"Whoever is naive, let him turn in here, and to him who lacks understanding she says"
The main phrase in this proverb is, "Whoever is naive, let him turn in here..." This is the same kind of phrase that wisdom shouts to us. If you really do not understand the level of complexity and skill that you need to, then you will seek to be grown by someone. The danger is that you may choose the wrong teacher.
In this case, the one who is offering to grow you up is a person of wicked credentials. This is crucial in our quest for wisdom. Who are you turning to for help to become more strategic, more experienced? Just as the first Psalm of David says that the person is blessed who does not follow the counsel of the wicked, so his son Solomon is telling us that you must not turn to the wrong teacher for your lessons on how to live life.
naive
This is the Hebrew word pethi which means simple, naive, open-minded. This is the person who does not have an agenda or mental framework for understanding the world or a way of filtering all the information that is going to begin coming at them. What Solomon is saying is that you should make sure that the person building your mental framework is a person who lives inside of God's moral boundaries.
If the person, who is going to show you how to understand and live life lives outside of God's boundaries, then that person will give you a twisted mental framework. You will accept certain things as normal that will not work and will lead to destruction. Your philosophy of life will be faulty. Most people believe that their mental framework is the right one and works. They do not know why certain things in their life don't work - they just ignore those aspects of life.
All of us are naive in certain areas - especially when we are teens and young adults. We may like to think that we have life wired, but we really need to build a much bigger mental framework in order to comprehend and live life well.
It is a shame that in most colleges and universities in America the professors live their life outside of God's moral boundaries and then try and instruct students on how to live in the "real' world. It is very damaging for a young person to be instructed by those who do not have a personal morality that is righteous.
In this particular example a young man is being offered an "education" by an older woman. Her education will produce a twisting on this young man's soul. Even though men are strongly tempted by this type of education, they need to resist. There are some kinds of knowledge that you do not want to know for it will twist the learner in the process of knowing it.
Our culture is just now barely returning to the idea that there are bits of knowledge that are best left unknown - moral deviancies and oppressive techniques that are best to not learn about. God declares that one does not need to study wickedness for in its study one is twisted.
Remember, there are types of education that a young person really wants to study, but it is best not to study: adultery, stealing, debt, coveting, cursing, intimidation, witchcraft, etc. We are seeing this kind of argument advanced for education for children. They really want to read and learn about these things. Yes, they do but they should not do it for it will change them in ways that is not healthy for them. Educators are all excited that boys and girls are reading books about witchcraft and adultery and bullying and murder. One gets an education by studying those areas, but one is forever changed by the experience. We will find once a whole generation has studied these wicked pursuits that the results in our children are undesirable for it will activate in some percentage of those children - 10-25% perhaps - a living out of those images and ideas. Instead, study righteousness. This is the advice that Paul gave to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:11): Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz