April 6

Apr 6 - Today from Proverbs 6 we look at verse 26
"For the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life."

Because Solomon is writing this to his son, the focus is somewhat narrow. We can tend to brush right over such verses when we do not identify with the circumstances. We do well to stop and search for the spiritual principle applicable to all believers.
"The prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread." I have been in places in this world where the impact of this statement breaks my heart. I have served in the impoverished slums of Addis Ababa where my friend witnessed (and photographed) a man butchering a skinny dog in the street to feed his family. That was not the worst. A small boy came upon the entrails, pulled out the intestines, washed them in a filthy sewer and left with a meal for his family. We have no idea what hunger is. Many living in the slums were single mothers with hungry little mouths to feed. There were no jobs. There was no local economy. The mothers would slip out into the evening to sell their bodies to try to earn enough to feed the family tomorrow. Were they morally wrong? Yes. But they were also desperate. Verse 30 of this chapter says, "Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving." But the thief must still satisfy justice when caught. I could not despise these desperate mothers. Their motivation was to preserve life, not to take it.
But, "the adulteress preys upon your very life." We can substitute the word seducer for adulteress and the verse becomes applicable for all. There are people and spirits out there who are not desperately hungry or looking to provide for the needs of their children, but who are looking to have you compromise your morals for pleasure, ultimately their pleasure. They prey upon your life. They are not looking to physically take your life. They are looking to possess your life. Throughout the chapters of Proverbs we see that the ways of the seducer are to appeal to the passions of a person's fallen nature. Through this appeal the seducers are looking for something that will satisfy their own passion. Something from the seducted is lost, something for the seducer is gained. The craft of the seducer is to make it initially appear that the seducted will gain from the transaction. It is the very essence of deceit. This proverb is a clear warning to be aware of seducers. They will exact a hidden cost - every time. And you can be sure that the pay-back is always greater than the pleasure. (Need an example? Think of the seduction of credit card companies.)
Let's reverse the role a bit here and look at a young man who is caught up in the paganism of his culture. He is driven by the lust of life, including his activities with the opposite sex. He is courting (preying upon the life of) a young lady who is seeking to live a moral life. But she is also young and her emotions haven't matured as quickly as her body. He begins his craft by enamoring her with his cleverness. Soon she is emotionally attached to him, but her conscience still keeps the moral boundary in tact. He steps it up a few notches and begins to tell her how attractive she is, how desirous she is, finally how much he loves her. The young woman doesn't have a clue that when he says "I love you", he is really saying "I love me." If he loved her, he would respect her life, and a part of that life is her moral boundaries. But he is asking her to give him a part of that life and remove the boundary of sexual purity. She thinks that by giving him that part of her life that it will be an exchange - and their love will be stronger than ever. There is no exchange because he is offering nothing but a seductive lie. There was only a loss on the part of the seduced and a gain on the part of the seducer. That's the way it always ends.
This is but an example. There are seducers all around us preying upon our lives. There are times in our lives where we are tempted to be the seducer. It is a trait of Satan, and mankind inherited that trait when Adam opted to bow to him. It is through Christ that we are transformed back into the likeness of our heavenly Father, and it is through an ongoing relationship with Him that we overcome the old nature. Men have lost their wives, their families, their jobs, their friends and their self-respect by falling for the wiles of the adulteress. They never imagined it when she was making him think that he was getting something special in the beginning. We all lose something every time we give in to the seductions of the seducer - whatever the case may be. Wisdom learns to discern these things through a commitment to moral living - the way God meant life to be.