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Wednesday 07/30/25
Thru the Bible: Proverbs 5
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Rejoice with the wife of your Youth
Proverb 5:1-23,
Don’t lose sight of the fact that all of these instructions, encouragements and warnings are offered within the relational framework of a father to a child! It gives reason to listen, because the basis for valuing the advice, is the value of the relationship between the hearer and the speaker which in this case is father to son.
“(1) My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding, (2) in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge.”
The word “guard” here probably is more akin to the meaning of “preserve”. It is the same concept behind God’s command to Joshua,
“This book of the Law must not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night, that you may observe how to keep it. Then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.” – Joshua 1:8
Where the word “preserve” here in Proverbs 5 and the words “not depart” in Joshua 1:18 essentially are highlighting the same truth.
Your mouth should preserve wisdom by speaking of it often. Reciting truth over and over in pondering and in meditation, causes you to not lose sight of it and helps you gain insight into those truths so that you might discern how to live in the light of them.
Such an interpretation makes sense both biblically and contextually, since the next words are a warning against falling for the words spoken by a wicked woman.
“(3) For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil, (4) but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
(5) Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
(6) Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths have wandered, but she is not able to discern it.”
Meaning the ways she has learned deceive her first and then she spreads that deception to others like a disease.
I was watching a video with Charlie Kirk who is a Christian, conservative activist who often has public forums on campuses where anyone can take the mic and either challenge him or publicly take their stance with him.
In this one video, a young lady stepped to the mic and announced that she used to be an “Only Fans” star or top rated model.
Now, if you are like me and have no idea what that means, this is a condensed definition offered by Google AI –
“An OnlyFans model is a content creator on the “OnlyFans” social media platform. This is where a model can earn money through monthly subscriptions.
Content is made available to subscribers or “pay-per-views” which only they as “fans” can see.
In the case of models, this is usually sexually explicit in nature. They provide to their subscribers what they want to see, including interactive live sessions, presumably to premium members.”
I’m going to play the video of this for you.
Now this young lady is clearly excited about coming to Christ and may be very young in the faith, which might account for her tight fitting outfit, but she, like all of us, is a work in progress and at least believes in Christ enough to not be silent. She is bold and verbal about her faith and the change it has begun to make in her life!
But I want you to notice that when she offers her advice to young women who are in or considering beginning an online career of selling themselves to the highest bidder, she talks about not being deceived and THAT is the connection with this verse.
Before the woman here in Proverbs 5 can deceive someone else, she herself has to be deceived. Just like in being “living witnesses” you cannot lead someone where you are not, but you WILL lead someone where you are!
So Solomon warns us of her empty charms, and their destructive power right after encouraging us to,
“…be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding, (2) in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge.”
Now Solomon continues to talk to us through the familial relation of a father to his children, though the language is clearly intended for a son since the metaphors are masculine in nature…
“(7) So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak.
(8) Keep yourself far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, (9) lest you give your vigor to others and your years to a cruel person, (10) lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man’s house.
(11) And at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away. (12) And you will say,
“How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof! (13) For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors. (14) I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!”
“(15) Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well.”
Now you may have picked up on this on your own, but the following, for all its symbolic language is actually pretty raw and intimately sexual content. It was a common sexual Hebrew metaphor to use a cistern or a well to represent a woman reproductively and a spring, fountain or stream for a man.
This initial statement is what they would have called “sowing wild oats” back in the 16-19oo’s, where a young man would wantonly have many sexual escapades before eventually settling down to normal civilian life -often leaving a trail of unwed pregnant women in his wake.
“(16) Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas? (17) Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.”
“(18) May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife you married in your youth – (19) a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always.”
This is very much like God, Whose initial command to mankind was to multiply. This is a blessing upon the seed of the man to be vital and life producing.
“(20) But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman?”
This is a timeless question, but one which has been boiled down to a handful of most likely answers. However, this is not a question seeking an answer, it is a rhetorical device intended to force the young man to think… to turn their brain on and RE-consider what they have allowed themselves to consider. Then Solomon introduces the fear of the Lord in the next statement which should be the predominant consideration in the mind of a young man being tempted towards infidelity.
“(21) For the ways of a person are in front of the LORD’s eyes, and the LORD weighs all that person’s paths.”
“(22) The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities, and he will be held by the cords of his own sin. (23) He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel.”
He will die because there was no discipline. Is this personal discipline or parental discipline?
Well it CAN mean either. It can mean no instruction or discipline was offered to this young man in his youth OR it can mean to neglect the instruction offered in favor of personal desire.
In THIS case, since Solomon HAD received the instruction of his father and we, upon reading the parental wisdom through him in this Proverb I would say that this is an example of a young man who followed his passions rather than his conscience.
What does the word “reel” mean?
Reel– A verb meaning to stray, to go astray, to err, to deceive, to wander, to make a mistake. It is primarily used to express the idea of straying or wandering. It is used frequently to describe a wandering or aimless flock.
This is interesting because we see some primary examples of this in scripture all tethered to those who rejected the counsel of wisdom in preference to personal feelings.
It is said of Cain who, even upon being warned by God, still killed his brother. He later established the city of Nod which name means “wandering”.
Israel upon rejecting God at the mountain, and not entering the Promised Land in faith – began a 40 year “wandering” through the desert that would otherwise have taken only weeks.
However, perhaps most famously it is used in reference to satan who upon approaching God during the annual gathering of men who sought God and lived lives of faith in Him. God asked satan,
“Where have you come from?”
to which satan replied,
“from wandering to and fro throughout the earth”.
Though an open/shut case cannot be made regarding wandering being the end result of rejecting God’s counsel, these examples and others in scripture suggest a strong connection between the two.
Blessings!
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