If we were allowed to suggest a sub-title for the Book of Proverbs, it would be what Galatians 6:7 provides, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap.” As another has written,
“God deigns to apply His wisdom to the circumstances of our practical life, and to show us, with His own intelligence, the consequences of all the ways in which man may walk. It is a great blessing to be provided for the labyrinth of this world, in which a false step may lead to such bitter consequences, with a book (the Book of Proverbs) that sets forth the path of prudence and of life, and this in connection with a wisdom which comes from God.”
Once again the urgent plea is made that God’s Word shall be given the important place it should have. Its teachings are to be valued as the apple of the eye—to be carefully guarded as most precious. They are to be bound upon the fingers, and so connected with what one does, and what is seen by others; and to be written upon the tablet of the heart, where no eye sees but God’s.
May we not ask ourselves, what is written on the tablet of my heart? What is its chief desire, and with what is it occupied as the hours of day flit by?
Wisdom and intelligence (verse 4) are to be claimed as blood-relations that they may keep us from the “strange woman” who flatters with her words. Corruption has ever threatened the children of God on earth, and, viewing the history of God’s people, how often the devil has succeeded with some form of it, when violence failed to move them away from simple trust in God. We may, then, safely consider the warning voice of God in the Proverbs regarding the strange woman as applicable both to the moral dangers, and to the spiritual dangers which may engulf us at any age.
The children of Cain and the children of Seth walked apart in the early world until moral corruption among the latter came in. (Gen. 6).
The children of Israel were a people alone and separated, positionally, to God until Numbers 25.
Jehoshaphat was a great and godly ruler of Judah (2 Chronicles 17), but the latter part of his life was marred through his association with Ahab and Ahaziah, kings of Israel (chapters 18, 19, 20).
It was the abominations of the nations which, adopted and practiced by the ten tribes of Israel (2 Kings 17:7-18), and the two tribes of Judah (2 Chronicles 36:14-21), brought upon them the solemn judgment of God in their banishment from their homeland.
And the letters to the seven Churches (Revelation 2-3) show the disastrous results of an alliance with the world (Revelation 2:4).
Let us make no mistake; the Christian cannot dally with evil in any form. Satan is bent upon attracting us away from the Lord Jesus, and he will, if he can draw us from the narrow path of full dependence on God and His Word, with either moral corruption (We are living in a time fraught with much danger from that source); or spiritual corruption.
Satan can rob us of true joy, a good conscience and communion (1 John 1:3-7).
Verses 24 to 27, the final words of the chapter, therefore call for our earnest consideration, both regarding the necessity for a clean, pure life apart from the moral depravity all around us, and the equal importance of true hearted separation from all that does not uphold Christ as the Word of God upholds Him.