May 9th 2018 – Proverbs 7:6-9

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.

These verses portray the victim in the drama: 'a young man without sense '(RSV). Let us take a good look at him, to see what he is about. He is out on the street, passing along near her corner. He is restless and unsettled, instead of being somewhere, and do- ing something constructive. There is a lesson here. We need to beware of this kind of restless 'wanderlust'. We are all conscious of it from time to time. It is almost like a dis- temper of spirit, but we would never deny the strength of it, because it sometimes seems to take control of us. We must be out: we cannot sit down at home: we are driven to movement, restless, aimless movement. There is surely a potential for harm in this: be- cause, when such a spirit grips us, as Kidner puts it, place 8) and time 9) can join forces against us, and temptation and opportunity come together. When they do, God help us if we are in such a mood, for we shall certainly fall. Sometimes temptation comes when opportunity is lacking; and sometimes opportunity comes when the temptation is not particularly strong; in both which cases we are relatively safe. But when temptation and opportunity, place and time, all coincide, then but for the sovereign, over-ruling grace of God, disaster will surely result. Such situations are predictable in the long run for some people: the indiscipline of their lives, their failure to seek wisdom, their neglect of the ways of God - all these combine to set their feet on the way that leads into big trouble. 'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'