Posted on 03/09/2020 7:33:31 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers who go right on their ways: Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Proverbs 9:14-17 KJV).
This woman is posted up in the high places, to call out to passers-by. She is a harlot. We might call her a high-class harlot.
“Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither,” here is someone that is just as dumb as she is. Maybe she is a little smarter than them, seeing that she is the temptress. They are stupid enough to fall for her wares.
“and as for him that wanteth understanding,” here the people are not “wanting” to understand in the sense that they desire it as the wise man earlier in our chapter. These are those that are “lacking” understanding. Here the word “wanting” is to be see in the light of one absent of any common sense. When someone “wants for” something, it means that they don’t have it.
“and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant,” that describes the “pleasures of sin,” but they “are but for a season.”
Perhaps if a man has waxed his conscience sin might be sweet. There is always the thought of being able to get away with something, the challenge of sin, can you do it without getting caught? All sin is built around the lie that they Devil tells, “You can get away with it.” Some people steal compulsively. Some people lie because they enjoy doing it or are able to profit from it. They have just trained themselves over the years to habitually lie, cheat, steal, or whatever. They have learned to enjoy the things that are wrong, because “stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
No doubt, this is exactly what the passer-by wanted to hear. He is looking for something exciting and exhilarating. The problem with it is, it doesn’t end up too good.
Satan lied about sin in Eden. He told Eve she would not die, and the forbidden fruit would make her like God. As she foolishly looked at the tree, forgetting the precious tree of life, she saw the forbidden fruit as good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and likely to make one wise. She bought the lie! Her choice was horrible! The taste was bitter in seconds!
Sin is so perverse that if something is put off-limits to the natural man, a sinful craving for that thing becomes a cruel monster that demands satisfaction. Test this by leaving cookies on a counter and telling your children they cannot have one.
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