience.
What’s the fuel our bodies run on? If you were to watch most of humanity, and even many Christians, you might conclude that the fuel we run on is fear and anxiety. We live in a culture of hurry and worry, and our bodies were not created to endure this lifestyle. A doctor from John Hopkins said, “We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality.” We were made for faith, to trust our Creator.
We can’t find it in marriage or multiple marriages. We can’t find it in six figure incomes. We can’t find it in workouts or diets. It’s a sinking feeling when you are counting on something to heal the turmoil in your heart, but once achieved nothing changes. If happiness via the pursuit of pleasure is not the goal of our existence, then what is?
Is it possible God is sending us message that we are ignoring or can’t pick up because of the state of our hearts? In the gospels Jesus speaks of those who have “ears to hear”. In Proverbs 1 Solomon raises the same concern – our capacity to hear. Whose voice does Solomon want us to hear? It’s Lady Wisdom’s, and she isn’t hiding. It’s God’s hokma and it’s available to all.
In this hostile and sinful world, every one of us has to make a choice of whose voice we are going to listen to. Solomon exhorts us to cling to our Creator and humbly trust and submit ourselves to Him and His plan for our lives.
Solomon says the purpose of Proverbs is wisdom, moral instruction, to discern wise counsel (vs. 2), and to develop skillful living in what is right, just and fair (vs. 3). The chief aim of the book is to enable us to look at life through God’s eyes. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can trust His eternal, all-knowing point of view and live accordingly.
God wants to turn us from victims into victors, from people who abdicate responsibility into men and women who pursue character, integrity, and trustworthiness and press into difficult situations. It’s this character that God is forming in us that will allow us to fulfill who we are intended to be. It’s this character that will provide influence and allow us to teach truth and love others in a world that does neither. It’s through our new heart, new nature, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and our cooperation with Him that our character will take shape.
