Then we have wisdom’s great rival in the world — evil personified in “the foolish woman.” “A foolish woman is clamorous; she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city.”
Wisdom pleads for the Lord and for His glory; she delights in good and in doing good for man, but the foolish woman devoted herself only to the indulgence of sinful pleasure, regardless of all consequences. Like wisdom she is seen in the same wide thoroughfare of the world and bidding for the youth who throng it. Thus this world’s evil is personified that it may be set forth the more clearly in all its degradation over against the loveliness of truth. All that is contrary to Christ — and dangerous to souls is gathered up and individualized as a foolish woman lying in wait for the unwary, and dragging them down the steep incline to hell. Her special occupation is “to call passengers who go right on their ways,” and persuade them to turn aside for “stolen waters.” How sad to see so many young issuing from homes where they have been trained in virtue and start out in life’s wide path with the intention of going “right,” but who, have been suddenly enticed aside into evil, entangled in the net, and lost! Surely it is only the Lord who can keep us! We cannot keep ourselves. Our daily prayer should be, “Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust.” Ps. 16:1.
The evil woman “sitteth at the door of her house” and she addresses the throngs that pass by in the same identical terms as wisdom does: “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither,” but how opposite the end; “the dead are there” and “her guests are in the depths of hell.” Thus the two great rivals for possession of a human heart are seen as competing against each other. No heart can follow both of these drawings. Every sinner must turn his back upon the Saviour or upon his sin. He yields to the one or to the other.
The “simple” here are not those of feeble mind but those who have no thought or care, of conscience or heart, toward God. The evil influences of this world are “clamorous”; they speak great swelling words of vanity, and while promising liberty, they are but the servants of corruption, and if one is overcome by them, he is brought into bondage and knows not that these are but the ways of death and lead down to hell.
“Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant,” are the enticing words of evil. There are pleasures in sin for a season (Heb. 11:2525Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (Hebrews 11:25)), yet it is a short one, and then comes the bitterness and sorrow. But they that seek to follow the Lord find in Him eternal pleasures: “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Ps. 16:11. The child of God, while still having the old nature in him, nevertheless has a new nature which is of God, which feeds only on Christ and delights in holiness. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” Ps. 34:8. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matt. 5:66Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6). When the redeemed of the Lord come to Zion, the heavenly city, with songs of joy, the old sinful nature will have gone forever. There will be no sinful things to taste there, and no taste for sinful things. But every heart shall find its fullest satisfaction in Christ, the blessed One “that filleth all in all.”
ML 10/22/1961