TREASURES FROM GOD'S WORD, Week of March 31 to April 6, 2025, Let's avoid dangerous situations, Prepared Speech.

TREASURES FROM GOD'S WORD, March 31-April 6-2025, Let's avoid dangerous situations, Prepared Speech.

Let's avoid dangerous situations (10 mins.)

A naive young man decides to go to a neighborhood where there are known prostitutes.

And look how interesting this is, because he is indeed a very naive person. When a person knows that there is danger in a place, they would avoid it to avoid falling into temptation.

And indeed, that is what Solomon says. Solomon says that the window through which he looks has a lattice. Apparently a trellis of wooden slats that sometimes has complex fretwork. As the twilight fades, the night darkness invades the streets.

Then, the king observes a very vulnerable young man who, since he does not have discernment, that is, good judgment, is lacking in heart. You probably know what kind of neighborhood you've entered and what you're exposing yourself to. Still, he approaches “[a woman's] corner,” which is on the way to her house. Who is this woman? What are your intentions?

Of course, as you can see in the background image, he is a person who is dedicated to prostitution. And it's not that this young man doesn't know that she does that or that she did it in that place. From what we have just read, that is indeed what it is: a young man with poor judgment.

LET'S READ PROVERBS 7:7-9

and, while I observed the naive ones, I distinguished among the young people one who lacked sense. 8 He was passing by the street near that woman's corner and walking towards her house 9 with the last lights of the day, at dusk, as night and darkness approached.

So, indeed, it seems that this naive person, due to his very youth, was going to a place that was not his own and that, of course, was going to cause him a problem.

A prostitute approaches him to seduce him.

Once we saw in the first point that this young man had a lack of judgment and went directly to where this prostitute was, now he says that she approaches him to seduce him. Well look, the young man already took the first step, so now it's her turn.

King Solomon says, in relation to the comment, the following: "After having attracted him by appealing to sight with her clothing; to hearing, with her flattery; to touch, with a hug; and to taste, with the taste of her lips, the seductress appeals to the sense of smell."

Why do we say that it uses the sense of smell? He says: "I have decorated my couch with quilts, with things of many colors, linen from Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon." She has lovingly arranged her bed with brightly colored Egyptian linen, and has scented it with select fragrances of myrrh, aloe and cinnamon.

This point is interesting because, in fact, first he goes to where she lives, and now she does the work that corresponds later.

LET'S READ PROVERBS 7:10-21

Then I saw a woman coming out to meet him dressed like a prostitute and with cunning in her heart. 11It is scandalous and defiant. He is never at home. 12Now he is in the street, then in the squares; It lurks around every corner. 13He grabs him and kisses him; Looking at him with impudence, he says: 14 "I had to offer sacrifices of peace. Today I fulfilled my vows.

15 That is why I went out to meet you, to look for you, and I found you! 16 I have made my bed with delicate quilts, linen from Egypt of bright colors. 17 With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon I have sprinkled my bed. 18 Come, let us be drunk with love until dawn; let us enjoy together the pleasures of the passion. 19My husband is not at home; he has gone on a very far trip. 20He took a bag of money, and he will not return until the day of the full moon.” 21She leads him astray with great persuasion. She seduces him with honeyed words.

The story that refers to Proverbs is interesting, because it effectively makes him, who already had the mentality of doing something, already with everything he tells her: that her husband is not there, that he will take a while to arrive, that he took money to go on a far away trip and that he will not return until the day of the full moon. Well, they will have a lot of time and they can have a good time. That's what she tells him.

By exposing himself to a dangerous situation, the young man falls into temptation and suffers the consequences.

The invitation is irresistible to the young man, who ignores common sense and goes after the woman 'like a bull to the slaughter'. Just as the man who is bound in shackles cannot escape discipline, so he is led into sin.

He will not see the danger of his actions until 'an arrow opens his liver', that is, until he receives a wound that can cause death. This can be physical, you may have exposed yourself to contracting a deadly sexually transmitted disease, but it can also be a spiritual death; “his very soul is involved.”

His entire being and his entire life have been greatly affected, and he has seriously sinned against God. In this way he hastens to fall into the clutches of death, just as a bird falls into a trap.

LET'S READ PROVERBS 7:22, 23

Suddenly he goes after her, like a bull to the slaughter, like a fool who is going to be punished in the stocks, 23 until an arrow pierces his liver. Just like the bird that rushes into the trap, he has no idea that this will cost him his life.

Let's analyze the three points we just learned.

First: That he is an inexperienced young man who goes to a place where this person lives and that, of course, he is exposing himself. And not because he didn't know, but because he does it with full knowledge so that what he has plotted can happen. That is why, in this case, Proverbs, through King Solomon, tells the story that he is indeed a young man who has no judgment.

Second: Now, what happens next? Then he says that, once he does this and the woman senses that he really wants something, she approaches him and fascinates him, or tells him all the things in such a way that attracts or seduces him: from the way she dresses, from the way she speaks, by touching him, by saying sweet words to make this person fall.

Third: He says that he goes like a bull to the slaughter, that is, that the person has already fallen into seduction and then he is going to do all these things that, in the long run and in the present, can cause problems, such as an illness that can lead to death, or not only a physical death, but also a spiritual death.

This teaches us a lot, that we must be careful of people like these, like this one narrated in the book of Proverbs:7. And, of course, not to be like this inexperienced young man who didn't know what to do, but on the contrary, he was heading straight into this situation.