Turkish Delight!

Probing Proverbs: 9:13-18 The woman named Folly is brash. She is ignorant and doesn’t know it. She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city. She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business. “Come in with me,” she urges the simple. To those who lack good judgment, she says, “Stolen water is refreshing; food eaten in secret tastes the best!” But little do they know that the dead are there. Her guests are in the depths of the grave.

The most effective lie that has been propagated by our enemy is that we are just animals with instincts and drives. Nothing is further from the truth. We are intricately created beings, very complex, and with one or two natures alive in us. What do I mean one or two natures? Yes, all humans have a fallen nature that desires to control and dominate them. If a person has not entered into a relationship with their Creator, that is the only nature they have, sadly they are under the control of a very evil taskmaster, and even though society and peer pressure can exert some force to contain that nature, as history has shown us, that nature will win. However, if a person has embraced salvation through Christ they have been given a new nature, one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. When that happens a war begins to rage within that individual as the “old” nature fights to remain in control. 

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Galatians 5:17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

The writer of this proverb desires us to see clearly the active battle going on. He uses a sexual example, because this sin is a prime example of where humans do not think; they just respond to a drive that their flesh tries to control. All of Proverbs 7 used this analogy also. Although this allegory is about a sinful woman and unthinking men, let’s just apply it to all sin and all humans.

Sin is “brash” – consider the synonyms of this word: impetuous, rash, foolhardy, and impatient. Sin wants what sin wants…and it wants it immediately!  Those that follow sin are following ignorance, for the costs of such actions are not being weighed. Notice also sin is not passive, but deliberate, calling out to those who are going about their business, yet targeting anyone that might accept the invitation. What’s the bait? To have something that is not really yours, to taste the forbidden fruit…to the flesh, the ingredient called “forbidden” makes it always taste better! 

That “one” thing that only sin can deliver…much like the “Turkish Delight” from C.S. Lewis’s Narnia. There is a very ironic truth about how sin works. It appeals to whatever is sensual, whether it be materialism, sex, fame, pride, etc…while at the same time we lose our “sense” as we run after it! If we would just walk even 30 minutes past the sin in our mind and consider that after the first taste dissipates, what kind of after taste is left? The consequences of sin is always very bitter! Here it is described as death and the grave.

Do you see a battle inside you? If not, what does that say? Are you aware of both natures in you? When you struggle with sin, what does that look like? Have you identified the most vulnerable areas in your life? Do you realize that the enemy has?