Proverbs and Television

Here is what I was thinking about as I read and listened to Proverbs 7 today. It is a warning for young men to watch out for the prostitute. What about the prostitutes on television?

The text is from The Message. My thoughts are in red.

I stood at the window of my house looking out through the shutters, watching the mindless crowd stroll by, I spotted a young man without any sense.

The mindless crowd…doesn’t that describe TV? We just want to veg-out. We start flipping channels and there goes our sense.

Just then, a woman met him-- she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him. Brazen and brash she was…

Sounds like a commercial or a preview. Sex sells for sure. She looks good and promises much more.

She threw her arms around him and kissed him, boldly took his arm and said, "I've got all the makings for a feast…. So now I've come to find you, hoping to catch sight of your face--and here you are!

Like a sheep to the slaughter we are drawn in; emotion and passion is aroused. Hey, a little won’t hurt… and anyway, it’s a great show. People from church like it. A Christian magazine even said it had some great redemptive analogies.

I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed, colorful imported linens. My bed is aromatic with spices and exotic fragrances. Come, let's make love all night, spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking! Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech.

You could spend all night watching these shows. One after another they draw us in and break us down. Pleasure, passion and no consequences. We root for the villain. We feel warm when the adulterer or fornicator finds their soul mate.

Before you know it, he's trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, like a stag lured into ambush and then shot with an arrow, like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.

Should we be surprised that so many television watching marriages are falling apart? Should we be surprised that spouses are being deceived; looking for the greener-grass. Should we be surprised that so many are becoming addicted to porn and sex? Should we be surprised that so many bodies are being ravaged by sexually transmitted diseases?

So, friends, listen to me, take these words of mine most seriously. Don't fool around with a woman like that; don't even stroll through her neighborhood.

If you are going to watch television, be intentional about it. Check things out beforehand. Don’t channel-surf because that’s when you will end up strolling through her neighborhood. Recognize that the world, the flesh and the devil are out to get you.

Countless victims come under her spell; she's the death of many a poor man. She runs a halfway house to hell, fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.

It’s not a game; we are playing for keeps and the stakes are high. What is the halfway house for you? What is the thing that isn’t all bad but can lead to total bad? It’s not worth messing with.

Philip