THE HARLOT CHURCH IN THE BOOK OF PROVERBS - PART TWO

 

 

 

 

Proverbs Chapter 7 - Beware the Seductress

7.1-5...¶ My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them upon thy fingers; write them upon the tablet of your heart. Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, and call understanding thy kinswoman: That they may keep thee from the woman belonging to someone else, from the stranger who flatters with her words.

The young man is warned and exhorted to keep God’s law in his heart. He is told to love God’s law as the apple of his eye. This will keep him from the woman who belongs to someone else, the stranger who flatters with her words.

Prophetically we see how the apostate church has strayed from God’s word. Ministers use flattering words from the pulpit and embrace the sins of the world. The word of God is neglected.

7.6-10...
¶ For at the window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night; and, behold, a woman met him with the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart.


The writer tells how he witnessed a woman, dressed as a harlot, approach a young man in the dark street luring him to her house for a night of sex. Her words were silky, brazen, and lewd--the young man follows her like an animal going to slaughter.

Many Christians only receive the word when they go to church. They spend very little time in the word. They are easily swayed by false doctrine and new age teachings. The strange woman easily deceives them because they are ill prepared and versed in the word of God. They run to and fro following any ministry that woos them with sweet words they want to hear.

7.11-17...
(She is loud and stubborn; her feet do not abide in her house: Now without, now in the streets, she lies in wait at every corner.) So she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him, I had promised sacrifices of peace; today I have paid my vows. Therefore I came forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

This woman is always flitting about. She lies in wait and says whatever comes to her mind to seduce the young man. She says she has paid her vows and done her “religious duties” already. Now it is time to play.

Just as the un-read Christian is blown about, this seductress in always hunting for a mark. She loves to preach the prosperity gospel--God only wants to bless you and give you the things you deserve! No gospel of repentance or responsibility is ever preached. There is no cost for following Yeshua, no laying down of the life. It’s all about you being happy.

7.18-23...

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves. For the good man is not at home; he is gone a long journey: He has taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the appointed feast day. With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she persuaded him. He went after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, until the arrow pierces through his liver. He is as a bird struggling in the snare and not knowing that it is against his own life.

 

The harlot seduces the young man and says that the good man of the house is not at home; he will come at the appointed feast. She flatters him until he is persuaded to sin.

Prophetically, the good man of the house is Jesus. He is waiting until the appointed feast day or day appointed (moedim in Hebrew) to return! In Matthew 24.42-44 we see Jesus warning the good man of the house to be ready for His return! Judgment begins at the house of God.

Revelation 2 and 3 are warnings to the church--then we see God warning the nations later in the book. These chapters are a great metaphor of the end of the age and the return of Yeshua.

7.24-27...

¶ Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye sons, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways; do not go astray in her paths. For she has caused many to fall down dead; yea, all the strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

 All of the action with the harlot takes place in the dark. In Hebrew tradition this would be at the time of the new moon or the first of the month. The Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) begins on the new moon of 1 Tishri. This is the feast of the final trumpet (1 Thess 4.15-18) prior to the second coming of Yeshua. Then ten days later is the Day of Atonement, the day of wrath for the wicked, but redemption for God’s obedient people.

The writer warns all young men (sons) to avoid the path to the strange woman’s house for it is the way to death.

The way of the apostate church leads to death. “Come out of her my people!”