Proverbs 6:20-26 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 6:20-26, which read, 

v.20, 21 - My son, observe the commandment of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck.

Solomon not only emphasizes the need for observing and not forsaking the commandments and teachings of our parents but also the need for us parents to be commanding and teaching our children.  There is a responsibility to the parents to be the dispenser of God's wisdom and instruction to the next generation of their home.  There is more to being a parent than just giving food, clothing, and shelter.

These commandments and teachings are to be on our hearts and around our necks.  They are to be woven into the fabric of our lives and visible to our world as we live them out.  Children can't do this unless they have parents who are committed to the process of giving and living the wisdom they are dispensing and they are truly dispensing it. 

v.22-24 - When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you.  For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; and reproofs for discipline are the way of life to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

Wisdom is for our walking, sleeping, and rising.  Wisdom guides us as we live out of our day.  Wisdom watches over our sleep as we rest in the peace of following after God.  Wisdom talks to us as we rise to have the attitude of Christ facing the new day. 

Wisdom has three elements given here:  commandment, teaching and reproof.  Wisdom contains commandments by God that are to be obeyed.  Wisdom contains teachings that are to learned.  Wisdom contains reproofs for discipline that correct our wrong turns.  Wisdom requires obedience.  Wisdom requires attention to instruction.  Wisdom requires the necessary discipline of correction back to it.

These actions of wisdom are to protect us from evil and from straying away from what God has created and designed.  The adulteress is given to us again as a word picture to see someone who is trying to get you to go against what God has ordained as holy.  The adulteress wants you to do something contrary to God's wisdom.  The adulteress will use his or her smooth tongue to lure you to the way of foolishness and away from the path of wisdom.  Does this sound like the serpent Satan in the garden of Eden enticing Eve and then offered to Adam, a better way than what God had given? 

v.25, 26 - Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her eyelids.  For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life.

Do not desire the adulteress rather desire God's plan.  If you open yourself up to the desire of what is ungodly then you are under what the ungodly think of your life.  To Satan you are just a loaf of bread to consume and then he goes onto the next one, hunting for more to consume.  The Scriptures say in John 10:10a, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;..."  The goal of Satan is to steal, kill, and destroy what you have with God by making the alternative look very attractive and so you have to be active to not desire and not let it capture you.

The rest of John 10:10b says, "...I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."  What a contrast that we need to see when hearing the wisdom of God and shielding ourselves from the foolishness of Satan.  God came for you through His one and only Son Jesus Christ to give you forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  Satan comes after you to try to take away what God provides for you and then leaves you to find another to do the same.  Another side by side comparison that should motivate us to observe and not forsake the wisdom given to us from Him and also to dispense this wisdom with diligence to the next generation.  Let's pray. 

"Lord, the responsibility to listen, learn, and live and the responsibility to dispense, display, and discipline.  Your wisdom is so great to us.  Satan's folly is so damaging to us.  May we walk in your wisdom today and therefore may we sleep in the peace of following after You and then arise the next morning with a mind and heart set on You and Your will for our lives.  May we see that following the wisdom of God is truly the abundant life provided by You.  Amen."

Pastor Adam

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