Proverbs 7:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Remembering that the Book of Proverbs is a book of parables, Solomon returns to the illustration of the son being instructed by his father. The father gives instructions and if those instructions are despised, then if the father is carried away by sudden illness and death, or dies naturally, the son would not be able to take over the family business and run the smallholding. There is this wealth of instruction and if the rising generation takes it seriously, then they will be successful and prosperous and they will provide for their families in their turn. This illustration is applied to the word of God. So we see that Solomon in different ways is illustrating the fact that there is a right path but there is also a trap. The world is constantly trying to draw people away from the spiritual into the here and now, into a philosophy that we can solve our problems and get happiness in the present, in the world with pleasures and with ambition and with all kinds of things. Then we come to the illustration of the unfaithful woman, or the prostitute and the various devices she uses and this illustration returns again and again and each time it returns there is another particular point to note or to watch. And so it is with this seventh chapter we are going to come down to the proverb of the prostitute once again.‘My son, keep my words’, that is 'guard' in the Hebrew, keep safely my words, and lay them up in the same way that a rich man will lay up his goods and bank his money; ‘lay up my commandments with thee.’ The chapter opens with this my son, reminding us of the sympathy of Solomon and God speaking through him. These are sympathetic statements, not bullying statements. Here, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Solomon looks at the rising generation and feels for them and therefore gives all this counsel and these earnest exhortations, because his heart is with the young. He can see what the young may do to themselves and to their lives and there is tremendous sympathy and tenderness here.This world is not at all interested in the young. It just uses them. They are just guinea pigs. It just sells things to them. Whether it is pleasure, or sin, the world is only interested in making money. It is not interested in what happens to the young people who fall for its bait, who buy its promises and its pleasures. It could not care less how they grow up, what happens to them, what misery they reap. It is only the word of God that has genuine sympathy. This should be your chief interest and your prize possession, that God has spoken, that these words are true and solid and utterly reliable and will never let you down.