photo #3808938

In Temptation, we should see the End before the Beginning.Prov. 5:3-4 3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Temptation is always for the moment of pleasure and not the result of your action. The devil is good at window dressing, as our commercialized world shows. We have to look beyond the immediate moment to the consequences of sin.The picture in Proverbs could be applied to almost any situation, but here it is a young man tempted to commit adultery with a “strange woman.” The hint is she is someone he doesn’t even know but is tempted sexually at the immediate moment. In other similar temptations (later described), she is married, and her husband is off on a trip. The pleasure of the moment plays full sway in the young man’s mind. Our warped culture says it's ok to give in because we are “only human,” and the young man needs to experience this sexual encounter to grow up.However, alluring she is in her speech, the proverb says her “end” is wormwood with its bitterness, and her mouth is a two-sided sword. The initial temptation is so pervasive, but the other side brings heartache, betrayal, sin, and payment for it. All through Proverbs, we are told to look at the end of something before we dive in at the beginning of sin. Don’t forget your youth or your life, for that matter.God is counting on you to be faithful to His Word, morality, and success in this life. The devil never shows you the old drunk sleeping in the streets but the “good time” you can have drinking. But that’s where you could wind up. Run from it as Paul says in II Tim. 2: 22. See the end of sin and don’t be fooled by the moment's pleasure. Live for your whole life and witness, not the moment's immediacy.God isn’t holding anything back from you when He says don’t succumb to temptation. He wants the best, and the best is in the future regardless of what you think will give you pleasure now if it is sin. See what God has in store for you for good, and don’t throw it away for what the world calls pleasure, and God calls sin, you will certainly pay for.--- Dan Nelson