Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to, to Bible Study Tonight. Let's see. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta stop the music. There we go. Welcome to Bible Study Tonight. Just a little behind the scenes there. Glad that you all are here with us on this Thursday night Bible study. I love Thursday night Bible study for, I don't know, 10, 12, 15. One of these days I'm gonna figure out how long I've been doing this. Somewhere between 10 and 15 years. These Thursday nights, spending time with you around our great big electronic table and studying the book of Proverbs and learning as much as we can possibly put together and figuring out what's, what's there and what's up. And so as we come together and study the book of Proverbs, tonight we come to the sixth chapter of Proverbs and will no doubt have a good time with it. We have, in case you don't remember, we have been taking a royal interpretive view. It is a view that there's nothing new under the sun. So I'm not going to say I've invented it, but so far I haven't found anyone else who holds to it. It's bound to be out there and I think really revolutionizes the way that we take the Book of Proverbs and understand it. And I think we'll see even tonight in chapter six, that under the old method of interpretation, there really are some problems that we just haven't ever addressed. And it's one of the reasons why, again, as I've probably said, virtually every session we've had, even though we're only in the sixth chapter, we have had nine sessions so far. I believe this is the ninth. Maybe this is session number eight. So as we, as we have gone through these eight weeks, probably every time I've said, you know, forever, we who are preachers have kind of apologized for the Book of Proverbs right up front. You know, it's Proverbs, not promises. Well, we look at some of the things that are given as promises and whoa, lo and behold, that ought to be taken as a promise. And it can be if we take it in context. And so we'll put some of those things together and continue the journey tonight in a. What I think will be a fairly, fairly simple, but again, revolutionary understanding of the book of Proverbs as we'll be right here tonight in Proverbs the sixth, sixth chapter. And we'll, we'll learn a few things together. Now, Proverbs, Chapter six, it might seem, I would say, in the normal Scheme of taking things. That is the way the Christian world does it. You know, a lot of times I talk about evangelicalism, but this goes way beyond evangelicalism, even just the way Christendom takes Proverbs. Proverbs becomes Proverbs 6 especially becomes kind of this moralistic viewpoint that this is the chapter that has, you know, hey, old sluggard, look at the ant. And it has some things about adultery in it. And so it looks like, work hard and be faithful to your wife. Work hard and be faithful to your wife. Now, one of the things I would say about that, you probably ought to work hard and be faithful to your wife, by the way. But one of the things I'd say about it is you probably don't need the sixth chapter of Proverbs to remind you that you, you know, you know, I mean, you can learn it from, well, part of it anyway, from Ben Franklin, if you want, you know, a stitch in time saves nine and the early bird gets the worm and all those kind of things that people, humanity knows this. They even know to be faithful to their wife. It's not. I, I am convinced that, and I think we were on this just a little bit last week, but I'm convinced if you took out everything about marriage and family in the scripture, took it out, took everything about marital fidelity versus adultery, it wasn't even in the Bible. I think we would live in such a way that the whole of society would, by and large, there's always going to be a few crazies, but by and large, the whole of society would be. A man finds a wife, he loves her, gives himself to her until death do them part. See, we, I'm convinced we don't need the Bible to tell us that. So If Proverbs chapter 6 is just on that, wow, it becomes, I don't know, kind of odd or superfluous. And that's why a lot of people skip it. It's not a moralistic chapter we're going to see. It's a very clear passage about the Torah to the king, and this is the way we need to take it. So let's jump in here to Proverbs, chapter 6. And by the way, let me say to you, I would love to say hello if you're watching live, put your name in town right there in the comment box. And at the end of the broadcast, we'll go through and say hi a little bit, see who's here. And that is always a blessing and will be a blessing tonight. And I will look forward to that. So Chat away there and put a comment. But let's go right up here, my son. Ah, we're. We're in chapter six, and we've had eight sessions, so probably only those who are new with us need a reminder. My is Solomon, son. Is Solomon's son. Duh. Solomon's son. He tells us in verse one of chapter one, I'm Solomon, I'm writing this. And then he goes in chapter one and says, hey, son, let's. We are biblical literalists. Take it in a biblical literalist way. So this is to Solomon's son, Rehoboam. If you want to stretch that, you can stretch it to his grandsons, to the kings of Israel, to the kings of Judah. I really should say so, my son. Hey, Rehoboam, here's what I'm telling you. If thou be surety for thy friend, if thou has stricken thy hand with a stranger. Stop right there. Hey, son, if you've signed on someone else's note, if. If thou has stricken thy hand with a stranger. That sounds a little almost like, hey, you got in a fight with somebody that you didn't know. But that's only the way we're taking it now. It is. Did you shake hands? Did you make a deal with a stranger? If you did that, thou art snared. Get this eventually here. There we go. If you did that, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth. Okay, it was your mouth that got you into this. Yeah, I'll sign that note for you. Yeah, I'll shake on that deal. Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth. Thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. So he gives them some instruction. Do this now, my son. Okay? If you are surety on a note or you're in a deal with a stranger, do this, my son, and deliver thyself when thou art come into the hand of thy friend. Go humble thyself. Make sure thy friend give not sleep to thine eye, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, as a bird from the hand of the fowler. So five verses again in. In one sense here. They really are pretty simple verses, and they're verses that say, rehoboam, catch that. Don't miss it. Do not put your name in here. I'm warning you now, Rehoboam, if you happen to have to. To be in surety with a stranger or. Or in a deal with a stranger, with somebody else, you sign for a friend. A stranger, whatever you got this deal, get out of it. Get out of it now. Run, don't walk. Get out today, not tomorrow. Now, if we take that to us, to. To me and you, then we should never sign as surety ever. But some of you probably have signed a surety. We should never shake hands with a stranger and make an agreement with them. But some of us have shaken hands with a stranger and made an agreement. Well, until Covet came along and Dr. Fauci said, don't ever shake hands again. But, you know, before Dr. Fauci, we used to shake hands, remember? And you would shake hands with a stranger, you shake hands with the banker, you make. You make up a deal. This. If. If you are my son, get out of it today before the sun goes down. Stop the Bible study and get out. But you might say, wait a minute. I'm in surety with my children. It was a blessing to them. It was helping them out. It may be that I'm stuck with the bill, but I understand that. I'm willing to do it. Or, yeah, I made a partnership with a stranger. They called me up. They had a good deal. I read the paperwork. I thought it was good for my family, for my business, for my. I said, yes, get out of it. No, don't get out of it. That's what Isaac, the preachers say, don't get out of it. Or what about, you know, maybe there's someone who really, they are a. A good individual. They're a fine person. They're, they're, they're. They're great. But they're struggling right now. You know, they're struggling. And you say, I'm going to help them out. I'm going to sign for surety. Is that really completely against the scripture? I'm going to venture to say no. Now, I know there's a lot of wisdom in being very careful to sign surety, to sign on someone else's note. I know that doctor. What. What's his name? Dave. Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey would say, never, ever, ever sign a surety on someone else's. But he would say, never sign insurance, your own note. Okay, so he doesn believe in. In debt. He wouldn't take debt at all. My debt, your debt, anyone's debt, nobody should have debt. Is the Dave Ramsey approach. Now, there is. There is a difference. There's some wisdom in Dave Ramsey. There's some wisdom in not signing as a surety, But I do not think it is a biblical prohibition not to do it. Nor do I think we ought to say, hey, get out, thou Art snared with the words of thy mouth. Go and humble yourself and get out of there like a roe, a deer away from the hunter. Do everything you can do to get out of it. Now how. As a matter of fact, let's, let's look at a couple of scriptures right here. If we, if, if we go to, to the book of Exodus. Exodus. What do we got here? Exodus, chapter 22, verse 25. It says in the Torah, if thou lend money, that's as far as we need to go. Right. Does the Torah prohibit lending money? Nope. It. It has some regulations for how the Jews were to do it. If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him a usurer. That is, you know, don't charge him 615%. Neither shall thou lay upon him usury. And you know, it. It goes on in the passage here. If thou take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver to him by the sun goeth down. I'll be back in the morning for it. But you need something to cover yourself at night. It was a, a, a kindness in lending law, I guess you could say. But it's certainly not a prohibition. Let's, let's, let's look at another one in this. Let's go to Deuteronomy, chapter 15, verse 8. Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. The Bible required the person who had some to loan to. The person who didn't have some required it. The Torah required it. Now here, you, you could, you could look at this and you say, okay, we've got a conflict. But I think we don't have a conflict unless you are the king. The king better not be on anybody's loans. The king better not be in any business deals. Why? Because the king has to be completely free from all encumbrances so that he does not make decisions which will favor his outcome rather than the national outcome. So if the king is surety for his friend, he just might make policies that will ensure that his friend is able to pay him back. It's a conflict of interest. So verses one through five, far from being just a general moralistic. Yeah, this is mostly true. And I know that there's probably two cases. Well, there's probably three cases. Well, there's probably however many people have. We have cases here, but probably some of you felt guilty or maybe feel guilty. You felt guilty at some time because there was A real need in your family, or there was a real need of someone you loved and cared for, and you signed on the note for them, you helped them out in that way, and they were blessed. And your heart said, do this. You felt like doing this. You wanted to do this. Logically, you said, I think they're going to be able to pay, but if they can't, I'll take it over. I will. I will do it. So you did it, and then you felt guilty because you were supposed to read a Proverbs every day and you came to the sixth of the month and you read Proverbs 6 and it said, get out of there. Get out. Be done with that. Well, I'm gonna. I'm here to say you don't have to be guilty anymore. There are probably