Day 596 – A Father’s Plea – Proverbs 7

Wisdom-Trek

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy Welcome to Day 596 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom A Father's Plea - Proverbs 7 Hello, my friend, and welcome to Wisdom-Trek! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your Guide to Wisdom and Creating a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 596 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday along life’s trails, we dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. Today we will explore Proverbs 7 from The Voice Translation, which will give us a fresh perspective on this book of timeless wisdom. We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Spring is now in full swing with its showers, flowers, trees nearly full of leaves, and temperatures moderating to a pleasant range. It seems like each new day brings new life. The red-shouldered hawks that have their nest outside our 2nd story office windows are busy all day bringing fresh food back to their newly born chicks. Just as spring is a flurry of activities with changes that are evident on a daily basis, so are our lives changing to a “new normal.” As mentioned during a couple of daily treks last week, Hazel our 2.5-year-old granddaughter has been diagnosed with leukemia. In addition to the emotionally difficult trek that this news has brought to our lives, we also take on additional responsibilities and tasks to assist during this long trail that is now before us. We are assisting with the transport of Hazel’s two older brothers to school and back on most days. We have also adopted two of Nat & Elizabeth’s dogs so that they can focus on Hazel’s treatment and ultimate recovery. Hazel is responding well to the chemo treatments, and the physicians are pleased with the early results. For the next 2-3 months, Hazel will have weekly chemo treatments in Columbus on Monday’s and also have blood drawn locally on Wednesday and Friday’s to monitor the results. After this stage, the treatments fall back to monthly for the duration of about two years. As Hazel’s father Nat expressed in this week’s blog, we are humbled and grateful for the outpouring of help and resources that are being provided as Hazel’s tribe of prayer warriors and supporters grow each day around the world. We would ask you to pray for Hazel and her family, and also for us as grandparents that we would have the wisdom, insight, and understanding to make prudent choices and are able to help wherever it is needed. As we explore Proverbs 7 today, we see a passionate plea from King Solomon to his son that he may obtain wisdom… A Father’s Plea · 10th Speech from Father to Son This is the tenth and final speech the father delivers to his son, and it’s the most passionate of them all. The father is on his hands and knees begging his son to live by wisdom (and escape the snare of the adulteress) no matter the effort required. Look at the action words used in verses 1-5. All of these require extreme energy and devotion: “guard,” “treasure,” “bind,” “meditate,” “engrave,” “say,” “recognize." We don’t typically find narratives in the Book of Proverbs, but in verses 6-20 the father uses a story to drive home his point. He tells his son a dark tale of a naïve young man who gets sucked into the clutches of the adulteress. The woman’s speech (verses 14-20) drips with allurement as she “grabs him shamelessly.” She makes promises of a “perfumed bed” and “colored linens.” The youngster lets the adulteress inflate his ego, he lets his guard down, and in verse 22 he gives in to her seduction. The father likens him to a bull, a deer, and a bird, as these are three animals subject to complete domination. This intense narrative stops abruptly at verse 23, as the father turns to all his sons and makes this final plea (24-27), "Listen to me and pay attention," he says, "Avoid that woman!