It’s funny how the roads in life can lead one to a very different outcome than they hoped in their youth.”
–Kenneth Pratt (Legacies of Spring)
“Do not remember the sins of my youth or my acts of rebellion; in keeping with Your faithful love, remember me because of Your goodness, Lord.”
–Psalm 25:7 (HCSB)
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2.16 — To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words,
.17 — Who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
.18 — For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead;
.19 — None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life– (NKJV)
Last week we looked at the “evil man” and today we turn our attention to the “strange or immoral woman.” The ESV translates it as the “forbidden woman.” She flatters with her words, or uses “smooth words” (ESV).
There are two kinds of adultery described in the Bible: physical and spiritual. Idolatry is spiritual adultery, the worship of the created rather than the Creator. Spiritual adultery is manifested by the love of material things of the world: pleasures, comforts, riches, power. Beasley informs us that the “Love of the things of the world is opposed to the love of the Father.” Another aspect of spiritual adultery is in the “smorgasbord” approach to knowing God. All ways, all religions do not lead to God. False doctrine is then a form of spiritual adultery. I like the way Bob Beasley puts it: “It’s as if they were in front of a salad bar, i.e., ‘I’ll take some love, but I’ll pass on wrath. Mercy is nice, but I don’t want any holiness.'” Pick and choose Christianity is spiritual adultery. If not careful, “It is God who is first forsaken, then forgotten in the beginning of wickedness, forgotten in the hardened practice of it.” (Jermin)
There is also the way of the “immoral woman” who wants “to lead God’s children away from the path of life.” (Wiersbe) Instead of the perverse words like the evil man, the adulteress uses flattering words. Warren Wiersbe says, “flattery isn’t communication, it is manipulation; it’s people telling us things about ourselves that we enjoy hearing and wish were true. The strange woman knows how to use flattery successfully.” She is a person without respect to God, to her husband, or those she is trying to seduce.
Both, physical and spiritual adulterers have forgotten the covenant of their God. Samuel Miller gives two-warnings: 1) “the unstopping, short character of sin; she who wrongs her husband will be seen universally wronging God; 2) the recuperative history of the lost. Man who walks into the lure of this woman is in danger of losing his life and his soul. The path is downward, downward to the Pit. It is interesting, but the writer of these words, Solomon knew of this danger yet did not heed. “Lust and idolatry were the spiritual adultery into which they entrapped the once wise king.” (Fausett)
Warning flags should be raised and heeded. Notice that death is mentioned twice: temporal death and eternal death. There is an additional warning to those who continue to walk in this way–they do not regain the paths of life. !!! flags of warning. The early Church father, John Chrysostom, stated, “It is as hard to restore a lustful person to chastity as it is to restore a dead person to life.”
———————————
2.16 — To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words,
.17 — Who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
.18 — For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead;
.19 — None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life– (NKJV)
Last week we looked at the “evil man” and today we turn our attention to the “strange or immoral woman.” The ESV translates it as the “forbidden woman.” She flatters with her words, or uses “smooth words” (ESV).
There are two kinds of adultery described in the Bible: physical and spiritual. Idolatry is spiritual adultery, the worship of the created rather than the Creator. Spiritual adultery is manifested by the love of material things of the world: pleasures, comforts, riches, power. Beasley informs us that the “Love of the things of the world is opposed to the love of the Father.” Another aspect of spiritual adultery is in the “smorgasbord” approach to knowing God. All ways, all religions do not lead to God. False doctrine is then a form of spiritual adultery. I like the way Bob Beasley puts it: “It’s as if they were in front of a salad bar, i.e., ‘I’ll take some love, but I’ll pass on wrath. Mercy is nice, but I don’t want any holiness.'” Pick and choose Christianity is spiritual adultery. If not careful, “It is God who is first forsaken, then forgotten in the beginning of wickedness, forgotten in the hardened practice of it.” (Jermin)
There is also the way of the “immoral woman” who wants “to lead God’s children away from the path of life.” (Wiersbe) Instead of the perverse words like the evil man, the adulteress uses flattering words. Warren Wiersbe says, “flattery isn’t communication, it is manipulation; it’s people telling us things about ourselves that we enjoy hearing and wish were true. The strange woman knows how to use flattery successfully.” She is a person without respect to God, to her husband, or those she is trying to seduce.
Both, physical and spiritual adulterers have forgotten the covenant of their God. Samuel Miller gives two-warnings: 1) “the unstopping, short character of sin; she who wrongs her husband will be seen universally wronging God; 2) the recuperative history of the lost. Man who walks into the lure of this woman is in danger of losing his life and his soul. The path is downward, downward to the Pit. It is interesting, but the writer of these words, Solomon knew of this danger yet did not heed. “Lust and idolatry were the spiritual adultery into which they entrapped the once wise king.” (Fausett)
Warning flags should be raised and heeded. Notice that death is mentioned twice: temporal death and eternal death. There is an additional warning to those who continue to walk in this way–they do not regain the paths of life. !!! flags of warning. The early Church father, John Chrysostom, stated, “It is as hard to restore a lustful person to chastity as it is to restore a dead person to life.”