Proverbs Pt. 20 Cling to your Wife, not the Strange Woman!

King Solomon continued to speak to his son about the adulteress and his need to live a pure life. He gave practical guidance to his son that was founded upon wisdom from God.

Perils of pursuing the strange woman.

Proverbs 5:7-14  Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 8) Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 9) Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: 10) Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; 11) And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 12) And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13) And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! 14) I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.  

We looked at Proverbs 5:7-8 in our last post. The text contained Solomon's plea for his children to hear and heed his wise counsel and that introduced the next paragraph. Solomon took time to point out many personal losses that his sons would experience as a consequence of meeting a strange woman. 

Giving your honor to others is the idea that committing adulterous acts with a strange woman means you will lose your moral integrity and your Godly character will forever be stained. 

Giving your years to the cruel is the idea of losing the promise of a longer life from following in the path of wisdom. It also means living the hard life of a transgressor. 

Strangers being filled with your wealth means that financial losses will be suffered. Payments will be made to the strange woman and to her husband if he finds out. Some form of restitution was often required in such circumstances as these. 

Your labors being in the house of a stranger runs parallel with the previous statement. It means that because you are under financial obligation it is as if all your vocational income is going to someone else. If the act of adultery produced any children then financial support would be required. Thus, strangers profit from your sin and this is something Solomon sought to warn his children about. 

Mourning at last is the idea of knowing the bitter realities from forsaking the path of wisdom and realizing that you should have listened to your parent's Godly guidance. 

Having your flesh and body consumed is the idea of contracting a sexually transmitted disease and having your life shortened. Such diseases can ravage the human body. 

This section ends with the loud lamentations from children who hated moral instruction from their parent's and whose hearts despised correction. Guilt is admitted because they did not obey their parents and would not head and heed the wisdom that they were given. The children who committed adultery acknowledge the depravity of their actions. 

Numbers 32:23  But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. 

Blessings of marital faithfulness.

Proverbs 5:15  Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. 16) Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 17) Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. 18) Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.19) Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. 

King Solomon turned away from his strong admonishment to avoid the strange woman to tell his son to look to his wife for intimacy. The king taught his sons the value of chastity and moral purity within the context of marriage. The idea of cisterns, wells and running waters is a picture of marital love between a husband and wife. Physical intimacy is enjoyed like the refreshing waters from a cistern or well. 

Genesis 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 

God's plan for marriage is first expressed in Genesis 2. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman. He leaves his parents and cleaves to his wife and they enjoy a one flesh relationship. This is what King Solomon is reinforcing to his sons. Marital love in all its forms is something intimate and precious. This relationship should be nourished and cherished. Why would a man seek satisfaction with a strange woman instead of the wife of his youth? 

Jehovah is the Judge and He sees it all!

Proverbs 5:20-23  And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? 21) For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. 22) His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. 23) He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. 

Proverbs 5 ends with the king urging his sons to remember that no sin is in secret. God sees all sin. In light of this, Solomon raised the question "Why will you seek satisfaction with a strange woman through physical intimacy? The eyes of Jehovah see all these things so it is not possible for anyone to "get away" with their sins. 

Those that sin with the strange woman will become bound up in their sins and die in ignominy and shame. Seeking the strange woman is a life fraught with folly. 

Thoughts to Ponder...

The application of this lesson is fairly simple. 

First, No one can sin and not be judged for it by God.  

Second, adultery with a strange woman is destructive on so many levels as we noted above. 

Third, God designed the one flesh relationship of marriage as a blessing shared between a husband and wife. 

Our society is wracked by the pain and turmoil of separations and divorces. Believers need to live out marriage the way God planned it to be in order to show the world that there is a far better way of life than an endless cycle of marriage and divorce. 

Praise God if you are born again because God has judged your sins in the work and person of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the price of your sin and died in your place so that you can live before God "in Christ."

If you are mired in the muck of sin and degradation you can enjoy a new life in Christ through the new birth. You must turn from your sins and turn to the Savior, Jesus Christ in repentant faith. He will save you and cause your heart to be regenerated. (John 3:15-18; Romans 10:8-17; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

May the Lord have His way in all of our hearts and may He save souls for His glory and renew the strength of all who are wearied in well doing.

Bob