others who felt guilty in another way. A child, a friend, a loved one, a family member, whatever it was, had a need. You could have helped them, you wanted to help them. But it was the sixth of the month and you just read Proverbs 6 and it said, don't do it. And so you said, hey, man, as much as I would like to, I'm just unable to help you. And, and you probably said, I, you know, I would give it to you if I could, but I can't really give it to you. So there it is, I, you know, because of Proverbs, sick. And then you went away and you felt guilty because, like, man, there's a real need there. So the guilt came on either side. And that's because you put yourself in the spot of being Solomon's son. And here's a news flash, you ain't Solomon's son. Why don't we take it literally? Because we want to make. Every promise in the book is mine, every chapter of verse, every. And so we make these again, moralistic kind of teachings. Now, if you're the King of Judah and you are in an alliance with someone else, or you all have a conflict of interest with someone else, get out of it. This is why. And, and there's a. With President Trump, there's a. There's a fairly big debate about it, especially was in his first term. Most presidents put their business interests into a blind trust when they become president. And, you know, they don't completely know what's going on over there because they say, oh, there could be a conflict of interest. I could work and serve for myself. So there's a little bit of debate even today on how that should be done. But here, Solomon says to the king, you're different. I know that. You know, you are told to open your hand wide. And by the way, this is talking In Deuteronomy, chapter 15 is talking about loaning them not just a gift as well as Exodus chapter 25. So you, you, you come and say, hey, this really is great advice for the King, but I would venture to say you'll have a hard time finding anyone who has applied this to the kings of Judah only. And yet that's, that is where it belongs. By the way, you know, I've said this is, this is the King's user guide to Torah, if you will. Let's look at Torah a little bit, not only in Deuteronomy 15, but let's go to Deuteronomy 16, verse 19. And here says, thou shalt not rest judgment. Thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift, for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous. Ok, is this everybody? Nobody should respect persons, be a respecter of persons. Nobody should take a gift because gifts blinds the eyes of the wise. A gift perverts no gifts. Do we take that approach in the Christian world? Even those who don't realize we're free from the law, do they take this no gifts? No, they don't. Because if I showed them, hey, we're not supposed to have gifts. What do you mean we're not supposed to get gifts? Well, you know Deuteronomy, chapter 16, verse 19, my wife's birthday. This is this week. I'm going to say, you know, I'm sorry, dear, I cannot give you a gift because a gift blinds the eyes of the wise. And you know, I would not want that for you. Deuteronomy, chapter 16, verse 19. Now, she would say, we're free from the law. Give me a gift. Or she would say, Deuteronomy 16, 19, let me look it up. And she would look it up and she would say, thou. Guess what? That ain't you. This is a verse about the king. The leader of the people doesn't do these things. It's in perfect harmony with the, with the instruction that Paul gives. We could go to Exodus, chapter 23, verse, verse 8. Thou shalt take no gift, for the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous. Again, it's the leader of the people. This is what happens. So Solomon's coming along teaching Torah, but he's teaching it in a very practical way, Torah for the king. This is not a prohibition against gift giving. This is a prohibition against the king getting a gift because there's some string attached. Exactly what he says right here. So we go through verses one through five again says, hey, don't. Don't get yourself in any encumbrances. Now we begin in verse six. And Solomon cautions his, his. Or. Or speaks here of the sluggard. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Now there are a few sluggard passages in the book of Proverbs, and this is the first one. It's the first of the sluggard passages. Remember, we came across the evil man. He's the one that is not scared at all. Just to say, I don't do Torah. Come this way with me. Let's walk away from Torah. We'll. We'll see him again tonight. We looked at the. The seductive woman, the strange woman, and she was. She wasn't quite as clear and vocal as the evil man. She was much more subtle. And her subtlety trapped you. But what I want to say is, neither with the evil man or the strange woman were we really necessarily talking about a particular person. They. They represented something. I would venture to say sluggard also represents something. I doubt. You know, he uses the. The pronoun thou, and he's talking to my son. I doubt that. He's saying, hey, Rehoboam, you're a sluggard. Get up off your seat and do something, thou sluggard. Looking at this passage here, and we've got verses 6 through 11 that we'll read in just a moment. Looking at verses 6 through 11 and then the other passages in the proverbs that speak also about the sluggard, I think what we've got is that the sluggard is the one fitting in line with this royal interpretation. The sluggard is the one. Is the king, Rehoboam. The king is the king that is slow to carry out Torah. Slow to do what Torah commands him to do. Little lackadaisical on this little laissez faire. A little, you know, leave well enough alone and I'll get to it one of these days. I know I should. It's sluggard in that regard, not just a general laziness. So the instruction here is, go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. You understand? You know, you know this. We all know this passage very well. Having no guide or overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, gathereth food in the