25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 GIVE CAREFUL THOUGHT to the paths for your feet
and BE STEADFAST in all your ways.
27 DO NOT TURN TO THE RIGHT OR THE LEFT;
KEEP YOUR FOOT FROM EVIL. Proverbs 4
Take only straight paths for your feet, beware enemy booby wraps!
Derek Prince said that during World War 2, when the campaign in North Africa finally turned to the Allies favour, the axis troops retreated but left many booby traps behind to injure the advancing soldiers. General Bernard Montgomery issued these verses in General Orders as a warning to his troops. They were told not to go near innocent looking objects which might have been placed to cause serious injuries. No doubt the threat of death or serious injury brought a whole new perspective to these scriptures.
We face a cunning enemy who wants to inflict maximum pain and damage, even death to God’s people, who stand in the way of his total domination of the people of this earth. There’s much wisdom in these words from Proverbs, keep to the straight paths, don’t be distracted by something that looks innocent but is really a trap, designed to hurt and damage the unsuspecting. We need to ask for discernment in our daily lives to avoid the traps of the enemy of our souls.
Joseph, who is sometimes referred to as a type of the Lord Himself, because there’s no mention of sin in his life. Joseph was confronted again and again by Potiphar’s wife, who was determined to seduce him, but Joseph didn’t ‘play with fire’, instead he ran from her presence. He fled the danger of his workplace and kept his integrity before God. Genesis 39:12
King David, the man after God’s own heart, wasn’t so fortunate when he saw Bathsheba bathing alone on a rooftop. He had her brought to his palace and she became pregnant by him. In order to cover up his sin he tried to get her husband Uriah to sleep with her, but he refused while the army was on the battlefield, so David had him killed. One sin led to another and David suffered public embarrassment for his actions. 2 Samuel 12:11, 12
The enemy is quick to use one sin to lead us into others and before we know it we have gone far from the Father’s love. In Luke 15 Jesus spoke of three things that were lost, the sheep, the coin and lastly the Lost Son. The son was warmly welcomed back into his Father’s house when he returned humbled and in dire need, but he’d suffered greatly to learn his lesson. David also suffered for his sin, but the Lord had mercy and gave his heir Solomon after he repented.
We serve a merciful God, but the enemy has no mercy and will use everything he can to bring about devastation in people’s lives. May God grant us discernment to see danger and run from it, like Joseph.
3 The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. Proverbs 22
May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us and will deliver us. Amen