1. Steer clear of immoral women: My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge (Prov 5:1-2). - What is the discretion Solomon is talking about? o The ability to make good choices o The ability to (1) see and appreciate the pull and temptation of a particular course of action, but (2) to still choose the better option o Godly wisdom and understand result in making that good decision o The more of it you have, the more likely you ll choose discretion over pleasure o Perhaps it d be better to say, the more you allow Godly wisdom and understanding to control, influence and shape your life, the more likely it is you ll choose discretion over pleasure - Solomon explains why it s important to listen to God, instead of the siren call of sin: For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword (Prov 5:3-4). - The woman is a stranger or foreigner, which means she s foreign to the son = not his wife o She may be married; she may not be married o She may be a cultic prostitute; she may be a neighbor s wife - The word adulteress is an interpretation; all it says is that she s a strange or foreign woman to Solomon s son what does this mean? o KJV = strange o RSV = loose woman o NKJV = immoral o ESV = forbidden 1
o LXX = don t listen to a bad/worthless woman (later, prostitute woman ) It s a metaphorical meaning, and immoral or loose seems to be the best bet She s an adulteress if she sleeps with Solomon s son, whom he presumes will be married in this scenario Solomon s point is that his son needs to be faithful to his spouse - Solomon is envisioning a literal, hypothetical woman whose words can entice his son to sin what other application is there for our contemporary situation? o Pornography - The siren call of sexual sin is very enticing, very alluring and sounds very, very good o Honey tastes sweet, and enticing speech is smooth and pleasant o Solomon wants Rehoboam to know there s nothing down that road but the bitterness of pain and regret Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it (Prov 5:5-6). - This is like what Solomon said in the previous chapter (4:14-17) - He pictures this adulterer (man or woman the context demands Solomon use a woman) as someone consumed with her own lusts - The point is not that adultery = damnation o One sin does bring eternal condemnation, but that s not the point o The point is the trajectory of the lifestyle; where does it lead (read 1 Jn 2:1-6)? - This woman s feet are walking a path that only leads to death; physical and spiritual - her steps lead to nowhere but the grave - What does Solomon say about her mindset, in v.6? o She doesn t think, doesn t ponder, doesn t pause for introspection, doesn t sit down one morning and say, what am I doing with my life!? o She s like someone who s lost, but doesn t know it ( her ways wander, and she does not know it ) 2
o And, to move beyond the adultery context, this perfectly describes the spiritual state of everybody who hasn t been born again They don t know where they re going They don t know where they are They don t ponder the path of life They don t pause for introspection They don t pause to ask: Why am I here? What am I doing with my life? What s the point of my life? Why does anything I do matter? What happens when I die? o There s a mindless, herd mentality to the rhythms of everyday life This doesn t mean these people aren t intelligent far from it! But, they haven t stopped to ponder the big questions of life in a substantive way This adulteress sure hasn t; and Solomon doesn t want his son to go down that road - The really remarkable thing is that, of all people, Solomon is writing all this! o Read Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 and reflect o Read Augustine, Confessions 2.2 and reflect o Read Ecclesiastes 12:1-13 and reflect 2. Why you should steer clear: And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth (Prov 5:7). - You can sense the desperation and fervency in Solomon s words! Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house (Prov 5:8). - This echoes what Solomon said in the last chapter (3:14-15); the point is to run away from temptation 3
o So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, (2 Tim 2:22) - Why? lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner (Prov 5:9-10). - You get the impression of a man being picked apart by forces he unleashed by his own stupidity a brief, bad decision can have terrible consequences! o Your honor and dignity = gone o Years of toil or work = given to merciless and cruel people (e.g. the woman through blackmail, family exacts financial revenge, rather than stoning, etc.) o Your money and assets = gone - What s the situation? o (1) Is she a married woman, whose husband exacts some kind of revenge? o (2) Is she just a pretty woman, whom Rehoboam cheats with, who lavishly spends the money and gifts he gives her? o (3) Is she a prostitute, who turns the money she earns over to her agent or handler? o (4) Is she a foreign woman, and the money she earns goes to pagans? o (5) Is she a cultic prostitute, and the strangers and foreigners are pagan, cultic priests who try to seduce Israelite men to forsake Yahweh? - Who knows!? o I think Solomon is being deliberately vague here o It doesn t matter what the specific situation is; the point is the general principle = you ll be sorry! and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, How I hated discipline, 4
and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation, (Prov 5:11-14). - Solomon wants Rehoboam to not imitate his own mistakes; to be filled with regrets and recriminations at the end of his life (1 Kgs 11:9-13; cf. Ecc 1) o He s especially warning Rehoboam against the stigma of public humiliation in the congregation 3. Love your own spouse: - So, he calls Rehoboam to be satisfied with his own spouse; not someone else: Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? (Prov 5:15-20). - This largely speaks for itself; marital love is tastefully pictured by the metaphors o Some people spend lots of time trying to identify the streams and the cistern, but I don t think it s necessary, and I don t think it s Solomon s point 5
o Everything is summed up in vv.18-20 ( let your fountain be blessed the bosom of an adulteress? ) - Solomon, for all his faults, gives us a more idealistic view of marriage, and the marriage relationship, than anyone in the entire Bible o Paul talks about marriage, but he mixes theory with the nuts and bolts of real life o Solomon stays more abstract, and always views marriage (and marital love) as a beautiful, sacred thing which seems paradoxical, given his own mistakes! - Read Song of Solomon 4:1 5:1 o Don t read it as an allegory for Christ s love for his church I think that s an approach people take to avoid the embarrassment of preaching and teaching a book that celebrates the physical act of love within a marriage (e.g. hymns Lily of the Valley [Song 2:1]; His Banner Over Me [Song 2:4]). o Instead, read it as a picture of the kind of relationship God intended a husband and wife to have with each other o Then, consider the cheapness of internet pornography, or an illicit affair ( Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? ) 4. Call for reflection God is watching: For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths (Prov 5:21). - God sees and watches everything you do, and He ponders, thinks about and examines everything you do in your life (e.g. lyrics to Watching Over You ) The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray (Prov 5:22-23). - The image is that of someone who traps himself; binds himself up with a net he himself made (read Ps 7:14-16) 6
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