"It Takes Away the Very Soul of Its Owners"

Before sending him to the United States for higher education, an Asian father advised his 16-year-old son not to get involved with bad people.  This advice echoes Solomon's warning:  "My son, if sinners try  to seduce you, do not consent."  (Proverbs 1:10)  Solomon, however, pinpoints the lure they use:  "They keep saying:  'Do go with us. Do let us lie in ambush for blood.  Do let us lie in concealment for the innocent men without any cause.  Let us swallow them down alive just like Sheol, even whole, like those going down into the pit.  Let us find all sorts of precious valuables.  Let us fill our houses with spoil.  Your lot ought to cast in among us. Let there come to be just one bag belonging to all of us.' " -Proverbs 1:11-14.

The lure clearly is riches.  On the basis of making quick profits, "sinners" seduce others into involvement in their violent or unjust schemes.  For material gain these wicked ones do not hesitate to shed blood.  They 'swallow their victims down alive just like Sheol, even whole,' robbing him of  everything he has, just as the grave receives the whole body.  Their invitation is to a career in crime - they want to 'fill their houses with spoil,' and they want the inexperienced  one to 'cast in his lot with them.'  What a timely warning this is for us!  Do not youth gangs and drug dealers use similar recruiting methods?  is not the promise of quick riches the temptation of many questionable business propositions?

"My son," advises the wise king, "do not go in the way with them.  Hold back your foot from their roadway.  For their feet are those that run to sheer badness, and they keep hastening to shed blood."  Predicting their disastrous end, he adds:  "For it is for nothing that the net is spread before the eyes of anything  owning wings.  Consequently, they themselves lie in ambush for the very blood of these; they lie in concealment for their souls.  Thus are the paths of everyone making unjust profit.  It takes away the very soul of its owners." -Proverbs 1:15-19.

"Everyone making unjust profit" will perish in his own course.  The very ambush that the wicked lay for others will become a trap for themselves.  Will deliberate evildoers change their course?  No. A net may be in full view, but birds - creatures "Owning wings" - fly right into it anyway.  In a similar way, the wicked blinded by their greed, go ahead with their criminal acts, even though sooner or later they will be caught.

Next time: Who Will Listen to the Voice of Wisdom?

The Watchtower, 1999