03 ‘Who Will You Listen To?’ (Proverbs 1:8-19)
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When you’re in college like me, you get asked the same questions all the time. People ask you, "What are you involved in?” ‘What’s your major?’ “What do you plan to do with it?’ “Where do you want to be post-college?’ ‘Where do you see yourself in a few years?’ ‘How will you get there?’
Man you get asked so many questions about the what, the where, and the how of your life all the time at my age, and to an extent they are good questions, I mean I ask them to people quite often, BUT, I’d argue, and so would Solomon (as were about to see in our passage), that the increasingly important question one must ask themself is not ‘what are you involved in’ or ‘where do you see yourself in a few years’ and ‘how will you get there’ but rather ‘WHO else will be there?’ ‘WHO is going with you?’
Let’s talk about it.
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Last week we talked about Proverbs 1:7, the hinge verse AKA the most important verse in the whole book, and this week we’re moving on to verses 8-19, which is entitled ‘the enticement of sinners’.
Now before we read the passage and unpack its meaning, I want to set the scene (a little itinerary for the day if you will) for what you're about to see and hear in this week’s episode and next. In verses 8-33, though today we’re only covering through verse 19, we’re going to see a contrast of paths (or rather I should say voices) that one can heed to. What we’re going to see in verses 8-19 is that we could heed to the voice and call of the wicked, OR next week we look at how we could choose to heed to the voice and call of wisdom in verses 20-33.
So that brings the question I have for you and me this week and next. The question is:
‘Who will you listen to?’
Today let’s look at the first voice, the voice of the wicked, the enticement of sinners, in v8-19
It reads:
‘Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”—15 my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths,16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird,18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors’.
Now I think this passage can be best and most easily broken up into three separate parts, each part beginning where Solomon says ‘My son’...
Solomon says that phrase ‘My son’ three times in the passage, and each time he says it he is introducing a new idea to the text, which, by doing that, leaves us with verses 8-9, verses 10-14, and verses 15-19 as our three separate parts.
So starting with the first verse grouping, the first part of the text where we see ‘my son’, we find what comes next to the fear of the Lord in verse 7.
To clarify, remember last episode we talked about verse 7 as the main principle of Proverbs, again which is the fear of the Lord, but here in verses 8-9 we see what comes next to it, and what is always connected to it might I add, and that is reverence to parents.
‘Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.’
Listen, these verses are important. So important. They emphasize the importance of two things:
One, they emphasize the importance of children obeying & honoring their parents. I mean there’s a reason it is the first commandment with a promise, as Paul writes in Ephesians 6.
Two, these verses emphasize the roles that parents play in a child’s life. These verses here are assuming godly parenting, and they are demanding that both the mother & father instruct and teach their kids the ways they should go. That means if you are a parent it is your job to teach your kids in Christ…not the church’s. It’s your job.
Now we could obviously dive deeper into all of this, but the point here in verses 8-9 is that the fear of the Lord is connected to reverence of parents.
And quick note to the parents reading, Solomon describes their teaching in verse 9 as a ‘graceful garland’ for the head and ‘pendants’ for the neck. Would you say your teaching & leading of your kids reflect that? In other words when kids read verse 7 and see that the fear of the Lord is the principle to wisdom and they wonder where they can find it, can they find it in you? Can they find a strong relationship with wisdom, with Christ, in you? Can they find it in your life, your words, your character? Does your parenting reflect Christ?
Solomon builds off of this in our next section, verses 10-14, realizing that as strong as parental voices are and should be, they are not the only ones vying for our attention, and that is the main focus of this episode today.
He says
‘My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse’
This passage goes back to the intro. Yes, it is important to ask what you are doing and where are you going. But more importantly, WHO are you going with? Who surrounds you? What voices are you listening to?
Solomon clearly knew that life was lived with and affected by people, and therefore he emphasizes the importance of surrounding ourselves with people and voices that will not lead us astray. Now within that Solomon’s words here give us insight into some characteristics of the sinner’s entice & voice. There’s the fact that the voice is secretive, seeking to ambush, violent, seeking to destroy, and the biggest one that is worth noting is allurement of the world.
Solomon is warning his son against the sinners enticement to take advantage of others at the cause for their own gain, saying ‘we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder’...
Now that may not strike you upon hearing it, maybe the coveting of money or material possession is not something you struggle with, but speaking in a general sense, we’ve all fallen to the voices enticing us into worldly things at times. Whether that actually is coveting money or material possessions or lust or gossip or idolatry, at one point or another we’ve all listened to the voice of the world and have walked with those whose paths are synonymous with the world.
And so we could easily describe these few verses as the enticement of, or voice of the world, that seeks to lure us away from the fear of the Lord and into sin, which I think could be easy to remember because next week we will talk about the voice of wisdom, and the wordplay there at least for me helps me remember.
Now Solomon is a good teacher, and any good teacher would not instruct their students not to do something without telling them why, which is exactly what Solomon does in verses 15-19.
He says,
‘My son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, 18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. 19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors’.
What a picture here of the infatuation of sin and those who walk in it!
Solomon describes it as an ambush for their own lives in verse 18, revealing that the promises the voice of the world made in verses 13-14, promises for provision & wealth, protection & unity, they are all a facade. They aren’t real. And that’s what the voice of the world will do to you.
It’ll make you think it emancipates, but it ensnares.
It’ll make you think it frees you but it’s really a trap.
As Solomon says these men thirsted for their neighbor’s blood but ended up laying wait on their own. And that’s the way of a sinner. They set a trap for themselves. Their end is destruction. And Solomon here is saying DO NOT WALK WITH PEOPLE LIKE THIS! DON”T DO IT!!!
Remember our questions “Who is going with you?’ “Who are you listening to?’
Solomon is saying NOT THEM! DO NOT GO WITH the way of sinners! Do not listen to the enticement of the world.
Life is to be lived with and affected by people. The voices in your ear and the people by your side will significantly impact your life, like life and death signifcantly.
Those who walk with the wise become wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm (Proverbs 13:20).
The righteous chooses his friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray (Proverbs 12:26).
Who you surround yourself with matters. The voices you heed to matter! They do. They really do.
And that’s the ultimate warning given here by Solomon in verses 8-19. He acknowledges that there are competing voices vying for your ear, he acknowledges the allure of sin, and he is telling us not to listen to the voice of the world & not to follow the people who do.
And if that leaves you today wondering what voice you should be listening to & where that voice is, then tune in next week.
Next week we’re going to look at the next voice, the voice of wisdom, whom Solomon encourages us to heed to.
I love you all.
God bless.