harvest. How long will thou sleep, O slubbered sluggard? When will thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep and a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an armed man. Now that. That is such a. I don't know. It's such a fun little passage, isn't it? I think that every, Every parent has certainly used that with her children, you know, on some Saturday morning when they didn't get out of the. Out of the bed yet a little sleep, yet a little slumber, a little folding of the hand so thy poverty shall come. It's a nice. Has a nice moralistic tune to it, doesn't it? Now, once again, if we can take this and say, all along he's been saying, hey, King, do Torah. Do it now. Do it quickly. Don't even let the sun go down. Do it like as a. As a row, getting away from the hunter speedily. Get with this, get with this, get with this. I think if we take that whole thing is. Is there a general truth here? Yeah, just like in verses one through one through five, there's some, you know, general wisdom. Hey, think about this. One through five is a little more. A little less general, I guess you would say, because you've got some conflicting things. You've got some times where you might actually morally want to or morally need to sign for someone else or be in an agreement with someone else. But when you get through verses 6 through 11 here. Yeah. You could take that in a general way and say, ah, you know, this means don't be lazy. No, don't be lazy. That's what you need. But as I mentioned once, as I mentioned already earlier, you know, you can get that from Ben Franklin, too. And he was a. He was a moralist, I guess he would say, and Thomas Jefferson and all the other moralists that are around. It's nothing, nothing stunning there. It's nice and poetic. I think this is King, do your kingly business. Get up and get with it. And that is Torah. When the kings of Israel failed to be diligent with Torah, poverty came snuck up on them. As one that travaileth as an armed man. There it was. Okay, let's continue to go on. And we get beginning in verses verse 12, verses 12 through 19. Again, we're going to have some familiar words here in just a moment, but he says, a naughty person. He knows when you've been naughty. He knows when you've been good. I'm getting feedback from the live studio audience here. Luca, a naughty person. As I was studying, I immediately stopped reading right there. Said, I want to figure that out. If, you know, if you got lady wisdom, you got, you got the evil man, you got the, you got the slugger, you got all these representative, I want to know who the naughty person is. Fortunately, it didn't take me much research because I just kept reading a naughty person, a wicked man. Now, we have seen the wicked man before. The wicked man or the evil man. He's been called both. And she starts out, I don't know, is it Proverbs? I don't even have it in the nose. The, the, the wicked or the evil man comes up. I believe it's in Proverbs, chapter two is the first time. So the wicked man is also called a naughty person. Okay, A naughty person. A wicked man walketh with a froward mouth. Now if you've been in our, our study here before, you know, there you say froward. I, I read that word before. I thought it was forward. And then the bald headed guy said froward. Sure enough, it's froward. Remember we talked about it back in chapter two and the word froward came up with the wicked man or with the evil man. This is, this is a connection here. So the guy with the froward mouth is the wicked man, is the naughty person. Same guy, the wicked man. I already mentioned it once tonight. But the wicked man is the one who, again, he is not subtle about it at all. He is very happy just to immediately announce, I don't do this Torah stuff. That is a naughty person, isn't it? In the days of the law. So a naughty person, a wicked man walketh with a froward mouth. Not toward, but forward. The opposite of toward. Toward is forward. So going away from, to and fro, away from Torah. Here's this naughty person, okay? He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers. I, I failed to load it in tonight to show you, but I made a picture of this guy. I, I have his picture. And he's this, you know, kind of wicked looking man who is winking and got his finger out and his, his, his feet are, are moving along. Let's take this and put verse 13 together. Now, he winketh with his eyes. This could sound like subtlety. And one sense it is, but in another sense it is. Not only does his mouth tell you, but his eyes tell you, his feet tell you, his fingers tell you. That is, his whole body is in this thing. He's got the body language. So, you know, his mouth opens up, tells you something. His eyes that, that winketh with the eyes. You know, I, I suppose it is humanity. I don't know. We probably got some people from all over the world tonight in the United States anyway, or probably in Western civilization. I don't know. How is, is this a humanity wide thing? That if you say something that you're trying to communicate, hey, listen up here. You know, that little wink can say I'm lying, I'm lying. That's what it says. So he, he, he will put that right out there. He speaketh with his feet. I think that means I'm out of here. He teaches with his fingers. You can tell when a guy is really, you know, is, is there with it. So there's no subtlety about this guy. Everything about his being is in it. Frowardness is in his heart. Ah, we'll add to the, to the, to the deal here. We'll come more on the inside and see that this awareness moving away from the Torah, that's his, his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly. Suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. Now when you, when you put all this together, it really does come and say, he's talking to the king, says, hey, I want to talk to you about this naughty person. He warns the king about this naughty person. Which exactly goes along again with Torah. Let's look at, I believe we could look at Deuteronomy 