Proverbs 1:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 1:10

Comments

From verse 10 on, there follows a tremendous analysis of the opposite to wisdom and knowledge. The writer of Proverbs is not seriously suggesting that any Christian is going to be readily drawn aside by someone who wants to waylay people in the highways and play bandit and attack and plunder and steal. It is not a serious treatment of this particular temptation. When the book of Proverbs says, if somebody says, ‘Will you join my gang of bandits on the main highway and plunder and rob and kill and so on and we will get tremendous gain and have a common purse?’, the writer is not seriously suggesting that that particular temptation is going to come to you. It is a picture of something else. When the writer of the book of Proverbs says, ‘Similarly, do not go with the harlot, do not go with the fallen woman, when you pass her on the street’, he is not seriously suggesting that you are likely to. It is a picture of something else which may happen to you. Everything in the whole book from beginning to end consists of pictures to provoke us to think. Solomon says, the road away from God is a trap by its very nature. The trap of sin is worked by worldlings. As soon as we ourselves are trapped, we become in turn a trapper to others. Satan seldom works directly. How does this trap operate? By enticement, by bait, to draw the reluctant into the net, dangling the benefits in front of us. This enticement starts early.

Application

Now if I do not value these things and hunger and thirst after them, the only other way is so bad that the writer can only describe it in these violent terms. It is as bad as joining a gang of highwaymen. The opposite to wisdom and knowledge – that is, just to live an abandoned life, taking it as it comes, even as a Christian, never using the mind, never learning how to think, never aspiring after judgment – the opposite is very attractive and it will be like a gang of people coming to entice. Most people, even Christians, do not want judgment but just follow the crowd. By nature we are lazy; we do not want judgment or depth, so we are quite likely to be enticed away from this standard because all the people among whom we mix will entice us. Those around you are more flippant, more easy-going. We take life as it comes, we prefer wisecracks and superficial conversations. ‘If sinners entice thee’ is the picture language, do not listen to them. This is your target: wisdom, depth, knowledge. But, says the warning, you will definitely be enticed as though by a gang.

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Proverbs 1:10 Commentary and Bible Study