Proverbs 23:26 (ESV)
My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
This proverb is the introduction to the many that follow, warning, once again, the young naive man to be careful around women of ill-repute. Solomon is asking his son to take his heart and surrender it to God. Solomon, here, is the speaker, but God is the author. We are told in the Old Testament and the New Testament that we are to love The Lord God will all our hearts, soul and might. It is the heart that the adulterous women (representing all folly) tries to seduce. The first line of this proverb is telling the son to hand over his heart to God before the tempter comes to steal it away. Once we commit it to God we have some protection from her charms. The second line simply goes on and elaborates the first line. When we give our heart fully to God we will have a change in our affections. We will no longer delight in the things the adulterous women is about to say or show. When we give our heart fully to God we get a change in what we delight in each day. When we delight in something it is typically something we see with our eyes. We see a new house, car, boat, clothes, or motorcycle and we "delight" in it. The Hebrew word for delight is, "ratsah." It means to be pleased with something or someone. Its first use in the Bible is in Genesis 33:20 when Jacob uses it to acknowledge that God was "pleased" with him and accepted him. When God enters our hearts He changes our attitude toward His Word. When once we were hostile toward God (Romans 8:7-8), God changes our hearts and we delight in His Word (Psalm 1:2). When we let our eyes ponder over God's Word like Josiah of old (1 Kings 22-24) we change what we see and what we delight upon. God is so powerful when He changes our hearts. He can literally change our appetites and desires.
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