HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE! -- Devotional for April 30, from "Good Seeds"

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Proverbs 1:10

The book of Proverbs may be summarized by a two-sided coin, described in chapter 1: We see the positive “Heads I win” side in verse 1, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” To be a winner, I must be wise. That wisdom comes only from God – not by merely being a student of Him, but by being subject to Him. We need more than knowledge of the Lord, leading to a good life; we need the fear of the Lord, leading to a holy life, living in awe of His majesty and love. It is the spirit so simply explained by the talking animals to the four children in C.S. Lewis’s land of Narnia. When told that Aslan would soon make an appearance, they asked, “Just who is this Aslan?” “Oh, He’s the Great Lion, the Son of the Emperor over the Sea.” “A lion? Is He quite safe?” “Safe? Of course He’s not safe – but He’s good!” Henceforth those young seekers learned the proper way to relate to God, and would teach us the same: “Is He quite safe? Well, He is the Master of the Universe; nothing can stop Him, no one can thwart Him, or control Him, or even understand Him…of course He’s not safe – but He’s good! And He will bless those who bless Him, honor those who honor Him, and give wisdom to those who fear Him.” But then there’s the negative “tails you lose” side of the coin (verse 10). This has to do not with God, but with man, specifically men who, as pawns of Satan, would lead us astray and demolish our lives. Is not this the goal of the evil one for every life God has created, for whom His Son died to redeem? That Redeemer Himself described it in John 10:10a, “The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and in the end, to destroy.” And so the wise man of old warns us not to be “ignorant of the devil’s devices,” and to understand that not everyone we rub shoulders with – and make friends with – has our best interests at stake. Just as the first Psalm speaks of “the wicked in whose counsel we must not walk, the sinners in whose path we must not stand, and the scorners in whose seat we must not sit,” so the first Proverb, in its typical conciseness, says there are people enough out there (even just one could do it) who are out to kill us. It takes the New Testament gospel, as summarized in the rest of John 10:10, to guard us from the enemy, and gird us up for battle: “I am come that you might have life in all its fullness.” But claiming the name of Jesus doesn’t mean we don’t look our personal temptress in the face for just one second, to do the right thing, to JUST SAY NO, before giving in to the wrong thing. But then we turn away, not giving her a second chance – by giving her a second look!