Proverbs 1:8-19

Proverbs 1:8-19 (NIV)

Warning Against Enticement

⁸ Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. ⁹ They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. ¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.¹¹ If they say, "Come along with us; let's lie in wait for someone's blood, let's waylay some harmless soul; ¹² let's swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; ¹³ we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; ¹⁴ throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse"- ¹⁵ my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; ¹⁶ for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood. ¹⁷ How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds! ¹⁸ These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves! ¹⁹ Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain;it takes away the lives of those who get it.

Observation

• Who are the characters? Son, father, gang of cut-throat criminals

• What is purpose of this passage? A father is teaching his son, and showing him how wisdom will protect and keep his son safe from harm.

• How can we see God in this passage? God's Laws are absolute truth, and the violation of those laws is to corrupt the foundation of society. God's Laws are a reflection of God, the creator himself, to violate the law violates the nature of this world, there will be a consequence.

Application
This is a dialog from a father to a son emploring him to keep from the snare of this gang. They entice by showing the boy the gains and spoils of their conquest. The gang is a community that makes the boy feel valued. All they ask is for allegiance, a oath that they work together. I can see this gang tempting the boy with attractive young girls who are submissive to the gang members. The gang members have gold and silver, and it seems that they have power, influence over others. There might be small things to show obligation to the fraternal brotherhood such as petty crimes, or tattoos nothing major, it all seems right. The word entice means to open a door slowly, not revealing all the contents of the room. This was often the practice of prostitutes, as they showed their face and parts of their body, keeping enough mystery to gain the trust of a prospect to come close and start a discussion.
The father doesn't stop with the enticement, he lays down how this gang thinks and acts. This gang sees the Law of God as powerless, and refuses to follow it's precepts. First they plan to go to a small village and seize it, killing all the people who live there, and then covering up the evidence by burning the village and burying the bodies. They collect the valuables and again live like kings. No one knows, no one cares... but do they? The fact is this gang is still accountable to the King of Kings, the creator of the universe. To Him, the gang is nothing more than pawns, violating His precepts, and he crushes them.
We don't know how they are crushed, but I think of Crime shows on T.V., how the criminals are always undone by their own actions, I can see a CSI team uncovering the site of the crime and taking fingerprints and identifying the gang for what they are, criminals. They are judged, found guilty and stoned to death. The foolish are the ones who say "there is no God!", and see His law as a stumbling block for society. Yes they might say this law, or maybe that law is good, but they will have nothing to do with the first law.
I like the word picture here of paths, the father says "Don't follow their path". How very true, we need to search for the path of the righteous, the path of truth and wisdom. The conjecture of the ungodly is often based on the experience of a single generation, they will quickly throw out the wisdom from any source they see as disagreeable to experience.

Call to Action:
As a follower of Christ, I must raise the next generation, my children. I must implore them to stay on the right path. I must stay on that path myself.