Straightforward

Greetings everyone. Let’s go ahead and pick up our Bible Study through the book of Proverbs by turning to chapter 7. Proverbs 7:1:

1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with you.

Or treasure my commandments. In other words, here is God giving all of us instruction as His children to listen to His instructions, and in particular, to pay attention to His Ten Commandments. It also, in a type, could be referring to parents who are teaching their children. But primarily, God is inspiring these words for all human beings in order to help them understand how to live life in a way that will be successful. And the foundation for that life is His law—the Ten Commandments.

2 Keep my commandments, and live—

Now, there are a lot of people who teach and believe—in fact, millions of people teach and believe—that the Ten Commandments are done away. They’re no longer relevant. They’re no longer required. They were nailed to the cross. That’s Old Covenant and therefore Old Testament, and therefore that was all done away when Jesus Christ came and was crucified. And now we live under the New Covenant and we follow the New Testament.

Well, Jesus Christ was crucified, and we do live under the New Covenant as Christians, and we do live by the New Testament. But we also live by the Old Testament, and the Old and New Covenant go together. The New Covenant raises the covenant to the level of the spirit of the law as well as the letter. But none of that does away with God’s Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were not nailed to the cross or stake. The Ten Commandments are not just Old Covenant teaching. The Ten Commandments are not just Old Testament principles. They are New Testament principles. It is New Testament teaching, and it is New Covenant teaching as well.

In fact, I would like for all of us just to have some cross references here, and let’s turn over here to Hebrews 10:16:

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

Now, that doesn’t sound like the laws of God were done away under the New Covenant. It sounds like they are required even more particularly and more carefully under the New Covenant. He says they will be written in our hearts and in our minds. And now God’s laws are required to be kept in the spirit as well as the letter. Now, not only can you not kill someone—the sixth commandment says you shall not kill—but Jesus Christ says not only can you not literally do that, you can’t even hate someone. The sixth commandment wasn’t done away. It was made even more binding.

Christ said He came to magnify the law not to erase the law. So if He magnified the law, He made it even bigger, more complete, and more binding. Now there are a few other verses I want to turn to regarding the Ten Commandments in the New Testament just to remind everyone that in the New Testament, it’s clear that the Ten Commandments are required and are still to be kept.

Notice over here in James 2:8:

8 If you fulfill the royal law—

Now, don’t forget, James was a servant of God and a brother of Jesus Christ, and he said here:

8 If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well:

9 But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.—

Now we know which law says that. It’s the Ten Commandment law.

11—Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you art become a transgressor of the law.

12 So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

So here it talks about the Ten Commandments and it calls it a royal law, and it calls it a law of liberty. That doesn’t sound to me like that the law has been done away.

Then we notice over here in Revelation 22—and we could go to many other verses, but for lack of time, we won’t—but notice here in Revelation 22:14, way back toward the back of the New Testament, long after the Old Testament was written. We’re reading in the last book of the New Testament, and we’re reading in the last chapter of the last book of the New Testament, inspired scripture of God, and it says right here in Revelation 22:14:

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Now, most people that you talk to will say, “Well, a Christian should not have any other gods before the true God. A Christian should not make any graven images. A Christian should not take the name of the Lord his God in vain. A Christian should honor his father and mother. A Christian should not kill. A Christian should not commit adultery. A Christian should not steal. A Christian should not lie. A Christian should not covet.”

Most will say, “We should keep the Ten Commandments.” And then when you say, “What about the fourth one? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” They’ll say, “Oh no, no, that’s changed.” So in essence, they say, ”We ought to keep nine of the ten, but the fourth one was changed and you can’t find anywhere in the New Testament where we’re commanded to keep the Sabbath.” Of course, we just read that all ten of the commandments go together and that if you break one of them, you’ve broken them all.

But there are also places in the New Testament where it’s clear that the seventh-day, holy Sabbath is commanded.

I’d like for you to turn to one of those places, over here in Hebrews 4. This specifically tells us that we are to keep the Sabbath holy, the fourth commandment, the seventh-day Sabbath, which according to our calendar today is on Saturday, from sunset to sunset.

It says here in Hebrews 4:4:

4 For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day—

In this way or

4 —on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

Not just any day, but the seventh day. Now if you look on your calendar, you will see the first day of the week is Sunday and therefore the seventh day of the week is Saturday—the seventh day. That was not changed. It’s still required today.

Notice in Hebrews 4:9:

9 There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.

If you check the Greek for “rest” here, the Greek word is sabbatismos, and it means a keeping of the Sabbath. There remains therefore a keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath to the people of God, is the proper translation.

