With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.
And now, O sons, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths,
for many a victim has she laid low,
and all her slain are a mighty throng.
Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.
– Proverbs 7:21-27
The voice of temptation is soft and sweet. Soothing even as it attempts to deceive us by offering it’s false comforts and salvation. It would have you believe it is not your enemy at all but instead appears as if it were your best friend, your high counselor having your best interest at it’s heart. An angel of light even. (2 Cor. 11:14) It offers parts of it’s own kingdom, a permanent dwelling within it’s palace, satisfaction for all our desires, riches, pleasure, entertainment and distraction, freedom from fears. It promises life, a better life than one could otherwise have without it – here and now, immediately available, without any sacrifice at all. A short cut, an easy path to our destination of joy and peace that we seek. God’s way is long and hard it says; there is another, better way to find the joy and life we seek….if only we would follow it instead of Christ.
Sin is quite the seductress. Beautiful in appearance. A great deceiver and temptress and is often compared to a prostitute, adulteress or harlot in Proverbs and through out the bible. It says if you enter for but a moment you can leave at any time. But those who enter into it know not that the dead lie there and her throat is an open grave. (Proverbs 2:16-19, Proverbs 7:21-27) They do not know they are entangled by it until they try and make effort to leave, then and only then do they feel the cords of it’s bondage wrapped around their hands, around their feet and see they are not able to leave easily… if at all.
Guilt and Pride stand by as her strong guards at the door with their arms folded in determination to make one fear wrestling and going against them. They make them sink further into her bondage. They knew better. They knew they are where they never should have been, they fear being found there and would try to escape of their own ability, but cannot. The only way out of her darkness is taking hold of the light which they now have come to fear. Anyway but that way they whisper. The light which was once their guide, the light that which was once their comfort, now seems to be their enemy and has turned against them. They would hide from it instead of run to it for salvation. Foolishly they turn away from what little light they have or attempt to deny and cover it up less they be discovered by it.
Have you ever found yourself here? Perhaps it was a relationship you knew you should have never have entered into; a lie you knew that you should have never told but promised you temporary safety at the moment. Perhaps it was a drug that was only going to be a one time relief and enjoyment but now grips you yet again and you feel trapped all over again with no hope of escape or freedom. Darkness has become your refuge instead of the light of God, which only seems to serve as a reminder of your true condition when it shines upon you.
Sin is quite the seductress. She dresses herself in a thousand forms with thousand faces to appeal individually to our heart and pull us away from Christ, our true love, our true one and only source of comfort , protection and peace. He alone can save us and will yet again save us if we cry out to Him, where ever we are at and no matter how long we have been there.
This is the Christian life. A continual fighting to put off sin that so easily hinders and entangles us. A continual repentance. A continual crying out to Jesus for help and deliverance. A continual watchfulness, prayfulness that we do not fall for the schemes of the devil who seeks to deceive us, destroy us, devour us through his continual tempting of our desires. (Heb 12:1, 1 Peter 5:8, Col. 2:8)
Our desires aren’t always bad, they are often good. We want good things and many of the things we want are according to the will of God for us. Health, Joy, Life, Success, Strong Relationships, Peace, Comfort, Relief etc… But when we seek to get these desires or any desires filled outside of Christ and outside his will and ways according to our own methods and means or the world’s, we enter into the enemies territory and the end is always death. The devil’s short cuts always lead to a dead end. They always lead to delay, captivity and hopelessness.
If we are in Christ, we always have hope. We need only to cry out to him and He will hear us. He will yet again rescue us and bring us back to himself. If he commands us to forgive a brother 70×70 times a day as long as the brother requests our forgiveness, how much more will Christ forgive us when cry out to him in repentance and brokenness when we ask for his forgiveness for falling for the devil’s schemes once again? He will forgive us if we will but turn to him and cry out to him. He will save us. He is our one and only true Savior and our only Hope. Our salvation from the grasp of sin does not depend on our worthiness, our faithfulness but on His.
God’s light is never against us, only against the sin that coils itself so closely around our heart. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2:9) God can separate the sin from the sinner. His light is precise and never our enemy if we run towards righteousness, no matter how dirty we are. He can save us. He can cleanse us.
Thomas Brooks in his book Precious remedies against Satan’s devices talks about the traitorous and bewitching nature of sin:
“It will kiss the soul, and pretend fair to the soul, and yet betray the soul forever. It will with a Delilah smile upon us, that it may betray us into the hands of the devil, as she did Samson into the hands of the Philistines…..Sin so bewitches the soul, that it makes the soul call evil good, and good evil; bitter sweet and sweet bitter, light darkness and darkness light; (Isa. 5:20) and a soul thus bewitched with sin will stand it out to the death, at the sword’s point with God; let God strike and wound, and cut to the very bone, yet the bewitched soul cares not, fears not, but will stand hold on in a course of wickedness, as you may see in Pharaoh, Balaam, and Judas……..When the physicians told Theotimus that except he did abstain from drunkenness and uncleanness he would lose his eyes, his heart was so bewitched to his sins, that he answered, ‘Then farewell, sweet light’: he had rather lose his eyes than leave his sin, So a man bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with his sin. Oh, therefore, for ever take heed of playing or nibbling at Satan’s golden baits.
