20241031

haunted house

Proverbs 2:1-22 (JDV).

Proverbs 2:1 My son, if you take my words and store up my commands within you,
Proverbs 2:2 listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding;
Proverbs 2:3 yes, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,
Proverbs 2:4 if you pursue it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,
Proverbs 2:5 then you will understand the fear of Yahveh and discover the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:6 Because Yahveh gives wisdom; from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:7 He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity
Proverbs 2:8 so that he may guard the paths of justice and protect the road of his faithful followers.
Proverbs 2:9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity — every good path.
Proverbs 2:10 Because wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will taste good to your throat.
Proverbs 2:11 Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you.
Proverbs 2:12 It will rescue you from the evil road — from anyone who says perverse things,
Proverbs 2:13 from those who abandon the right paths to walk in roads of darkness,
Proverbs 2:14 from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion,
Proverbs 2:15 whose paths are crooked, and whose roads are devious.
Proverbs 2:16 It will rescue you from a forbidden woman, from a wayward woman with her flattering talk,
Proverbs 2:17 who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
Proverbs 2:18 because her house sinks down to death and her tracks to the land of the ghosts.
Proverbs 2:19 None return who go to her; none reach the paths of life.
Proverbs 2:20 So follow the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.
Proverbs 2:21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and those of integrity will remain in it;
Proverbs 2:22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous ripped out of it.

haunted house

I did not plan a Haloween themed devotional today, but it just so happened that I landed on this text. These are the words of a concerned father who wants his son to make wise choices in life. He encourages him to stay away from the forbidden woman. Her house sinks down to death, and if his son follows her tracks, it will lead to a land of ghosts. None return who go to her; none reach the paths of life.

I don’t celebrate Haloween, and I don’t encourage others to do so. Death is a serious matter to me. It is an enemy — an enemy my Lord is going to destroy.

But the image in today’s text is helpful because it reminds those who are tempted to go after an illicit relationship that there are dire consequences in doing so. She who has already abandoned her first companion and covenant will do the same again. Death is in her house. Avoid her. Don’t walk away. Run away.

LORD, give us the wisdom to stay away from those who transgress your boundaries.