Don’t be an April Fool
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title: Don’t be an April Fool ------------------- Date: 4/1/2003
Keywords:
“fool”
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to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual
temptation.
Passage: Proverbs 7:6-23*
6. For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,
7. And I saw among the naive,
I discerned among the youths,
A young man lacking sense,
8. Passing through the street near her corner;
And he takes the way to her house,
9. In the twilight, in the evening,
In the middle of the night and in the darkness.
10. And behold, a woman comes to meet him,
Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.
11. She is boisterous and rebellious;
Her feet do not remain at home;
12. She is now in the streets, now in the squares,
And lurks by every corner.
13. So she seizes him and kisses him,
And with a brazen face she says to him:
14. "I was due to offer peace offerings;
Today I have paid my vows.
15. "Therefore I have come out to meet you,
To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.
16. "I have spread my couch with coverings,
With colored linens of Egypt.
17. "I have sprinkled my bed
With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
18. "Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with caresses.
19. "For the man is not at home,
He has gone on a long journey;
20. He has taken a bag of money with him,
At full moon he will come home."
21. With her many persuasions she entices him;
With her flattering lips she seduces him.
22. Suddenly he follows her,
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
23. Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a bird hastens to the snare,
So he does not know that it will cost him his life.
Questions
1. What tricks does the adulterous woman use to try and seduce the naïve young man in this passage?
2. What is the result of his falling for her tricks? (see verse 23)
Practical help
This eXXit Bible study is inspired by the American custom of celebrating fools on the first day of April. It is a day for usually harmless pranks, practical jokes, and humorous escapes from the normally stressful, hectic rush of day to day living.
Well, eXXit writers and readers can use April 1st redemptively. We can remind ourselves to pursue wisdom and to flee folly — especially as it relates to sexual temptation. Sexual temptation arrives at our door in various forms. Sometimes it is another person inviting us to participate with them in immoral behavior. Sometimes it is a seductive ad, pornographic pop-up screen, or invitation to join a newsgroup on the Internet.
There is tremendous help to be found in Proverbs 7 for avoiding sexual sin! Read the passage. Learn the tricks that will be used against you. Don’t fall for them like the young man did in the passage, who learned to his loss that the way of immorality is death, not life.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright
The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by
permission."
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