Proverbs 1:8-31: The Nature of Temptation
Last week we began looking at proverbs, and the purpose of that book. We concluded that wisdom is not simply street smarts, but the skill and the ability to navigate life in all its complexity. The purpose of the book of Proverbs, as we talked about last week, is to impart this kind of wisdom.
We normally think of Proverbs as a random collection of wise sayings, last week showed that there is a reason for this gathering of texts. As we continue through the first nine chapters of proverbs; the program of this book is laid out in more and more detail.
The author uses several devices in the first nine chapters of Proverbs. One of the most distinctive is by writing speeches from a father to his son. In the first of these discourses, the father begins to talk to his son about the nature of temptation. He lays out a temptation which would have been common to the young man, and that is the temptation to join a gang. The father puts his voice behind this gang and delivers the speech that they will give in order to entice the son. He says, “If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit.” (Proverbs 1:11-12 ESV) Does that sound enticing to you? Of course it doesn’t!
The father and mother in this text know what their son will be facing in life, and they are attempting to give him a glimpse behind the scenes. They know that temptation will never present itself honestly, so they attempt to paint a more accurate picture of what the son will be enticed to.
1:11-14 paints a picture of a gang
Comprised of young (maybe privileged) men
They waylay the innocent
They murder without cause
They entice with easy money, power, excitement, and camaraderie
When you get to the end of that account, you wonder “who would even be tempted by this.” For some, joining a gang for organized crime is a temptation. Probably not for us. Either way, that’s not the point: vs. 19 says, “Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors.” (more…)
Renewed Minds 