PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon” (Proverbs 7:15-17 KJV).

Notice that there are three times that she speaks specifically to him. She is hoping to make him think that she is out there looking for him especially. She isn’t. She is most likely out there looking for anything that walks. But when she found him, she flattered him, as we saw in verse 5, “which flattereth with her words.” A really good salesman knows how to flatter his customers when they walk in the door, but he just wants to get you to buy something.

Sin can be rewarding. There’s a whole lot of folks making a bunch of money through sin. These so-called “record artists” are making millions selling flattery. And the crazy thing is that people that they have never met actually think that they are singing to them and flattering them with their music. What they are doing is selling them a lie straight from hell with all their free love and irresponsible lifestyles. It is like this woman in our text. She is just chewing on his ego, “Oh, I’m just waiting for you, honey!” And one reason the fool is a fool is because he believes her.

That’s the way sin is. It is tailor-made just for its victim. It’s just waiting for him to come by. It is you that is going to get the big prize. It is you that is going to get the big reward. It is you that is going to get to feel really, really good if you partake of what sin is offering. One of the big problems though, not only does it condemn the partaker, but it never, ever satisfies.

“I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry,” pillows and cushions. Sin never shows its harsh realities, or its sharp edges—it always shows it soft, beautiful features. Liquor bottles don’t show the word “Poison” in a flaming red bottle to indicate danger—they are in attractive containers with French titles, to show their aristocratic features. The harlot’s bed is not a plain old mattress with the markings of disease and debauchery-stains, but with the silk trappings of desirable fabrics. She is all decked out:

“And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD” (Hosea 2:13 KJV).

“I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt,” linen of Egypt, speaking of the world and its trappings. The saint desires the fine linen of the righteousness of the saints.

Not only can sin be rewarding, but sin can be respectable. Sin is most often presented as attractive and appealing, most respectable. Her room isn’t a flophouse dive, it is uptown, it is an upholstered sewer—but a sewer, nonetheless.

“I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon,” at the first, sin is not repugnant; it is appealing to the senses. Not, at least, until the young man is hooked and under its addictive powers. Myrrh speaks of a coming calamity, and it is certainly coming for this fellow. The embalming fluid of the Bible. Her perfumed bed was death in the pot, but he was too big of a fool to notice.

Again, word to the wise, sin at the beginning does not appear repugnant, but it’s true nature and power soon becomes apparent to the one it traps. Don’t be trapped by sin!

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