March 21, 2026 -- Proverbs 7:1-5 -- Armed and ready for the inevitable temptation

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

My son, keep my words
and treasure up my commandments with you;
2  keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
3  bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4  Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
5  to keep you from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words.
English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Proverbs 7:1–5.
 
Spring is here…though with the amount of snow we’re getting here in Moncton today, it still feels like the clutches of winter have a stranglehold. Soon however, the weather will warm up. Inevitably people will shed layers of clothing; it is a season where many people struggle with lust because so much more skin is exposed. Especially in our day and in this culture where modesty is considered prudishly old fashioned. Why mention this? Well, Proverbs offer strong, repeated, and timely warnings against adultery. 
 
Notice the parallel structure, keep the words of the father and keep his commandments, and keep them as the apple of your eye so that by them you will be kept from the forbidden woman. She is forbidden because she will go after the married man. Men and women can not claim to be uninformed. They are repeatedly warned in the Scriptures and given all the necessary equipping against the attacks of lust. She is forbidden to the single man who is commanded to remain pure unto the Lord until he is married. This woman shamelessly lures her unwary male victim into sin.
 
In our culture and time, there are so many sexual variations to this forbidden woman. Movies and media celebrate men luring other men. Women alluring women, and so on. There is celebration of sexual curiosity which seductively invites you to explore any form of sexuality. Sexual curiosity is presented as cost and consequence free expressions of self. Don't be stupid. It is the path of self-destruction and death. The Bible sets the standard of love and godly sexuality by which one can find true blessedness.
 
Why does the Bible set our standard? Because our Father in heaven, Who made us, has the right to determine how we are to live and how our life serves to bring Him glory. Jesus’ life on earth, lived amid all the wicked temptations which are familiar to us today, was perfect and holy. That is why He is the sacrifice Who, at the cross, took upon Himself, God’s punishment against our sin. The Spirit of God is given to all who are in Christ, so that all temptations to sin can be thrown down and defeated.
 
Another note, the invitation to sexual wickedness will be a provocative call. The wily adulteress will approach you. The sin-sickened male given over to his sin by God, will seek to entice you. Sin is the aggressor. Men and woman trapped in the vile evil of their ways willingly plan how to bring you down into their sin.
 
Think how you protect your eye, from pokes, from dust, from all harm. As much as you protect your eye, so you must protect your heart, preparing its defenses against all forms of adultery. The commands of God and His teaching (teaching means the right direction in which we are to travel) must be so precious to us that by them we are protected against any intrusion or temptation. Wisdom will be for your mind and soul an intimate friend; friend, what a beautiful description of what happens when the commandments of God have, over the course of decades, became familiar and dear to us. These very commandments and teachings draw us closer to God, the Giver of these instructions.
 
Please note, I have been intentional in using the Lord’s Prayer today. By it Jesus instructed His followers to know their sins, however great and heinous, can be forgiven. It is the reason the Father is hallowed, that is honoured and declared the sourced of blessing> He is hallowed precisely because He has given us Jesus, the One through Whom all our sins, trespasses, have been forgiven. In Jesus’ Name, we are made new and treasure up the commandments of God. His will is done, on earth as it is in heaven, through the work of the Holy Spirit, poured out into the lives of believers. The Spirit prompts us to treasure up the commands of God and works the teaching into the deepest places of our decision-making and impulses so that we are kept from wily adulteresses and adulterers.
 
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name,
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/jWHssWNwu5s?si=KEDldYuhW49GknA8 Rushing Wind
 

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