Daytime Friends and Nighttime Lovers

 Read Proverbs 5

Anyone remember Kenny Rogers?

Daytime friends and nighttime lovers

Hoping no one else discovers

Where they go, what they do

In their secret hideaway

Solomon spoke of not getting snared by the adulteress.  It’s a trap and it can lead to death.  This would be a good spot for an analogy for the wild animal that chews its leg off because it is caught in a trap.  Get out of there.  Save what you can of yourself, even if you hop around on three legs for the rest of your life.

Better yet, don’t go in the area where the traps are set. 

Do you know how armies decide where to put minefields?  Like them or hate them, minefields are a part of modern combat and they are placed where you expect your enemy to travel.

How can you do that?  Look at the terrain.  Where are the rivers?  Where are the mountains?  Where are the areas that slow down your enemy?

Now what’s left?  Terrain that might be easier to traverse.  That’s where the minefields go.  The path that looks easy just might be mined.

It is so much easier to navigate a minefield before you get into it.  You have more options.  Once you are in a minefield every step is perilous.

But we are not talking about things that go boom.  What can it hurt now and then?  We are all human. It’s ok if nobody finds out, right?

For your ways are in full view of the Lord,

    and he examines all your paths.

The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;

    the cords of their sins hold them fast.

For lack of discipline they will die,

    led astray by their own great folly.

Long ago and not too far away, I delivered newspapers in Altus for a few weeks because that area did not have a manager and they were missing a few carriers.  So I am driving around Altus at zero dark thirty and there are people leaving houses at 3 am and 4 am and there is no Marine base anywhere close by to make these work hours for anyone.

Where are people going at zero dark thirty?

Daytime friends and nighttime lovers

Hoping no one else discovers

In our folly, we forget that nothing is hidden from God.  This applies to more than nighttime excursions.

God sees the heart.  Nothing is hidden from God.  Your ways are in full view of the Lord.

You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool God. You can only fool yourself and cheat yourself out to the blessings of remaining in the harmonious union with the wife of your youth.

Now Solomon directs this counsel at men, but it applies to both genders.

There is God’s way and there is everything else and if you decide to venture into the everything else, don’t think it goes unnoticed by God. 

I have used this term many times over the past decades and use it now:  Front End Analysis.  Good decisions on the front end of any process make for easier problem solving later on.

Rushing into anything sets us up for catastrophe.

There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Here’s the tip of the day.  The front-end analysis has already been done for God’s way and the return on investment is continued blessing and favor.

Choose God’s way to begin with and you don’t have to chew off a leg to get out of a trap.

Amen.