Straight and Narrow

Straight and Narrow

Proverbs 7:4-5

“Say to wisdom,’You are my sister’,and call insight your intimate friend, to keep your from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.”


This week, I went out to Iowa to take part in seeing my younger brother, Charlie, get married. As excited as I was about the wedding, I was also able to enjoy the simple fact of just being around family. Family and friends hold such an integral part of our lives as we cling to them in times of need and rely on them to show us what we need and where we need to go. The pastor giving the sermon (my dad) spoke to the groomsmen and the bridesmaids and encouraged them to always push the bride and groom together through the good and the bad. This verse reminds me of this action as we need to call wisdom and insight our intimate friend and brothers/sisters and rely on them to push us back on the narrow path.

This chapter talks about how easy it is to be led astray, and Proverbs uses the example of a young man walking into the trap of an adulteress. It is a very descriptive, almost menacing, chapter as it talks about the seductive adulteress luring this young man into her home while her husband is gone and how she “lurks” around every corner. . . scary right? This story is using the adulteress as an example, but sin is scary and the evil one does lurk around every corner, not only with lustful depictions and deceitful people, but with material temptations and the appeal of having more is better.

I gravitated toward this verse because God wants us to not only be wise in our actions and continually ask for wisdom, but make it like your sister or your brother. The relation of wisdom to a sister or your brother is so powerful to me as I cherish the relationship with my brothers and how much they have helped me in tough times. My brothers have helped keep me away from ‘forbidden’ areas throughout my life and this comparison between wisdom and the relationship with a brother really hit home with me. As we all continue to fall short of the glory of God as it says in Romans, wisdom these days can be hard to come by as well as insight into situations before they happen. We need to seek these things out so that we can hold fast to them and be kept on the narrow path so we can avoid the things lurking in the dark.

Pray this week to be enriched and encouraged by the Holy Spirit to make a mighty work in our hearts so that we can be a light to others who are straying from the path and a light to each other as a church.


Have a great rest of the week.

- Tim Johnson

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