Difference between revisions of "Sermon for September 3rd, 2017"

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So I gave him his first full-length, complete unabridged Bible.  As an English major, I figured the older, poetic language of the King James Version would slow him down some and help him build up his vocabulary. And it did.  It couldn't have been more than five minutes after I gave him that Bible that he came back out of his room, Bible in hand, and looked up into my eyes with all the curiosity that a seven-year-old kid can muster, and said to me, "Dad...what's a Harlot?"
 
So I gave him his first full-length, complete unabridged Bible.  As an English major, I figured the older, poetic language of the King James Version would slow him down some and help him build up his vocabulary. And it did.  It couldn't have been more than five minutes after I gave him that Bible that he came back out of his room, Bible in hand, and looked up into my eyes with all the curiosity that a seven-year-old kid can muster, and said to me, "Dad...what's a Harlot?"
  
What's a harlot.
+
What's a harlot!  He must have flipped that King James Bible open right to the book of Proverbs, which is pretty close to the middle of the book. Harlot is the old Elizabethan word used by the KJV to translate the Hebrew word זָנָה (zanah) which appears in Proverbs 6, 7, 23, and 29.  Some modern translations render this word "loose woman." She is a recurring figure throughout the book, also sometimes called  זוּר (zoor) which means "strange woman" in Proverbs 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 20, 22, 23, and 27.
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The first time she shows up is in Proverbs chapter 2, as "the loose woman . . . the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant . . . her way leads down to death, and her paths to the shades; those who go to her never come back, nor do they regain the paths of life."
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In chapter five, her lips "drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol. She does not keep straight to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it."
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In chapter seven, the entire chapter is devoted to warning about her.  I won't read the whole thing, but here are some juicy excerpts:
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"For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw . . . a young man without sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. Then a woman comes toward him . . . now in the street, now in the squares, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him . . . Come, let us take our fill of love until morning . . . For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey."
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"Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter . . . He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life. And now, my children, listen to me . . . Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death."
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Did I mention today's sermon is PG-13?

Revision as of 17:53, 1 September 2017

Proverbs 1:20-33

20 Wisdom cries out in the street;
    in the squares she raises her voice.
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
    and fools hate knowledge?
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
    I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused,
    have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
25 and because you have ignored all my counsel
    and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
    I will mock when panic strikes you,
27 when panic strikes you like a storm,
    and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
    when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
    they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
    and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 would have none of my counsel,
    and despised all my reproof,
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
    and be sated with their own devices.
32 For waywardness kills the simple,
    and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33 but those who listen to me will be secure
    and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”

Walk This Way: Wisdom in Proverbs II

Grady Reading KJV Bible.jpeg
This is a picture of my son, Grady, when he was seven years old, in Princeton New Jersey, with his first "real Bible" -- an old King James Version that had been given to me when I was a boy. I gave it to him because he was outgrowing all the kids Bibles and picture Bibles we had given him before that. Most of them were abridged versions which left out a lot of parts, and he always had a million questions (still does!) that I was getting tired of answering.

So I gave him his first full-length, complete unabridged Bible. As an English major, I figured the older, poetic language of the King James Version would slow him down some and help him build up his vocabulary. And it did. It couldn't have been more than five minutes after I gave him that Bible that he came back out of his room, Bible in hand, and looked up into my eyes with all the curiosity that a seven-year-old kid can muster, and said to me, "Dad...what's a Harlot?"

What's a harlot! He must have flipped that King James Bible open right to the book of Proverbs, which is pretty close to the middle of the book. Harlot is the old Elizabethan word used by the KJV to translate the Hebrew word זָנָה (zanah) which appears in Proverbs 6, 7, 23, and 29. Some modern translations render this word "loose woman." She is a recurring figure throughout the book, also sometimes called זוּר (zoor) which means "strange woman" in Proverbs 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 20, 22, 23, and 27.

The first time she shows up is in Proverbs chapter 2, as "the loose woman . . . the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant . . . her way leads down to death, and her paths to the shades; those who go to her never come back, nor do they regain the paths of life."

In chapter five, her lips "drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol. She does not keep straight to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it."

In chapter seven, the entire chapter is devoted to warning about her. I won't read the whole thing, but here are some juicy excerpts:

"For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw . . . a young man without sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. Then a woman comes toward him . . . now in the street, now in the squares, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him . . . Come, let us take our fill of love until morning . . . For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey."

"Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter . . . He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life. And now, my children, listen to me . . . Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death."

Did I mention today's sermon is PG-13?