This is Spoken Gospel.

We are dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and His Gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Solomon is in the middle
of ten lectures to his son.

The first five lectures encourage Solomon’s
son to choose wisdom and avoid evil.

Solomon’s last five lectures personify that struggle as a
choice between joining himself to Lady Wisdom or
having an affair with Madame Folly.

On one level, it’s a simple lesson
about the danger of adultery.

Sleeping with another man’s wife is a
decision you will pay for for the rest of your life.

Solomon compares it to carrying fire under your clothes or
walking on coals; he warns you cannot help but get burned.

Entering into an affair is like
an animal walking into a trap.

Madame Folly’s bait is passion, secrecy,
and the promise of no consequences.

If the son sees only the bait,
the hook will never let him escape.

But if Solomon’s son wants to avoid destruction, he must
choose Lady Wisdom as the only object of his affection.

He must write her words on his heart, and perhaps even
more intimately, he needs to call wisdom his “sister”.

If he joins himself to Lady Wisdom, he avoids
slaughter and gains her as his advisor as

he rules nations, gains
wealth, and lives a long life.

On another level these passages are not written about the pursuit
or avoidance of sex, but about the pursuit of wisdom itself.

Solomon asks his son to imagine
that he’s standing at a fork in the road.

At the crossroads, two
women are calling for him.

In many ways they seem similar: both have
made sacrifices, both offer wine and food,

and both offer rewards
for turning into their home.

One woman tells him to trust God, and the other
tells him, like the serpent, to trust his desires.

Solomon encourages his son to choose the wisdom
that was with God when he formed the world.

And he’s warning his son to reject
the wisdom that brought death and evil.

Solomon compares his lectures to God’s law.

He tells his son that if he “write[s] them
on the tablet of [his] heart” and they are

the “apple of his eye,” he will be protected from the
seduction of evil and will experience the blessings of God.

From history we know that Solomon’s
son did not follow his father’s instruction.

Israel’s hearts, hardened to wisdom, were seduced
to idolatry, adultery, and eventually
exile at Babylon’s hands.

During that exile, the prophet Ezekiel used
the language of Proverbs, saying God will

give Israel a new spirit, remove their heart of stone,
and give them a heart that will listen to God’s wisdom.

Ezekiel promises that Solomon’s
hopes will one day come true.

And they do—in Jesus.

Jesus fills us with his Spirit and writes his
laws on our hearts.

This is good news because we are faced with the
same choice Solomon’s son was warned about.

We’re pulled in one direction by our desires
and in another direction by God’s word.

It’s only Jesus’ Spirit of wisdom written on our hearts
that can do battle with Satan’s temptations
and the Madame’s folly.

If you are tired of losing the battle between
God’s word and your desires, be encouraged!

By Jesus’ power you can walk by the Spirit
and say no to the desires of your body.

By Jesus’ power Lady
Wisdom becomes your sister.

His wisdom will lead and guide
you into an eternal life with him.

May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see
the God who writes wisdom on our hearts.

And may you see Jesus as the wisdom of Solomon
by whom we avoid evil and are blessed by God.