Don't Go There!

"For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness" (Proverbs 7:6-9).

When my children were younger, I told them not to play in the street. I was afraid they would get hit by a car. I told them "no playing in the street" because I loved them and wanted them to be protected. My simple message to them was, "Don't go there!" I think they thought I was trying to cheat them out of some real fun.

The reason I think they thought I was trying to spoil their fun is because one of them immediately started strolling toward the street. With one eye on me, the sweet little child moved farther and farther away from me while inching closer and closer to the curb. Once he got to the curb, he stopped and looked right at me. He then very deliberately swung his foot out over the street. He never actually got in the street, he just got as close as he could.

Solomon writes in today's passage that he watched as a senseless youth moved closer and closer to the adulteress' house. His movement was calculated and deliberate. There were so many times he was told, "Don't go there!" and yet he did. It seemed he found it easier to go that direction the darker it got. Was he hoping his actions would not be noticed once the sun went down?

As we continue our study of Proverbs 7, we will find that the senseless youth ends up being compared to an ox going to slaughter. His deliberate path took him to the place of a brutal butchering.

Today's message is simple: Don't go there! And the moral of the story is even more simple: If you are nowhere near the slaughterhouse, you will not get slaughtered.