13, verse 11, if I'm not mistaken. All Israel shall hear and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this, this among you. It goes on in that passage and we won't look up though you could also go to chapter 17, verses 12 and 13. And this, this wicked guy. When you see this wicked guy who is so froward in his rejection, you know what the Torah says to do with him? Get rid of him. Get him out of here, out of the camp. Done with him. He's gone. It's what the Torah says to do. So here I, I suspect that Rehoboam already knows what you're supposed to do with someone who's really wicked. Get rid of them. Well, here Solomon comes in, says, hey, you're the guy that's got to do the deporting. You're the guy that has to get rid of him. What do you do? A naughty person, a wicked man. Walk us. You know what to do. This guy, he's in it all the way down. From his eyeballs to his heart, he devises mischief continually. He Soweth discord. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken without remedy. You better get this guy out. Then there's the famous passage, I think related. These six things doth the Lord hate. Yay. Seven are an abomination unto him. These the seven things the Lord hates. There's going to be seven deadly sins. That's where we have, I think, gluttony and whatnot. We'll, we'll try to skip that night the but. And these are the seven things that. That the Lord hates in connection with the guy with the froward mouth and the guy that's walking away. I wouldn't be surprised to say. Let me tell you why we need to get rid of this guy. This is what this guy is going to bring into your royal court, or for that matter, into your nation. Seven things the Lord hates. He hates a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. Feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies. And he that soweth discord among brethren. Now we could, I don't know that there would be a lot of value in it, but we could go through here and talk about each one of these. This is what a proud look is. But obviously it's, you know, a thing of pride. I'm not listening to anybody, you know, I got all the answers. A lying tongue. No need to dig into that. We know what that, you know, we don't need the Hebrew for it. Hands that shed innocent blood, you know, take it in its most literal way. Absolutely. Take it in a little more metaphorical way. And the shedding of some metaphorical blood, if you will. Either way you take it. You know, I think the Lord hates it. A heart devise wicked imaginations, feet that be swift to running, to mission, to mischief, a false witness speaking lies, sowing discord among we. We don't need to parse that out. We get it. I think this is what that wicked man does. And that's why he shouldn't have anything at all to do with your kingdom. Rehabo. The Lord hates this. You should hate this. Get it out. And continuing, then we come to verse 20. Now again, you notice. Okay, you can take this in a. In a moralistic this is the right way to live kind of issue. And I'm all for you living in a morally responsible good way. But if you do this, you'll be the guy with the proud look. You know, I never, never, never. You'll be a Moralist. If you're the king. This is life and death stuff. Now, my son. Wonder who that is. Keep my father's commandment, Forsake not the law of thy mother. We've seen this now at least three times. These words right there. Father's commandment, law of thy mother. I mentioned that. You know, law of thy mother is probably Israel's law. You're sort of a child of the nation. I. I could go with it a little more literally if you want to and say, yeah, your mother adopted this, your father adopted this, do it. But if you. If you stoop down and just say, okay, now you're supposed to obey your father and your mother. You're going to miss the point here, but he says, come and take thy father's commandment, the law of thy mother. That is the Torah. Take the Torah. Bind them continually on the. On thine heart. Tie them about thy neck. Isn't that what Moses said to do with the Torah? So once again, he's circling around. He's saying the same thing. Take the Torah. It is your scripture. That is what you. Bind continually on your heart and tie about thy neck. Once again, I. I suspect that there are very few people. Yeah, maybe I'm wrong here. Maybe I'm giving them too much benefit of the doubt. But I was gonna say, a lot of preachers anyway probably would say, hey, yeah, this is. This ultimately, probably was talking about Torah stuff. But then they still want you to read and apply it every day. And bind them continually to thy heart and tie them about thy neck. That puts you under the law. Now, he's supposed to be under the law, Rehoboam and the future kings. So he and the rest of Israel. This is what they're supposed to do. When thou goest, it shall lead thee. It's interesting that he says it right here when you've got. Well, I guess it is singular. Thy father's commandment, the law of thy mother. I bet dad had more than one commandment just in his fatherly advice. And I bet mom had more than one law in her motherly advice. This is coming down to a singular commandment law. It's the ordinance. It's the. It's the Mosaic law. So take it, bind it. When thou goest, it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. When thou awakes, it shall talk with thee. Your whole life is to be centered on Torah. That's what the king of Israel does. For the commandment is a lamp. The law is a light that seems to Kind of sound familiar, doesn't it? Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. From Psalm 119, which is a celebration of Torah. So here the I think you can take again commandment right here. You can put Torah in if you want. Torah is a lamp. Torah is a light. The reproofs of instruction found in Torah are the way of life. You better live Torah, they will. It will keep thee from. From the evil woman and the flattery of the strange woman. Now maybe here we can take evil woman and strange woman. Let me get those highlighted for you just so you have some color. How's that? Maybe we're talking about the same person. The evil woman, the strange woman. We've got the evil man. We've seen him above the wicked man, the evil man, the naughty person, and. And then we've got the strange woman. We've seen her before. The evil man has a froward mouth. The strange woman. You can't get it from her mouth. Her mouth will say the right things. It's. It's more of a secret pattern that she will be deceptive, bringing you probably here. Evil woman is that woman who has a froward mouth. The woman who's not, you know, doesn't. Doesn't try to beguile. She just puts it all out there as the evil one, which would be the first time we've seen her, but an equivalent to the evil man. The flattery, that's that subtlety there. The flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Same one. Now, here's where you got to be careful in trying to. To get this and put it together. You could look at it and say, ah, he's talking about young men and the women they may encounter. Watch out, Luca, for the evil woman. Watch out for the strange woman. Definitely watch out for the strange woman. And then it becomes a completely physical, moral, moralistic kind of passage really, from here to the end about adultery. I am going to venture to say this is not specifically about adultery and women and men and lust, that is the delivery package. But the problem with the strange woman all along, or the evil, in this case, woman, but we could say man. The problem with both was, was that they were leading you away from Torah, leading you away from you, the King, leading you away from your Torah obligations, your covenant obligations. And in that sense, all through the writings and the prophets, you've got the illustration of adultery used when it's talking about idolatry or leaving the Lord. I think that, you know, let's say, take the book of Hosea. You know in the book of Hosea that the whole thing is not just some love lesson about Hosea taking a wife who's not faithful and then bringing her back. Isn't that a sweet love story? You know, we ought to have this on, on the Hallmark, except it had to be PG13 and we can't do that. So what a. What a wonderful love story. Jose is not a love story. Hosea is about the people of God being like Gomer and leaving their loving husband, the Lord. It's about idolatry, whether it's the evil woman or the strange woman. So just like you would not take the book of Hosea and say this is a book about a failed marriage. Nor should you take Proverbs 6, beginning in verse 24 and say this is about men and women and their relationships and their faithfulness to one another. It's not about that. Now if you read it in its simplest form, that's what you would get out of it. But please, those of us who join on Thursday night Bible study, let's not be people who read the Bible in its simplest form. Let's look at it and say, what's the message here? So we got the evil woman froward. The strange woman. Flattery, lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with thy eyelids. I think that's a little flattery for some reason. I think of those, those old cartoons with the. Who was the Looney Tunes character that was like Mae west or something and you know, her eyelashes flat, fluttering in the wind there as she was trying to deceive someone. The. Obviously there's a. There's a good point here. Just about men and women. This is not about that really. This is. Be very careful. There are strange women. That's a substitute for those who are deceptive. Male, female, whatever, who will try to flatter you, try to, to. To, you know, get you into their domain, try to take control over you. Be very careful. For by means of a whorish woman is a man brought to a piece of bread and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. There's. There's truth there in physical relationships, but it's not about that. It's about the king leaving. Torah. Be careful. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? The answer is no. That is, can you take a. A hot coal, stick it right here, you know, in your, in your, in your coat, jacket, and not get burned? Your clothes burned? No. You can't do that. When. When I was a college student and reading the Proverbs once a day, I was only reading this to stay to say, watch out from them older women fluttering their eyes at you. Watch out, you'll get burned. Decent lesson, but the message was king. Watch out, you'll get away from Torah before you know it, and it will burn you. It's a Torah message. Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? A second illustration. I think we need know the answer. So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife, whosoever shall. Whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Now it sure looks like adultery. And it's using the truths of adultery to convey another truth. Rehoboam, if you go off to another God, it's going to burn you. You are not going to be innocent. Now let's continue. Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he's hungry. Now stink through that. I'll give you an illustration. There's a little convenience store right up the road from us that I frequently. A lot of meaning to that word. Too frequent. I frequent it sometimes. I. Middle of the afternoon, I'll say to Luca, let's go on vacation. He'll say, okay, he knows. I mean, we're going down there to the convenience store and I'm gonna get me some caffeine. And, you know, we're gone 10 minutes. That's our vacation. Just a few months back, I went there. The window was broken out of the door. I said, what happened? We got robbed. I said, well, that's interesting. What'd they take? A Reese's peanut butter cup and a chocolate milk. Like, that's odd. That's all they took? Yeah, we got it on camera. Reese's peanut butter cup and a chocolate milk. That's what they took. As I was going out, I don't know if I voiced these words or not, but I certainly thought that as I was going out, I thought, well, at least he's kind of an honest thief. You know, the poor kid was hungry and he needed a Reese's peanut butter cup and. And some chocolate milk. Had to have some energy. I don't know what his story was, but I felt a lot better about that than, you know, he stole 300 in cash and all the cigarettes we got. So the point in verse 30 is, hey, we understand. I'll stretch the limit here. We understand. Sometimes a guy just gotta have Reese's and chocolate milk. I mean, you know, well, if a fella breaks in to steal because he's hungry, probably a lighter sentence and some understanding. It goes on to say, but, you know, if he's found, he'll restore sevenfold. He'll give all the substance of his house. So it doesn't say he's not going to be punished for it. What it. What it does say is this is kind of a minor sin, but goes on back into verse 32. Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. Maybe that's about adultery, but I really think it's about the king turning his back on his covenant relationship and his covenant responsibilities. As the king turning his back on Torah because of an evil woman or because of a strange woman leaving God, therefore the nation leaves God, it destroys his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get. His reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of judgment. This sounds an awful lot like the judgment of God. I mean, excuse me. I said judgment in the day of vengeance. Isn't that when the Lord comes and he comes with a jealous rage and says, you were the king. You, the king, could have led the people to love me, to honor me, to worship me, to serve me, to obey me. But because you turned your back upon me, the entire nation turned from me, my covenant people, and you led them there. The jealousy, the rage of God will destroy his soul. Is that really just about adultery? I remember the story of a woman caught in adultery. And there was a man there, too. But the woman caught an adultery. Go, sin no more. Doesn't sound like this, does it? This sounds like this is about something else. This is about the king not having adultery. That's a bad thing when the king has an adulter. But it's not about the king having adultery. It's about the king of Judah not leading his people toward the law. But fro, fro, fro, fro. Word. I'll get it. The law, the Torah. He will. He is this man here. The. The. The rage of man in the day of vengeance. Sounds to me like God on the day of judgment. He. By the way, it's a capital H there. But don't take that as indicative that it's absolutely God. It's just the first letter of the sentence. You got to put a capital there. So. But I think it is God. He will not regard any ransom. Wait. Well, let's go ahead. Neither will he rest content though thou givest many gifts. Is that true about a king of Judah who commits adultery? There is no ransom he can bring. Remember Solomon's father, who comes and asks forgiveness for adultery and God gives it here? I do think it's God will not give any ransom, neither will he be content though thou give us. This becomes the unforgivable sin. Is physical adultery the unforgivable sin or when the king of Israel I don't mean the unforgivable sin like we see it in Matthew chapter 13, but is it when the king of Israel turns his back on the covenant people, I should say on the covenant God, and therefore turns the people away from the covenant? I really think that's a lot more the issue, wouldn't you say? Who knows? But that is our Proverbs study for tonight in chapter six. And I appreciate you being with us as we try to unveil a little wisdom here. And I want to say hello here in just a moment, but I will give a few words of announcement before I do. If you haven't put in your chats yet, you, you can say hi now and I'll, I'll get you in an honorable mention and we'll look forward to that tomorrow. Gotta ask the theologian. And I think I haven't looked today, but as of this morning I only had a couple questions for tomorrow, which means I've got slots open. If you have a question, go to askthetheologian.com and put your question in tonight. It'll be there ready to go in the morning. And we'll take care of that. Now you can do that anytime. And I always get to all those questions unless I go on vacation or something. But anyway, look forward to that tomorrow, tonight and then Sunday we're going to be going to at night at the 9:45 hour, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. We talked about the angel of the Lord last week. We're going to add to that. I'm going to finish I didn't quite finish the angel of the Lord. And then we're going to look to see could it be that every time someone in the Old Testament saw God that they were actually seeing the second person of the Trinity? I've been our last week I argued that the angel of the Lord is the second person of the Trinity. So we will, we'll look and we'll consider that that issue right there and put all of that together. And, and then at 9:45 we're going to do a little Bit of a little bit of something. Death Undone is our series, and we'll take a look at that and do some work there. Okay, let me. We are. We are short one camera. So I'm doing a little bit of. