Wisdom Will Protect You From Evil

Proverbs 2:9-22

Then you will understand what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
    from men whose words are perverse,
who have left the straight paths
    to walk in dark ways,
who delight in doing wrong
    and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
whose paths are crooked
    and who are devious in their ways.

Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,
    from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
who has left the partner of her youth
    and ignored the covenant she made before God.
Surely her house leads down to death
    and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
None who go to her return
    or attain the paths of life.

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
For the upright will live in the land,
    and the blameless will remain in it;
but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

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THEN (See verses 1-6 - when you have inclined your ear to wisdom, applied your heart to understanding, eagerly desired to have insight, sought wisdom as a precious treasure and developed a fear of the Lord, that led you to walk uprightly) you will understand what is right and just and fair. You will know which is the good way to take. By then you will have wisdom in your inmost being and because of that your soul will enjoy knowledge and your good judgment, cautious outlook and careful speech will keep you safe from harm and from going down the wrong path.

Wisdom will help you discern wickedness in the people around you and avoid being led astray by them. Because evil leads people away from what is right and natural and good to ways that are wrong – though those who follow those ways seem to enjoy them, advertise them as good and acceptable and encourage people to follow them. Their ways are dishonest, fraudulent and devious – there is no straightforwardness or transparency in their dealings. Wisdom will save you from joining such people and also from falling prey to them.

Wisdom will save you also from adulterous men and women, who have deserted their partners and ignored their marriage vows. Don’t have anything to do with them, because they will take you on a path to spiritual death – you will get trapped in bondage from which there is no recovery – you will not be able to get back on the path that leads to life in God.*

If you are careful and follow the way of wisdom, you will be a good person, God fearing and always doing what is right. You will be assured of a place in Heaven (the Promised Land), which is for the blameless and upright– the wicked and unfaithful will be barred from entering it or living in it.**

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Notes:

* Proverbs is part of the Old Testament, when the people had to live according to the law that God gave them through Moses. Today those who sincerely repent and trust in Christ's sacrifice for forgiveness of sins are accepted by God, regardless of what sins they may have committed in the past, and by Christ's grace and strength, are empowered to live a transformed life.

** Those who do not repent and find forgiveness, but continue in sin will suffer the consequences of their actions.