My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. Proverbs 1:10

Here we are given an inside seat to a spectacle that takes place every day.  This event is when a fool or group of fools approach a person to entice him to join with them in their ungodly schemes.  This is something we need to see because as Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes, there really is nothing new under the son.  Men have tried to get others to join with their gang to do mischief for numerous generations.  The lies are pretty much unchanged - and yet they are good to know ahead of time so that we are not taken in by the offers of fools whose only true promise is to get us into serious trouble before everything is over.  How young people need to read these words and profit from rejecting them ahead of time.

Here a father speaks to his son to warn him against such foolish company - and against their foolish offers to "cut him in on the action."  His first instructive comment is to refer to those who do such things as "sinners."  What is instructive about this word is the comment made by Zhodiates that this word is used, "to describe those who, by their actions, are under the wrath and judgment of God and face ultimate destruction."  In Psalm 104:35 we are told that these folks will be consumed from the earth - and in Isaiah 1:28 that they will be crushed and will come to their end by the hand of God. 

The father warns that these people will come to "entice" them.  They will come with words to try to allure, persuade, and deceive.  They want to convince this young man to join with them as they plan to do their evil deeds.  This may sound all melodramatic to some who read this - but that is only because the world has done a good job of mocking this kind of talk.  They do so by overdramatizing the father or the spiritual guide - making him sound stupid when he warns of such things.  Their effectiveness has only dulled the minds of our children to those who truly will come to them with such wicked counsel.  In the end they only make it easier for the criminal and harder for the parent or mentor.  This father is doing a good thing in warning his son about this kind of interview.  His advice to his son is not to consent.  In the end the boy is going to have to make a decision on his own.  Eventually every child will leave the home and will face temptation to do evil.  If we do not instruct them - they will face this without godly counsel on their side.  This father does an admirable job of letting his son hear the enticing words ahead of time.  But the father does so with additional commentary explaining to his son just where such counsel will lead. 

Hey dad, let me ask you a question.  Are you preparing your son to face these things?  Are you taking the time to let him hear the kind of things he is going to be told - and then put them into the context of where they will take him?  There is a kind of Christian parenting that is going on today that does not think kids should be exposed to anything that is remotely wrong.  I agree with this when it comes to exposing them to such things and encouraging them to do them.  But what this godly father is doing is exposing his son to the reality of what wicked men will say to him one day.  He is letting his son know the arguments - the offers - the lies that will be told to him.  Then he is taking those statements and dismantling them before his son.  He does so by showing his son where such lies will lead him.  The warning his boy receives is a wise one - and one that we would do well to teach to our own children as well.  When we think that placing them into a world without any form of tempation of proposed evil will protect them - we may be deceiving ourselves.  One day they won't be with us - and an evil man will approach with his slick lies.  What will they do then?  Will they know how to stand and resist the lies?  Maybe . . . maybe not.  The only way we can prepare them for such a day is to teach them by exposing them to what will be said - as well as the sure judgment and destruction that comes with the lifestyle that will result.