Pondering the End Game
All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast…Proverbs 7:22.
Yesterday we quoted Ernest Hemingway on bankruptcy. It happens gradually, then suddenly. Is the sexual temptation and destruction outlined in Proverbs 7:22 the same? It is. Solomon is drawing a line from looking out the window, walking by her house, flirting with temptation, and then “suddenly” being drawn away. If you only read verse 22 it would seem as if this all happened so suddenly. But we have more than verse 22—we can see the whole story unfold. It begins with dabbling in sin and ends with the simpleton destroyed.
Solomon’s strategy here is incredibly helpful. And it applies to far more than sexual immorality. It’s helpful to think about the end of each little temptation. John Owen said it this way:
“Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression, every thought of unbelief would be atheism, might it grow to its head…every rise of lust, might it have its course, would come to the height of villainy: it is like the grave, that is never satisfied.” (John Owen)
Every sin aims to destroy you and to dethrone God. Even the least little temptation has this as its aim. Sometimes it is helpful to think about what that devastation could look like.
I had the privilege of having a spiritual disciplines class with Donald Whitney. That’s the guy who wrote one of the books on spiritual discipline: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. One of the exercises that Dr. Whitney had us do was to think about everything we could lose if we fell into gross immorality. We went through the exercise with a friend.
I think some might view this as a bit sadistic. Perhaps they even consider it to be fear-based. And I suppose one could fall into a trap of being like Odysseus—who ties himself to the mast but still listens to the song of the sirens. If this is the only weapon you have in fighting temptation, you’ll probably only fight legalistically. And the law is powerless to control our lusts.
But the gospel isn’t powerless. Which is why we can employ a strategy similar to that of Solomon. It’s beneficial to think of all the consequences of our sin. That isn’t legalism. That is wisdom. Wisdom believes there are consequences to our actions. Gospel wisdom changes the heart in such a way that we do not want to live in a way that will bring reproach upon Christ. We do not want to be unfaithful to our covenant. But the reality that we are already accepted in Christ, and our union with the Spirit, gives us power to avoid this foolishness.
The gospel also tells us what to do when we find ourselves having been fools and hanging upside down from a tree like a deer about to be gutted. (If that’s even what the text means—there is some debate about the meaning of the verse, and we’ll unpack that in today’s bonus content). We know that in the gospel, our foolishness doesn’t get the last word. Jesus does. That truth leads us to repentance. And it also leads us to avoidance of the sin in the first place.
When you’re tempted ask some of these hard questions. What do I stand to lose here? What might be the temporal consequences? What will this do to my sense of closeness and fellowship with the Lord? Let’s think about Micah 7:8-10,
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.
This is a great verse to apply if you’ve blown it. The gospel means that your fall isn’t the last word. That’s good news. The Proverb might have you irreparably hanging from a tree, but the gospel has a further word. It speaks power over our consequences. We can say, “when I fall, I shall arise.”
But look at the other parts of this verse. “Sit in darkness.” That stinks. Who wants that? Who wants to be in the pit of depression and despair and covered with guilt and shame? “I will bear the indignation of the Lord.” That’s not fun. Why would you sign up for that? That’s foolishness. That’s why I say the gospel, which changes our affections to want to please God, also gives us power to avoid the trap—just as Solomon encourages.