#909 Proverbs 5 How I Hated Discipline

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding,

2 that you may keep discretion,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than 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 follow the path to Sheol;

6 she does not ponder the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

7 And now, O sons, listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

8 Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

9 lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

11 and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!

13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.

14 I am at the brink of utter ruin

in the assembled congregation.”

15 Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,

streams of water in the streets?

17 Let them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you.

18 Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated always in her love.

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman

and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord,

and he ponders all his paths.

22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,

and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

23 He dies for lack of discipline,

and because of his great folly he is led astray. Proverbs 5 ESV

Proverbs 5 the forbidden woman.

That you may keep discretion - He continues to implore his sons to not only hear, but incline to hear, be attentive. Discretion relates to our words and actions, to keep it is freedom from folly. Choose your words carefully, flirting with sin, the adulteress, lacks discretion, and is an offense first to God, Who does not view these things lightly, to you, to her husband and then to her. If you are married it is an offense to your wife and to those looking at the standard, which is attached to your claim as a person of the book, it is a stumbling block. There are some things that are private as well, that should not be laid before hyenas or cast in front of swine. Your words can be like blood in the water, feeding the unthinking frenzy. 

…3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no one can discredit our ministry. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities; 5 in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger;… 2 Corinthians 6: 3-5

1 But as for you, speak the things that are consistent with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and perseverance. 3 Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good.…

…4 In this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited. 6 In the same way, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.…

…7 In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed to have nothing bad to say about us. 9 Slaves are to submit to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,…

10 not stealing from them, but showing all good faith, so that in every respect they will adorn the teaching about God our Savior. 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. 12 It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,… Titus 2: 1-12

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey - The grass is always greener, or in my case the fishing is always better on the other side of the fence, someone else's pasture, another's lake. We all have an image of ourselves that we like to hold, but our wives live with us, see our inconsistencies, but since we want that image to be worshiped we are susceptible to flattery. Evil is in our hearts and so we are able to be enticed. Jesus held nothing in His being for Satan to latch onto. He was able to deal with prostitutes, publicans and all alike; there was no temptation worth the glory of God.

…29 And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. 30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming, and he has no claim on Me. 31 But I do exactly what the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Get up! Let us go on from here.”… John 14: 29-31

But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword - Since the fall death has entered the world, relationships between men and women have fallen from God's original design. He told the people of Israel, "do this and you shall live", and that was to keep the law, one of which was, "thou shalt not commit adultery." It goes against God's intent, against the institution that He brought together. It calls sweetly, then tastes bitter, and then destroys. The vows are broken, families have been destroyed, and Solomon can easily remember first hand the devastation it brought into his father's house. His mother was Bathsheba, and yet the wisdom that he gives his sons he hasn't seemed to follow himself. 

 

She does not ponder the path of life - She lives in the moment, the heart wants what the heart wants, she could not help herself, and you will say the same, "it just happened, we fell in love. I didn't mean to hurt anyone," and you say it with tears, but those are vain because love would have pondered the path and gone another way.

…7 and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.” 8 But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care. 9 No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”…

…10 Although Potiphar’s wife spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be near her. 11 One day, however, Joseph went into the house to attend to his work, and not a single household servant was inside. 12 She grabbed Joseph by his cloak and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.… Genesis 39: 7-12

Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house - This is the practical side, do not flirt with temptation, don't give it a hold. He shows them that it is avoidable. 

…12 So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall. 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.… 1 Corinthians 10: 12-14

Lest strangers take their fill of your strength - You give up your good name. Samson gave up his strength to Delilah, and while the Philistines were not on the list of those whom they could not marry, yet being unequally yoked is not a question of town or ethnicity. It is a matter of being set apart to God's way, and Samson had his first anguish from this in his prior marriage. His wife told the secret of his riddle, betrayed the relationship of trust between himself and her. In the end he becomes a laughing stock, blind and betrayed by another woman, but by his own consent and against wisdom. God's redemptive plan is not thwarted by sinful men though, but our actions have consequences. 

And my heart despised reproof - Stop and listen, is there any merit in their correction? If your ego will be your downfall then isn't that too great an expense? A wise man takes correction, he learns from rebuke, he knows that he can be wrong so he loves the one who shows him his error because he hates error more than he loves his ego. 

…20 He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him. 21 For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.… Mark 7: 20-22

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life— is not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God remains forever.… 1 John 2: 15-17

Drink water from your own cistern - This is the reservoir you built, the well you dug, and it is the metaphor for your family. Let this be the place where you are refreshed, not with another's wife and do not whore out your own.

…7 Give these instructions to the believers, so that they will be above reproach. 8 If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 9 A widow should be enrolled if she is at least sixty years old, the wife of one man,… 1 Timothy 5: 7-9

Be intoxicated always in her love - This is the wife of your youth, marriage was designed by God that the two become one flesh. He tells us to love our wife as our own body. It is this institution that reflects our relationship to God, Christ's relationship to His church, and so must be considered a most holy union. 

…24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26 to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,… Ephesians 5: 24-26

He dies for lack of discipline - He was not satisfied with his own wife, but became intoxicated by another. He believed in the excesses of the world, so refused to search his heart, discipline it with the instruction of his teachers. This man did not avoid her door, he thought so highly of himself that he took her words to be true. She flattered and he followed, her form was on a pedestal and he knelt to offer his integrity, the sanctity of his marriage, the godly respect of his children, and sacrificed the words of a holy and just God. So many things die this way. Society will kill it's most innocent on the very same altar of it's lust, yet we revere ourselves as compassionate, "empathetic", but we are really just pathetic.

…5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 Because he has done this thing and shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.… 2 Samuel 12: 5-7

There are consequences, but remember God has already condemned sin, and Jesus didn't come to condemn the world which was already under condemnation. He came to seek and to save the lost, to bring sinners to repentance. Cry for the Lord's mercy, humble yourself and he will lift you up in good time.

21 His officials asked him, “Why are you acting this way? You fasted and cried over the child when he was alive. But as soon as the child died, you got up and ate.”

22 David answered, “As long as the child was alive, I fasted and cried. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But why should I fast now that he’s dead? Can I bring him back? Someday I’ll go to him, but he won’t come back to me.”

24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went to bed with her, and she later gave birth to a son. David named him Solomon. The Lord loved the child 25 and sent a message through the prophet Nathan to name the baby Jedidiah [The Lord’s Beloved]. 2 Samuel 12: 21-25