Then notice verse Hebrews 4:10:

10 For he that is enters into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

He that keeps the Sabbath-day rest is keeping that day as God kept it once he had completed creation. And where do we find that? One other verse, let’s notice over here in Genesis 2:1:

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it—

He made it holy. He set it apart. And therefore it is still holy and still set apart. Nobody can change that. Only God could change that, and He hasn’t changed it. He’s the one who set it apart. No man can change that.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because He had rested from all his work which God created and made.

So that just ties in some other verses with what we’ve started out with here in Proverbs 7.

So now let’s go back to Proverbs 7. Just wanted to underline once again from several verses throughout the Bible how important it is to keep the Ten Commandments. We can’t do it on our own. We can only do it with God’s help. But He will give us the help to do that and we can grow more and more diligent in keeping those commandments as we grow in our Christian lives in obedience and surrender to God, more and more so as we move forward and we grow in grace and knowledge.

So now Proverbs 7:2:

2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of your eye.

Now what does this mean, as the apple of your eye? Well, you know, most of us understand that if we go out and see an apple tree in the backyard, we see one special, beautiful, delicious, juicy apple and we set our eye on that apple, that becomes the apple of our eye. And that is part of the meaning here. In other words, make the law very special. But the literal meaning in the Hebrew actually means the pupil or ball of the eye, the middle of the eye. It’s actually referring to the human eye. And we all know how important the human eye is. It’s one of the most precious organs that we have, and it is the light of the body, so to speak. Much of the truth about God and His way comes through the eyes, although that’s not the only avenue into our minds. But it’s one of the most important of the five senses.

And so when He says, keep my law as the apple of the eye. He’s showing how precious the law must be and how careful we must be to keep that Ten Commandment law always close wherever we go and whatever we do. Just like we guard the very pupil or ball or middle of our human eye. And God designed it to be protected in a very special way, and we’re very careful about our eyesight. Well, it’s very precious to us—therefore He says, “The law of God should be very precious, and we should be very careful in the way we care for that and look after the Ten Commandments.” And so that’s the literal Hebrew meaning of that phrase, “apple of your eye.”

3 Bind them upon your fingers, write them upon the table of your heart.

Just like you might have a precious ring on your fingers and you internalize things to where it becomes a part of your character. That’s how He wants us to develop His law in our lives.

4 Say unto wisdom, You are my sister; and call understanding your kinswoman:

Your companion, someone who is very special. That’s how we should view wisdom. This very tremendous and special characteristic that we’ve been reading so much about in the book of Proverbs—wisdom. Having that kind of thought process, that kind of pattern in our lives, so that we make wise choices and we make well–informed decisions and we learn to take knowledge and apply it properly through the use of wisdom, which is a gift from God, which we can ask Him for and He will give us.

And therefore then wisdom, coupled with the Ten Commandments, leads us down right paths toward the abundant life. A clean, happy, peaceful, wonderful, rewarding life, and steers us away from traps and ditches and pitfalls in this society, all around us in this society actually, in Satan’s world. That’s what the Commandments and that’s what wisdom, and God guiding us through wisdom and by His Commandments and through His holy spirit will do in our lives and in the lives of our family and in the lives of our friends if we will but listen to what God has to say to us in His word and in this book of Proverbs.

5 That they may keep you from the strange woman,—

or the immoral woman

5 —from the stranger which flatters with her words.

6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

Or lattice. At this particular time, they did not have glass windows. That came later. So he looked through the lattice of his window.

7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths,—

or people who were not thinking straight and were very, very immature and simple–minded

7 —a young man void of understanding,

Devoid. He was a sitting duck for this seductress who then hunted for him like a hunter on the prowl for pheasant or a deer.

8 Passing through the street—

he was

8 —near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and crafty of heart.

Now, as you know, if you’ve been following through the book of Proverbs with us from chapter 1 all the way through to chapter 7, God inspired Solomon to write a lot of information and scriptures and verses about immorality involving men and women. There is a reason why God inspired this to be put here.

It is there for a warning for all of us, men and women. It’s there so we can listen and take heed and listen to these instructions and follow these directions so that we can avoid all the heartache and the pain and sorrow and trouble and devastation that breaking God’s commandments—and in this case the seventh commandment having to do with immorality, but also coveting and lust—it is there so we will avoid breaking those commandments and incurring the horrible penalties that come as a result of it, that leave lifelong scars and can even claim our lives and bring death.

I hope we will pay attention to what God is telling us here. I hope we will heed. I hope we will listen. He keeps repeating it. He wants to make sure we get the point. This is not all the book of Proverbs is about as you’re going to see when we get into the other chapters of this book. Tremendous principles of living in just about every facet of life in terms of general principles are covered one way or the other in the book of Proverbs, certainly in the whole Bible.

