Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 586 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Rejecting Lady Folly – Proverbs 5

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. Today is Day 586 of our trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday. Every Wednesday along life’s trails we dig for the nuggets of wisdom that are found within the book of Proverbs. Today we will explore Proverbs 5 from The Voice Translation, which will give us a fresh perspective on this book of timeless wisdom.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. In today’s world, as it has been since the beginning of recorded history, it is so easy to fall into the trap of folly. That is to say making decisions that are foolish instead of wise. We are all prone to this, and it is only when we seek out wisdom on a daily basis that we will have any hope to make wise decisions.

One area that is probably most destructive is when we make foolish decisions about our relationships, especially when it involves becoming intimate with others outside the covenant that we make when we marry. Solomon has much to say about this in Proverbs and in this chapter Solomon instructs his sons with very direct teaching. Solomon made many foolish decisions in this area, so he had much experience to teach from.

So today in Chapter 5 of Proverbs, we will explore the importance of…

Rejecting Lady Folly

• 8th Speech from Father to Son

There is a character in Proverbs, the adulteress, referred to as the seductive woman, who we have only had brief encounters with so far ([2:16]-19). Now in Chapters 5-7, we get a much closer look at this woman, and it’s not pretty. This lady is a sham and will do you no good.

This speech is frightening. The father calls the adulteress the “seductive woman.” As the passage implies, she is already a married woman. Beware! She might be persuasive, with lips that speak “honey-sweet” and words that are “smooth like oil,” but in reality, she is barbed and bitter. Follow her, and she will take you down with her “straight to the grave.”

The father goes on to use a contrasting set of images – the house of the adulteress is the root of destruction, but the home of your bride is the fruit of life. The father’s speech flows with words comparing the wife to that of water (a “cistern” and “fountain”).

Water in the Near East was particularly gratifying due to extremely high temperatures. Likewise, the father implies, a man’s wife is water to his soul. The sexually thirsty man should always drink of his wife’s body and be intoxicated with her love and never partake from another woman.

The father tells his son “may you know true joy with the wife of your youth” (18). This is a call to enjoy sexual intimacy with your spouse. Drink from the pure waters of marriage, and let the polluted waters of the adulteress go trickling by. If you are married, give thanks for your spouse as you read this chapter, and ask yourself how you can rejoice greater in your love for each other. If you are not married, ask God to give you patience for pure water.

People are easily seduced, especially men. Everyone is vulnerable to sexual sin at some point or another, and history is strewn with the wreckage that results when the path of adultery is followed – bitterness, death, instability, loss, ruin…Time and again, these are the consequences of violating God’s instruction.

Wisdom recognizes the beauty of sexual intimacy. After all, God designed us as sexual beings. But for physical intimacy to retain the beauty of its design, it must be shared wisely. It is meant to be shared with someone who is your own.

In marriage two become one (Genesis [2:24]), so they belong together and belong to each other. In that safe place of belonging, one finds fulfillment. So a husband or a wife must partake only of the partner’s body and love. To seek intimacy elsewhere is foolish.

Listen up and pay attention as I share with your Proverbs 5.

¹ My son, stay focused; listen to the wisdom I have gained;
give attention to what I have learned about life
² So you may be able to make sensible judgments
and speak with knowledge.
³ You see, the lips of a seductive woman speak honey-sweet words;
they are smooth like oil and enticing.
⁴ But in the end, she is bitter,
turning the stomach and rotting the soul;
she cuts as deep as a double-edged sword.
⁵ She leads you down a path that can only end in death;
her steps lead eventually to the grave.
⁶ She does not travel the road to life and truth.
She follows a wandering path—
a rocky, pit-filled road that twists and turns—and she doesn’t even know it.

⁷ So, my children, listen to me.
Do not stray from my advice.
⁸ Stay away from her, far away from her path;
don’t even go near her door
⁹ Unless you are ready to hand over your reputation to someone else,
unless you want to spend the rest of your years at the mercy of some cruel person.
¹⁰ If you do, strangers will help themselves to your wealth,
and everything you have worked hard to acquire will end up in someone else’s hands.
¹¹ Your life will end with groanings of remorse, of opportunities missed,
and your flesh and bones will be eaten up with sorrow, regret for worthless efforts.
¹² Then you’ll say, “Why did I hate being taught?
Why did I turn my back on correction?
¹³ I disregarded all that my teachers said to me;
I turned my ear away from my instructors!
¹⁴ Now I am on the edge of complete and utter ruin
in the midst of the community.”

¹⁵ Here’s what you should do to be satisfied:
go home and drink in the pleasures of your own cistern, your wife;
enjoy the sweet, fresh water that has been there all along,  flowing from your own well.
¹⁶ Take care. Should your own springs, your body, be freely shared?
Should your streams of water satisfy anyone in the streets? Absolutely not!
¹⁷ They should be kept pure for you and you alone,
not for sharing with strangers.
¹⁸ May your fountain, your sex life, be blessed by God;
may you know true joy with the wife of your youth.
¹⁹ She who is lovely as a deer and graceful as a doe—
as you drink in her love,
may her breasts satisfy you at all times.
²⁰ My son, why get caught up in some other woman
and embrace the breast of a stranger?

²¹ You see, the Eternal sees our ways before Him.
He watches every move we make and knows where those paths lead.
²² The wicked will be snared by their own wrongdoing.
Their flaws will tie their own hands, and they will be dragged through life by the cords of their sins.
²³ Because they have no discipline, their spirits die and their bodies will soon follow; because they are immensely foolish, they wander lost and confused.

That will conclude our exploration of Proverbs 5. Next week we will continue with Chapter 6, and each week we will explore a full chapter in Proverbs. I hope that you will join us each week so that you can gain wisdom, insight, and understanding for yourself.

All of the Proverbs provide us with rich wisdom, insight, and understanding on a myriad of life issues. Regardless of where you are in your faith walk, if you follow the precepts in Proverbs, your life will be rich and satisfying. I encourage you to take them and plant the seeds of wisdom in your heart so that you will reap a harvest of wisdom throughout your life.

Tomorrow we will hike another short trail of Wisdom Unplugged where we will discover an inspirational wisdom quote. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along with us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the daily journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe on iTunes and Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!