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. But I would like to say hi to you as I look over onto a different screen here and give some greetings like Jim and Piedmont, South Carolina, welcome to. To the show tonight. To the show that sounded very. Welcome to Bible study tonight. Glad you're here. And along with Everett from Show Low, Arizona. I heard Arizona was hot the other day. I don't know about you all. You're up high like we are, but I hope you had a. Having a good week. And then we got Forney, Texas. Good to see the Giles family. Marilyn and Roger in Wabasha, Minnesota, thanks for being here. And from the Buffalo river in the Ozarks, Deb, thanks for being here. And then Keith and Carla in Auburn, Kentucky. Oh, glad you made it. Huh? She's. She does tax work, so getting home on time this time of year is a good thing. God bless you. And, oh, you know, Chris and Forney brings up a good point here. The Jehovah's Witness don't celebrate birthdays, don't give gifts, because they take those. They, they take the. Thou shalt not give a gift. They, they take those and put themselves in it. And therefore they're not supposed to. Very good. You know, I think it's both of those. They've got cartoon characters coming up here, too. Betty Boop. Now, Betty was a little bit before my time, but what I know of Betty Boop, she had them. Them eyelids. Lola Bunny, I think that's the one I'm thinking of. Lola Bunny. Could be. We'll. We'll check the others and, and maybe have to do some research on this to see. Greetings from Ohio, says Eric. And greetings from New Mexico to you, too. Thanks for being here, Ed. Nancy Forrest there in Pueblo West Colorado. Thank you. And we got Nicholas, who is on the last day of his vacation, joining us from ski country. Thanks. Uh, and I got to go back to Bolingbrook tomorrow, don't you? And, oh, Nicholas, uh, says, uh, let's see. I, I believe Randy started in 2012. I started Thursday night Bible studies, February 2013. That's probably about right, because I moved here in 2015, 10 years ago now, and, and I had been doing it for probably three years. So that, that sounds about right. Toby, good to see you. And let's See, I always get my D towns in Oklahoma mix mixed up between Duncan and Durant. You're in Duncan. I think I got that right. Good to see us. Mark and Durant. And Mark's got a Bible study this weekend. It'll be online Friday, Saturday, Sunday at his church. That'll be online. Lisa, good to see you. Glenwood Springs, Colorado, thanks for being here. And John in West Virginia, God bless you. Good to see you, Phil. And dream a good evening to you as well from Lexington, Kentucky. Thank you very much. You know, I just heard, I just learned this week that Lexington was named Lexington because whoever established it, it was right after the battle at Lexington and Concord. Concord. Concord. How do you say that we'll go with Lexington, Massachusetts? And they wanted to honor that. I didn't know that till I happened to be listening to a book on frontiersman. And there it came. Phil and dreamer in the frontier of Lexington, Kentucky, the once frontier. Debbie and Daryl, good to see you. Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Speaking of town names, is there a Crystal Spring in Crystal Springs? I don't know. You know, Wichita Falls, Texas, only has fake waterfalls. So Crystal Springs might not have Crystal Springs or it might. And, oh, Birdie and Tammy, good to see you all in the Ozarks of Missouri. Welcome. Thanks for, for logging in and saying hi tonight. Appreciate it. God bless you. And one day, thanks for being back. Let's see, one day, I think last week you told me who you are, excuse me, where you were from. And now I've forgotten. It says, I appreciate how you are focusing on transformation. Your Bible study truly is for those who have an ear to hear. God bless you and the congregation for sharing with us. Thank you very much. That's a very nice note. One day. I appreciate it. Toby back in Duncan does bring up good notes. Solomon had 700 wives and possibly more than 700 sons. Indeed. And it's strange that Rehoboam is the only one. We know his name of all those sons he was bound to have had. And, and, you know, here's the guy who talks about he, he himself is the product of adultery. Bathsheba is his mother, and he himself had been rather loose with women. But this is the advice he gives to his son in the form of adultery. But I think really coming back to sticking to Torah, the truth is if you go with Torah, the adultery problem goes away. If you're faithful to Torah, you're. You're faithful to your wife as well. Jennifer, good to see you in Vermont. Thank you for you and your family here tonight. Alex, good to see you in London. God bless. Hope you're doing well. And oh, Nancy, well, brings out Betty Boop also. Well, Nancy's older than me, so she, she knows Betty Boop. But Jennifer, how do you say that? Fluor F L E U R. Remember that character in the cartoons that maybe that's it. Jessica Rabbit. Yeah, I think that's it. I don't want to look up Jessica Rabbit right now with the cameras going, just in case I get something, a surprise. But I'm going to find us a picture of that and put it up there. Luca can't wait. He's looking at me like you are crazy. He's right below the camera so I see everything that he says and does. Thanks each one of you for being here with us. I would like to lead us in a word of prayer before we go on. We will be back next week, by the way, and we'll be looking into Proverbs, chapter seven and continuing along, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I do thank you for these who join us who care for this ministry and care for Bible study and biblical literalism and working through these issues. And I pray that you'd bless them tonight. And as so many of us have gathered down through the years, that our fellowship would be sweet tonight as we're gathered around the great big electronic table and that you would encourage this and, and, and, and bless it to be able to continue as well. And if we get this wrong, as we often pray, dear Heavenly Father, help us to either be corrected or forget about it. And if we got it right, help us to remember it and apply it and be able to communicate it to others as well. And thank you for your love and your watch care for us and our ministry. And these who join us tonight, we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you. From Taos, New Mexico to across America and around the world. I certainly appreciate here and joining us and we'll swip back over here and I'll get the music playing and, you know, make everything look real professional, get the picture moving and I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks. Thanks all. God bless you. And I certainly do appreciate it. And now I think I'm supposed to push this button. There it goes. I disappeared, didn't I? God bless you. We'll see you sa.