Proverbs 1:10 - Meaning and Application

Here Solomon gives young people another general rule for finding and keeping the path of wisdom: avoid the trap of bad company. David’s psalms begin with this warning, and so do Solomon’s proverbs, because nothing is more harmful to a living faith or a right life (Proverbs 1:10): “My son, whom I love and deeply care for, if sinners try to lead you astray, do not agree with them.” This is good advice for parents to give their children when they send them out into the world. It is the same warning Peter gave to the first believers, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40).

Notice how eager wicked people are to draw others into the path of ruin: they entice. Sinners like company in sin. The angels who fell were tempters almost as soon as they became sinners. They do not usually threaten or argue at first. They lure with flattery and smooth words, like bait that pulls the careless young person toward the hook. But they are wrong if they think that pulling others into guilt, and tying them to their own sin, will lessen what they themselves must answer for. It will only increase it.

Notice also how careful young people must be not to be led astray by them: “Do not consent.” If they tempt you, they cannot force you. Do not say what they say or do what they do, and do not join them in their sin. To press this warning, Solomon shows the false reasoning sinners use when they try to deceive others, and the tricks they use to fool unstable souls. He points to highway robbers, who try to draw others into their gang (Proverbs 1:11-14).

See what they want the young man to do: “Come with us” (Proverbs 1:11). At first they seem to ask only for his company. Then the invitation grows stronger (Proverbs 1:14): “Join us fully. Share your lot with us. Bring your strength to ours, and let us stand or fall together. You will be treated as we are treated. Let us all have one purse, so we can spend what we gain together.” That is the goal they are after.

They appeal to two greedy and destructive desires. First is cruelty. They long for blood, and they hate innocent people who have done them no harm. Honest and hardworking people shame them and condemn them by their very goodness. So they say, “Let us lie in wait for their blood and hide ourselves for them” (Proverbs 1:11). The innocent are not expecting danger and are not armed, so they will be easy prey. “How sweet it will be to swallow them alive!” they say (Proverbs 1:12). These violent men would be as eager as a hungry lion tearing a lamb apart. If someone objects that the bodies of the murdered would reveal the crime, they answer, “No danger. We will swallow them whole, as if they were buried.” Who would think human nature could sink so low that one person could take pleasure in destroying another?

The second desire is greed. They expect a rich reward from the crime (Proverbs 1:13): “We will find all kinds of valuable goods if we follow this trade. Even if we risk our lives, we will fill our houses with loot.” This shows, first, the way they think about worldly wealth. They call it valuable goods, but it is neither truly solid nor truly precious. It is only a shadow, a vanity, especially when it is gained by robbery (Psalm 62:10). It is like something that does not really exist, because it cannot give a person lasting satisfaction. Yet they count it as precious, and for that reason they will risk their lives, and maybe their souls, to get it. Many people ruin themselves because they overvalue the wealth of this world and treat it as precious treasure. Second, it shows how much of it they promise themselves. “We will fill our houses with it.” Those who trade in sin expect huge profits and think it will bring them great gain. But they are only dreaming that they are eating. Their housefuls shrink to almost nothing, like grass on a rooftop.

Solomon then shows how harmful these ways are, to make us hate them (Proverbs 1:15): “My son, do not walk with them. Do not keep company with them. Stay as far from them as you can. Keep your foot from their path. Do not follow their example.” Our nature is so corrupt that our feet are quick to step onto the path of sin. So we must use firm self-control to keep away from it, and stop ourselves if we begin to drift even a little toward it.

Think first about how harmful their way is by its very nature (Proverbs 1:16). “Their feet run to evil,” to what displeases God and hurts people, “and they hurry to shed blood.” Sin is a downhill road. Men do not merely fail to stop themselves, they often speed up the longer they stay on it, as if they are in a hurry to do enough harm and must not waste a moment. They said they would move slowly, “let us lie in wait for blood” (Proverbs 1:11), but in reality they rush ahead, because Satan has filled their hearts.

Think also about how harmful the outcome will be. They are plainly told that this wicked path will end in their own destruction, yet they still go on. In this they are like a foolish bird that sees the net spread out to catch her, and yet flies into it because of the bait (Proverbs 1:17). We are worth more than many sparrows, so we should have more sense and act with greater care. God has made us wiser than the birds of the air (Job 35:11), and we should not be as foolish as they are.

They are actually worse than birds, because even birds sometimes notice danger. A hunter knows it is useless to set a trap where the bird can see it, so he hides it. But the sinner sees ruin at the end of his way. The murderer and the thief can see prison and the gallows ahead, and they may even see hell before them. Their warnings tell them they will surely die, but it does no good. They rush into sin and keep rushing onward, like a horse charging into battle. The very trap they set for others will turn back on them (Proverbs 1:18-19). They lie in wait for the blood and lives of others, but it will become, against their own plans, the price of their own blood and lives. They will come to a shameful end. If they escape human justice, God’s judgment still follows them. Their greed drives them into sins that will not let them live out even half their days, but will cut their lives short in the middle.

They have little reason to be proud of property gained this way, since it takes the owner’s life and then passes to other masters. What profit is it for a person to gain the whole world if he loses his life? Then he can enjoy the world no longer. Much less can anyone profit if he loses his soul and is swallowed up in ruin and destruction, as many are through the love of money.

Solomon names robbery on the road, but he means to warn us against every kind of evil to which sinners try to lure people. The paths of drunkards and sexually immoral people are like that too. They follow pleasures that lead to ruin in this life and forever, so do not join them.