Proverbs 1:8-19--The Enticement of Sinners

Proverbs 1:8-19
English Standard Version
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The Enticement of Sinners
8 Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
    and forsake not your mother's teaching,
9 for they are a graceful garland for your head
    and pendants for your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you,
    do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
    let us ambush the innocent without reason;
12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
    and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we shall find all precious goods,
    we shall fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot among us;
    we will all have one purse”--
15 my son, do not walk in the way with them;
    hold back your foot from their paths,
16 for their feet run to evil,
    and they make haste to shed blood.
17 For in vain is a net spread
    in the sight of any bird,
18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
    they set an ambush for their own lives.
19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
    it takes away the life of its possessors.

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Solomon pleads for his son (probably the son that was set to reign after his death) to head his father's instruction and his mother's teaching.  We learn though that Solomon's son will despise wisdom and be a fool, and it is God's plan to use Solomon's son to judge Solomon's house and the people of Israel will split into two nations as Solomon and his wives led the people into all kinds of idolatry.

Solomon said that his instruction and his son's mother's teachings would be like a garland around his head and a pendant around his neck.  These are signs of wealth and power--they not only are adornments, but they showed that someone was to be respected.  What seems to be missing from these instructions though is to tell his son to follow the LORD's commands and instructions even more than his own.  His son know that he was a hypocrite who lived one way his entire life, but at the end had buyer's remorse and tried to tell his son not to live that way.  The LORD is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and we obey His commands and heed His instruction, even if they are not the commands and instruction that come from our earthly fathers and mothers.

Solomon tells his son not to consent when sinful men try to entice him to do evil things.  He should not join them in their pursuits to shed innocent blood, to steal people's wealth and take it by force as their own, even if they promised to split the loot with him.  It is not worth the price of one's soul.

They will be caught in their own snares and traps that they lay.  It will be their blood that is shed, even though they are making plans to shed innocent blood.  They will lose everything that they acquired by dishonest gain, and even if they live, their sinful lives will eat away at them from the inside out so that they will have wish they were dead, and they will feel dead inside.  They think they will possess wealth, but their unjust gains will possess them and will destroy them.