Eccl. 7:25-26: "So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly. I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare." (Today’s NIV)

How can we avoid to sin against God when the temptation is strong?

David uses sexual temptation as an example. It’s a temptation that he knows really well from his own experience with Bathsheba. People who are very needy, who have experienced very little love and affirmation, whether in their past or recently, indeed cling their hearts easily to another person, who then is endangered him/herself to lose his/her own freedom and power of judgment, and this even more when s/he is also very needy.

David notices how important it is not to be biased in one’s judgment. We are easily deceived by our hearts, by our desires. We need wisdom from God to recognize wickedness as such and to become aware of how stupid it would be to give in to that temptation. God wants that we do not put at stake our liberty in Jesus and that we do not voluntarily submit to the slavery of sin any more.

The good news is that even in this Old Testament text we find a promise made by God: „The man who pleases God will escape.“ We are not sinners any more in the eyes of God, we are acceptable because Jesus died for all of our sins on the cross. Therefore this promise is for us: We do have the necessary wisdom through God’s Spirit and we do have the power that is needed to act accordingly. We are new people! Why then should we again give in to temptation and allow it to shackle us?