Delight...Rejoice In...Evil

Proverbs 2:12-17 – Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.

Proverbs 1:11-16 – If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”—my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood.

Proverbs 5:20 – Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

1 Kings 11:2 – They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.

Application:

• ·         The author uses two major enticements that confronted the young man as examples of the way of folly: (1) to get rich by exploiting others and (2) to be drawn into illicit pleasure by immoral women who fail to honor their marriage vows.
• ·         The book of Proverbs teaches that wisdom brings the greatest riches people could ever gain.
• ·         Wayward woman means literally “stranger” and “foreigner” because anyone other than one’s wife was to be considered off limits, like a foreigner who worshiped another god.
• ·         In light of the sheer joy found within the bonds of marriage and the “serious trouble” outside it, why commit adultery?
• ·         “They will surely turn your hearts after their gods”, as indeed they did.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV