“My son” (January ’09)
In
Proverb 23 there are three occurrences of ‘my son’ that focus upon three
‘heart’ pleas from Solomon. These three personal and progressive ‘heart pleas’
rise in a crescendo until Solomon pours out his own heart pleading with his son
to ‘give me thy heart’.
The first
plea appears somewhat low-key and introduces the last section (v.15-35) of
Proverb 23:
“My son, if
thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. Yea my reins [heart]
shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things. Let not thine heart envy
sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there
is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” (Proverb 23:15-18)
Solomon expresses one of the great
joys of a father and that is to hear his son display his own wisdom by speaking
right things in the course of life. Then he commands his son to reject
envy/jealousy of sinners and provides a direct replacement for this negative
response, the positive command to fear the Lord all the day long.
Fearing the Lord involves the wisdom of
viewing life from God’s perspective which will shed abundant light on the
position of the sinner vs. the position of the saint. God’s wisdom uncovers the temporal view vs.
the eternal providing the believer with the truth necessary to get the victory!
The eternal unchanging facts reveal that
there is “an
end [reward]; and thine expectation [hope] shall not be cut off.” The son/saint who recognizes the eternal
reward given by God for anything accomplished for Christ by the power of the
Holy Spirit will yield to the voice of the Spirit and “fear the Lord all the day
long” applying His wisdom in the process.
Solomon begins to turn up the heat in the
next section which includes a long list of direct commands:
“Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide
thine heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers [drunkards], among
riotous eaters of flesh [gluttons]: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come
to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Hearken unto
thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. Buy
the truth, sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and
understanding.” (Proverb 23:19-23)
These
verses deal with the reality of succumbing to the ‘envy of sinners’ and what
exactly will occur if the son decides to go among those who partake in the
wicked activities of open and excessive abuses of drinking and eating which
were the prevalent sins of that day and in the day in which we live.
Solomon’s final and most intensive heart
plea is followed by his graphic view of the results you will experience by
going a step deeper into the sinful ways of men:
I. Wrong Women (v.26-28)
[Major Moral Trap: The Whoremonger’s Destiny]
“My son, give me thine heart and let thine eyes
observe my ways. For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow
pit. She also lies in wait as for a prey, and increases the transgressors among
men.”
II. Wrong Wine (v.29-32) [Mind-boggling Mess: The Drunkard’s Calamity]
“Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions?
Who has babbling? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? They
that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it
gives his color in the cup, when it moves itself aright. At the last it bites
like a serpent, and stings like an adder.”
III. Wrong Ways (v.33-35) [Massive Mental Confusion: The Drunkard’s Stupor]
“Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart
shall utter perverse things. Yea thou shall be as he that lies down in the
midst of the sea, or as he that lies upon the top of a mast. They have stricken
me, thou shall say, and I was not sick: they have beaten me, and I felt it not:
when shall I awake? I will seek it [drink of wine] yet again.”
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