Wisdom brings with it Understanding

Proverbs 5:1-14

My son be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.  For the lips of a forbidden^] woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.  Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to^] Sheol; ^she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.  And now, O sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!  I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.  I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

This instruction came from a very wise man who often tried the ways of the foolish, in fact, it seems as if it was an oxymoron that this wise man often acted like a fool.  Shall we examine the saying of this man, we might learn from him in Ecclesiastes 1:16-18, “I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”  And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.  For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”

What has Solomon discovered, that with wisdom comes the understanding of how dumb and foolish one is, how little knowledge we have about our Creator and that alone is upsetting to a man who is full of himself?  For the beginning of wisdom brings a person to have a fear of God, and when you take that to a person that has a title like professor and claims, there is no God, wisdom calls that person a fool.

The wisest man born of an earthly dad knew that his dad was into infidelity, and yet with all that wisdom he also did many foolish things.  Does that mean we should not pay attention to his teachings?  Wisdom tells us to learn from others and not to repeat their bought lessons.

Many a man has fallen into the trap of the forbidden women and this began long before King David, and it is a trap that the devil uses today to destroy marriages and families.  My prayer for every man who reads this is you will never have to say;  “I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.  I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice