Trouble on the trail can affect everyone.”
–Donald L. Robertson (Callum’s Mission)
“Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!”
–Deuteronomy 32:29 (NKJV)
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Do you heed the yellow diamond warning signs on the highway? They are put there for our safety and protection. The Book of Proverbs is full of such warning signs, and chapter 5 brings us back to the “immoral woman,” “the strange woman,” “the harlot,” or “the prostitute” depending upon your version. If we don’t heed the warning signs on the highway there is a chance of disaster; the same is true of the warning signs in the Bible. Remember, the most expensive thing in the world is sin.
1 — My son, pay attention to my wisdom; lend your ear to my understanding,
2 — That you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge.
3 — For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth 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 lay hold of hell.
6 — Lest you ponder her path of life–her ways are unstable; you do not know them.
7 — Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 — Remove 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 cruel one;
10 — Lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
11 — And you mourn at last, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 — And say: “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction!
13 — I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
14 — I was on the verge of total ruin, in the midst of the assembly and congregation.” (NKJV)
Temptation is a hopeful promise that will lead down to death if not avoided. Bob Beasley says, “All sin in like this. It looks good, feels good, tastes good, and sounds good, so it must be good. Wrong!” The sweetness will quickly turn to bitterness. Notice, not only here but throughout Proverbs, we look ahead to see where our actions will lead us. Here we see that we will follow an unstable way whose path will go down to death. As Warren Wiersbe states, “The wise person checks on the destination before buying a ticket, but modern society thinks that people can violate God’s laws and escape the consequences.”
Following the “strange” or “immoral woman”–which is one to whom a man is not related by marriage, takes one on an unstable path. It’s like hiking alongside of a cliff on a perilous edge with loose rocks that could break away thus leading you to possibly becoming a cripple or even death. Since she does not ponder the path of life those who seek her are the same. They can be likened unto tumbleweeds, just drifting along following every whim that comes along, not listening or adhering to the voice of parents, teachers, or God’s Word. John Kitchen writes, “The adulterous has no direction in her life… This moral myopia makes her unaware of the yawning abyss of death and destruction that lies down the winding path she takes.” By not choosing the path of life those who take this direction are left to wander. The ESV translates verse 6 this way, “She does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander and she does not know it.”
In verse 7 we see the admonition of the father again. “Hear me!” The person who goes to her house, follows her path is not a good steward of purity, honor, life, nor their inheritance. Paul warns us, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18, NKJV) Man is made in the image of God; therefore he has dignity, but by committing sexual immorality he “sins against that which stands in the nearest relation to our personal moral individuality.” (J.L. Flores) Mike Leake puts it simply, “Obeying your thirst leads to instability.” Honor is lost; “the loss of self-honor or self-respect is a calamity that is very bitter to the soul.” (Flores)
We see in the final few verses the bitterness that has come to this individual who has followed this wayward path of iniquity. If somehow they have survived they will hopefully come to the point of this realization that they didn’t listen to instruction. There will be remorse because of the path they have chosen. Flores says, “Those who sin against the light of nature find a recompense which is terrible.” Listen to his cry, “I was on the verge of total ruin,” or as the ESV says, “I am at the brink of utter ruin.” Or as Samuel Miller puts it rather bluntly, “I soon became like any wicked man.”
Listen to righteous instruction and heed the warning signs on the pathway. If you stumble, or get off the right path, repent and quickly find the road on which you should be traveling on. That road of freedom in Christ; that road that leads to glory.