But He is concentrating in this first part of the book of Proverbs on wisdom and knowledge and understanding, and on avoiding immoral people and immoral acts tied in with illicit sexual activity of all kinds. Homosexuality, adultery, fornication, pornography in any shape, way or form—all of it. He is warning against it because it is sin and it will incur and produce and bring horrible, devastating results and penalties.

So He’s just simply saying, “Listen to my instruction. Follow my directions. Keep my law and be delivered from this.” Because it can be very tempting, it can be very alluring, it can be very, very deceptive. It could just seem so nice and so interesting and so intriguing and almost irresistible, and then Satan stirs up the situation and our human nature begins to look in that direction. And first thing you know, we’ve been reduced to, as another verse says, a piece of bread, and our lives have been just destroyed—for nothing.

Notice here:

9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart. or crafty

11 She is loud and—

rebellious and

11 —stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

A godly woman is meek and modest and warm and friendly, and takes care of her family and takes care of her home. She’s not dressed up like some kind of whore, rambling around through the streets and byways of cities. But harlots do that, and adulteresses do that, and women on the prowl to hunt for men do that, and men on the prowl to hunt for women do that. That’s what God says must not be done. We must be aware of that.

12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lying in wait at every corner.

13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

Or a defiant, shameless face. Listen to me.

14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows.

She’s trying to tidy up her actions by saying, “I believe in God. I mean, I paid my vows to God. I’ve given peace offerings.” That’s fine. Then she contradicts that with this horrible, whorish activity.

You can study the offerings in the Bible and you’ll see that peace offerings were not sin offerings. She didn’t say she gave a sin offering. She said she gave a peace offering, which means that some of the best part of that offering is retained for the priest, and so on. So she implies that “I’ve got my bases covered here with God. I’ve paid my vows so don’t worry about that, relax. What we’re about to do is not something all that bad.” But it is. It’s hideous.

15 Therefore came I forth to meet you, diligently to seek your face, and I have found you.

16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

In other words, I have prepared my home so that we can satiate all five of the senses.

18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with love.

19 For the goodman—

See how she put that? She didn’t say my husband. She said “the good man.” But it was her husband. This woman was married and she is out trying to take this young man into her home while her husband is away so that she can commit adultery with him.

18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with love.

19 For the goodman— the husband

19 —is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

20 He has taken a bag of money with him—

See, he wouldn’t have had to take a whole bag of money with him if he hadn’t gone on a long journey. The fact that he took a lot of money with him means that he would be gone for a long time. So we don’t need to worry about him. He’s taken a bag of money with him.

20 —and will come home at the day appointed.

At the new or full moon, at a later time. He’s going to be gone a long time. We can forget about him.

21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she—

seduced him or

21 —forced him.

Now, of course, this would never have happened if he hadn’t gone looking for it and then been taken in by her. And this can start with the internet, and it can start with a seemingly innocent kind of friendship both with men and women, and it can end up in a horrible situation.

So we need to take heed. We need to be alert. We need to be aware. We need to be on guard. We need to be totally loyal to our mates. And we need to be determined that we’re going to keep ourselves clean before God, and keep His commandments, and have pure minds and clean hearts and holy, righteous, godly character and enjoy the peace of mind and happiness and joy and thrill and fun that that brings—without any kickback and without any penalty.

22 He goes after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

Just like an ox heading down to the path, not even aware of what awaits him at the end of the path. And then he takes a turn and goes into the slaughter house and he is slaughtered and his life is taken. Just like an ox going to the slaughter.

23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hastening to the snare, and knowing not that it is for his life.

24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth

25 Let not your heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

26 For she has cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

How many times do you hear about the high and mighty—people in very high–profile, powerful positions who end up just ruining their careers, ruining their family life, and ruining their lives because of illicit, immoral, improper sexual activity? You hear about it all the time. It even goes as high as prime ministers and presidents, if you remember and study history.

It cannot be done, and the penalty avoided from doing it. It cannot happen without a horrendous result sooner or later—and sometimes it’s both sooner and later. There’s no such thing as sinning and getting away with it.

And so let’s be alert. Be realistic. Be honest. Let’s face the facts. Let’s determine that we’re not going to get caught up in this illicit, tempting activity, and then let it be our ruin—because that’s what will happen.

26 For she has cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

27 Her house is the way to hell—

or the grave

27 —going down to the chambers of death.

So as Christ would say, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear. He that has eyes to see, let him or her see.” Let’s take heed to these words from God, inspired for us and for our good.

We’ll stop there and pick up with Chapter 8 next time.

This is Charles Bryce with the Enduring Church of God.