11/14/2020 – Day 180 – Proverbs 7 – “Say to wisdom, “You are my sister.”
“If you will not have death unto sin, you shall sin unto death. There is no alternative. If you do not die to sin, you shall die for sin. If you do not slay sin, sin will slay you.” Charles Spurgeon
First, let me collapse the chapter down into less than a sentence: Proverbs 7:4 – “Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin…”
Now this is a guy blog and for us guys that have been through the Bible many times by the grace of God. We say: “Ok, enough, I got the “avoid the crafty harlot” thing. No, I don’t, I never will to the point where I can trust it to “auto pilot” It extends beyond the sexual sin category.
So, I will finish with a short family history story. I am humorously thinking of the scene in the fairly recent Abraham Lincoln movie starring that great actor Daniel Day Lewis. In it, the Seward character screams at Lincoln within a larger group audience listening to Lincoln: “NO!, not one of your stories, I am sick of your stories!” lol So, take note, as Nancy tells me : “Jim, you are your father’s son, with all your stories!”
The stories do have value with discretion. The latest reminder of that was my niece Kaitlin noted to me at her wedding reception in Columbus, Mississippi a couple of weeks ago. At the conclusion of one of my short stories on family tales passed down to me at my great grandparent level, she just responded: “Wow, I did extensive family research and I knew nothing about that!” It made me think of the responsibility that I have had as the Bruce clan family patriarch now for a decade running.
With that run down the daisy trail, without further adieu, I bring you my paragraph length story or less on my great-uncle James , 1st generation born and raised in the midwest. Dad told me that James at a ripe old age of 80+ would suddenly and without fail break into a run when he passed the town bar. I wonder if that included Sunday mornings when it was closed. You see, James was a two decade+ recovering alcoholic, that entire time without a single drink. There you have it, I think that speaks to “The Crafty Harlot” message in Proverbs 7. And for biblical example, we can point to Joseph running from Potiphar’s wife when she suddenly tried to seduce him. It didn’t save him from prison but it did save him from “grieving the Holy Spirit” as he proclaimed to Potiphar’s wife. And the later motivation was more critical. (kingdom wisdom, not “the world’s perspective”)
Soli Deo Gloria!
p.s. note:
James, my great uncle was born around 1866, just after the end of the civil war. Robert, his younger brother , and my paternal grandfather was born in 1870 in Shenandoah, Iowa.