Proverbs 30:27
This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats, and wipes her mouth,
and says, “I have done no wrong.”
In C.S. Lewis’ great children’s story “The Magician’s Nephew”, the great Lion Aslan creates the land of Narnia and its inhabitants and then calls pairs of each kind of animal and makes them Talking Animals. Then he warns them not to go back to the ways of beasts because “out of them you were taken and into them you can return.” The striking thing about today’s verse is that the image it employs reminds us of this terrible warning. Contemplate that picture of the woman wiping her mouth. This is no dainty dab with a napkin. This is a bare arm dragged across the lips while the red juice of some forbidden fruit is still dribbling off the chin. We can picture the dark eyes looking at us, without shame. Incapable of shame. Like a jackal’s eyes. It is an animalistic image. Here is the terrible picture of the heart that has chosen mere animal instinct over the love of God until, like a dumb animal, it can no longer see what is wrong or right. Today, stop and ask God to show you the upward call of Christ Jesus and seek his help to forsake whatever tempts you from becoming fully human in him.
