Proverbs 5

This chapter is about avoiding adultery. Sexual sin is portrayed as ugly, destructive, and dangerous. It is all of those things. The father/teacher wants his son to know how to avoid it because he knows that his offspring is about to face a battle that every man encounters. Yet, he also knows it

To paraphrase a paraphrase (The Message), young men and women need to develop a taste for good sense:

1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

The more time spent in the wholesom pursuit of wisdom and understanding, the less time there will be for sexual temptation. The wholesome our mental and spiritual diet, the more of the same we want.

Remember- what goes down sweet may not remain sweet.

3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

The junk food industry, like the tobacco industry, knows how to make us want more of their product. It is an old story. Sin always works that way, but nothing can take away the nasty aftertaste of sin - except, for a time, more sin. It is an addictive process until we are all washed up and left for ruin. The adultress is trapped too. Look at the next few verses:

5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. 6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

• No thought to the way of life.
• Crooked paths.
• Oblivious to all of it

Avoid it at all costs.

7 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:

This kind of trouble can only be avoided by completely avoiding its cause. Stay away. It's trouble. Drill it into your head. Decide ahead of time that when the opportunity and ocassion arises, the answer is already, an emphatic, "NO!"

There is trouble ahead.

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;

If you think the teacher is kidding, look around. How much wealth has been consumed? How much honor has been lost? How much time has been wasted? And it all goes back to lust, to men and women letting their hormones think for them.

11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

And how much disease has been spread through STDs? And how many injuries have been incurred by jealous husbands? And there are many other ways to wear oneself out with immorality. It is unwise.

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.

The worst part is the humiliation, regret, and guilt that arise in the hearts of those who spend their lives with such futility.

Keep your privacy.

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.

Some things are personal and private. If we are to keep our dignity we are to keep them to ourselves with one exception:

If God gives us someone to share these things with, marry that person and stick with him or her. Otherwise, assume that it might happen in the future and keep yourself for that person.

Intimacy is a funtion of marriage Thus, the father/teacher says:

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.

All that is ugly and perverted in illicit relationships is consecrated and made beautiful in the marriage relationship. Cherish it whether it is in your past, present, or potential future.

20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

Intimacy with a stranger is simply not genuine intimacy. It falls far short.

God sees everything.

21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

Consequences are built into our actions.

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.