“The Femme Fatale”

Sunday, January 19, 2025

A worthless person, a wicked man,

                goes about with crooked speech,

winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,

                points with his finger,

with perverted heart devises evil,

                continually sowing discord…

(Proverbs 6.12-14)

The book of Proverbs is full of warnings like this. On the surface, it’s an admonition to be on the lookout for such people, so as to avoid being harmed by their evil deeds. But it’s also a caution against becoming “a wicked man” yourself! Clearly, if you’re telling lies and deliberately sabotaging the people around you, you’ve crossed the line; however, the person who avoids telling outright lies, but makes use of half-truths and innuendo can easily convince himself he’s doing nothing wrong. This is a bigger problem, because a confessed sinner will usually stop short of whatever he considers to be going too far; whereas the one who claims the moral high ground and invests his deeds with the weight of God’s judgment, will never impose a conscientious limit on his own sin.

The wise father of Proverbs also warns his son about this sort of behavior in women.

For at the window of my house

                I have looked out through my lattice,

and I have seen among the simple,

                I have perceived among the youths,

                a young man lacking sense,

passing along the street near her corner,

                taking the road to her house

in the twilight, in the evening,

                at the time of night and darkness.

(Proverbs 7.6-9)

“The adulteress” is a running theme throughout the book, and that particular sin is a great danger; but if you take note of the way this woman gets what she wants, you’ll see that it’s the same sort of perverse heart and “crooked speech” that the cynical, manipulative man of chapter 6 employed.

And behold, the woman meets him,

                dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.

(Proverbs 7.10)

This is not pure foolishness; she understands subtlety and enticement. We often explain away sinful behavior as being born of stupidity. This is sometimes really the case, but it often isn’t, and the crafty sinner is more dangerous than the dumb brute!

With much seductive speech she persuades him;

                with her smooth talk she compels him.

All at once he follows her,

                as an ox goes to the slaughter,

or as a stag is caught fast

                till an arrow pierces its liver;

as a bird rushes into a snare;

                he does not know that it will cost him his life.

(Proverbs 7.21-23)

In such an encounter, the man is obviously pursuing his own lusts—there’s a reason he was loitering in her neighborhood. At the same time, however, the woman envisioned here does more than simply allow the man to satisfy his desire. On the contrary, his rational will tries to restrain him, but “she persuades him,” and “compels him.” The picture is not one of a lustful man taking advantage of a naïve or defenseless girl; it’s not even one of forbidden lovers mutually rejecting self-control. She is manipulating him into doing what she wants! That doesn’t excuse him, or make him any less dead, in the end.

And now, O sons, listen to me,

                and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;

                do not stray into her paths,

for many a victim has she laid low,

                and all her slain are a mighty throng.

Her house is the way to Sheol,

                going down to the chambers of death.

(Proverbs 7.24-27)

The point is to avoid not only the sin itself, but also to avoid the people who tempt you to sin. As Paul later wrote, “Bad company ruins good morals” (1Co 15.33).

Of course, as we observed in the first passage quoted above, women aren’t the only ones who act like this, and men aren’t the only ones who should beware. The Proverbs personify this spirit as a seductive woman, for the same reasons that led to the stock character known as the femme fatale in stories all over the world since the beginning of stories. One way to get what you want is to take it by force. That is a stereotypically masculine tactic, and is also well represented in art. But the use of more devious means to beguile others into willingly doing what you want, even contrary to their own interests, is a stereotypically feminine tactic, owing to the wide disparity in size and strength between most men and most women. The simplest way for many men to get what they want is simply to take it, or to get it through credible threats of violence. Most women have to learn more wily methods. Since most men’s primary desire is to have women, a wide array of tools are available. Both approaches are sinful, but while the masculine method doesn’t bother to obscure itself, the feminine method relies heavily on a façade of virtue.

God tells us to shun both. Dynamic sins like theft, rape, and murder are simple and, in most cases, rather easy to distinguish.  More artful ones like deception, hypocrisy, and double-dealing are harder to detect, because they deal so much with the heart, which we are unable to see clearly. But God sees!

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

(Hebrews 4.13)

You can’t always tell when someone is being insincere or manipulating you. Proverbs tells us that it’s good to be on guard against this, and provides many hints to help us discern. But being cheated is not the worst thing that could happen. Far worse is to become a cheat, following the femme fatale playbook to get what you want through sinful means. We do have the power to prevent this.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart…

(1 Peter 1.22)

Jeremy Nettles

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