Flatter . . . Splatter!

Flattery gets you everywhere!

We have been taught to believe it, and it is basically true. Flattery offers loads of benefits. However, in back of flattery, you will often find lies.

Solomon warned his son about the immoral woman. She was a flatterer and she was bold.

   So she seizes him and kisses him, 
      And with a brazen face she says to him:
   “I was due to offer peace offerings; 
      Today I have paid my vows.
   Therefore I have come out to meet you, 
      To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.”
   --Proverbs 7:13-15

The ‘brazen face’ is a serious face, seemingly truthful. It is with this brazen face that she sells her empty flattery.

The peace offering was an animal sacrifice that was divided between God, the priest, and the worshipper. The portion received by the worshipper was to be eaten on the day that the offering was made. So, the woman declared that ‘on that day’ she had paid (fulfilled) her vow of an offering that had to eaten that same day.

I have come out to meet you.
(YOU are the object of my desire.)

To seek your presence earnestly.
(I have made a strong effort to find you.)

I have found you.
(My quest is over, my dream fulfilled...in you.)

The young man was seduced by her flattery. Yet, the only reason her flattery worked was because of his inflated ego, inexperience in life, and his own desires. Through flattery she offered him what he wanted.
But could she deliver on her promises?

It was true, she had sacrificed that day, but it was a setup. Her sacrifice provided her the opportunity to satisfy her selfish desire. She wasn’t looking specifically for ‘him.’ She was looking for any two-legged ‘him.’ She was looking for the first ‘him’ that she could draw into her clutches. She would be satisfied with the first naïve fool who passed by.

Her flattery painted a picture of lies, making it seem as if ‘he’ was the very one she desired.

She flattered . . . and he fell greatly, splattering himself spiritually into ‘the chambers of death.’ (v. 27)

Still today, men (especially young men and men in mid-life crisis) are drawn in by the illusion created by flattery. Yet, through humility and knowledge of God's word, a young man can avoid the sexually immoral woman, and therefore avoid spiritual death. Verse 26 reveals the outcome...

   For many are the victims she has cast down,
   And numerous are all her slain.

Men, beware; be wise; be pure.