My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us ambush the innocent without reason;
12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse”—
Over against God's ideal, expressed in 8, 9, we have the other way, the way of fol- ly, set in stark contrast. There is a recognition in these verses of the inevitability of con- flict and temptation. For the life of wisdom and fear of the Lord is not the way of the world (cf a similar contrast in the conflict between light and darkness set forth in the Prologue to John's gospel). The writer is putting before us the eternal choice: this is the one way, he says in 8, and here is the other. There is a strangely up-to-date ring about this temptation and pressure put on a young man to kick over the traces and cast in his lot with a spirit of lawlessness, violence and anarchy, to sit light to the principles of law and order. This is exactly how youngsters of today become involved in gangs and are led into mischief and criminal activity. The operative word is 'entice' in 10; and the strength of the enticement lies in the glamour that it succeeds in imparting to the programme of evil in 11-14. It is always the false glamour that attracts, and stirs debased ambitions in the young. It is one of the tragedies of modern culture that the mass media somehow succeed in glamorising daring crimes and acts of lawlessness in such a way as to make such a life appear attractive and satisfying to youthful enthusiasms. If only some effective way could be found to debunk the spurious glory that rests on daredevil and reckless de- fiance of law and order, and show it for what it is, mean, low, ugly and debased, and show also its inevitable consequences in the end-products of the ruin of homes and fam- ilies, the broken hearts, the social, moral and spiritual degradation, a great and ines- timable service would be rendered to society. A series on the mass media on the subject of 'Crime does not pay' is long overdue!