OVERVIEW:
The dangers and pitfalls of sexual immorality; the father’s counsel to his son; the wiles of the strange woman; the blessing of wisdom, understanding, and truth.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
The four powerful chapters in today’s reading reveal how God has provided wisdom and understanding to preserve the purity of a person’s God-given sexual desires. God’s word reveals to us that these desires are actually holy, if they are reserved to be fulfilled in the chamber of a covenant marriage bed that is undefiled. (Hebrews 13:4)
We must be astronomically aware in every phase of life that the enemy of all righteousness will do anything and everything within his power to destroy our personal purity by seeking to tempt us to satisfy our sexual desires in the heat of passionate compromise, so that he may, thereby, not only defile the body of Christ, but contaminate communities, and ultimately, condemn entire countries by invoking God’s judgment upon them.
The person who is predisposed to do the right thing in terms of their moral purity is one who has predetermined to “keep (protect, guard) his heart with all diligence” (4:23), so as not to be lured away from his surrender to Christ’s Lordship. Understanding the benefits of wisdom is a major part of that process, as we also learned in chapter 4. We must, first, attentively “hear” the father’s instruction so we can understand his doctrine (teaching), so we can, then, purpose in our hearts not to forsake the instruction we have been given.
Chapter 5 opens with the father passionately admonishing his son to “attend” or to pay close attention to his wisdom, understanding, and knowledge so he will have the spiritual fortitude that will protect him from falling for the sexual allurements and enticements of the “strange woman”. The father warns that her words will be enticingly sweet, and that her smooth seductive mouth will be inviting. (5:3) He admonishes his son to look beyond the momentary pleasure connected to her, to where it will ultimately leave him: in a big pile of bitterness, shredded to pieces by her two-edged sword, having experienced corruption and death in every part of life that really matters, and having had his entire life turned into a living hell. (5:4–5)
The father’s advice is to do whatever we need to do to get as far away from her as we possibly can, before she causes…
- our honor to be given to others. (5:9a)
- our years to be given to the cruel. (5:9b)
- strangers to control our money. (5:10a)
- the things we’ve worked for to be given to strangers. (5:10b)
- our health to be vanquished. (5:11)
- cycles of regret and depression to haunt us for the rest of our life. (5:12–14)
- God’s plan of experiencing the pure, fulfilling love of our life-mate to be obliterated. (5:15–19)
- the future development of sexual addictions. (5:22)
- the potential we once held in life to be forever forfeited. (5:23)
All of these losses progressively lead to the warning of idleness (often referred to as “the devil’s workshop”) and deceit in chapter 6. Notice that the culminating sum of disregard to these warnings is sudden calamity and irreparable brokenness. (6:15) In the devotional or inspirational application, this man Solomon is describing (“a man of sin”) is characterized in 6:17–19 by six things that the Lord “hates”, the seventh actually being an “abomination” to Him. In the doctrinal or prophetic application, however, the man Solomon is describing is none other than “‘THE man of sin” (2nd Thessalonians 2:3), the very antichrist, himself. The seven characteristics include:
- A proud look. (6:17a)
- A lying tongue. (6:17b)
- Hands that shed innocent blood. (6:17c)
- A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations. (6:18a)
- Feet that are swift to run into mischief. (6:18b)
- A false witness that speaketh lies. (6:19a)
- Sowing discord among the brethren. (6:19b)
Solomon has certainly provided incredible information and advice to help young men to avoid the pitfalls and disasters associated with the “strange woman” and yet He reserves some of the clearest, simplest, and best advice in 6:20–24 – just simply obey your father and mother! (Ephesians 6:1–2)
Note also in 6:25 that Solomon, the son of David, makes clear that the allurement of the “strange woman” isn’t, first and foremost, a BODY issue but a HEART issue! The adultery begins in the HEART through “lust”, and then, simply finds its expression in the BODY through the act. No wonder our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, said, in Matthew 5:28, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
Chapter 7 continues with the admonition to keep the father’s words and commandments to guard against the lure of sensual and sexual involvement so prevalent in every generation. Solomon warns that it is the young man who is “simple”, which is defined in this same verse as one who is “void of understanding”, who is easy prey for the “strange woman”, especially when his curiosity lures him into her neighborhood! (7:8)
As Solomon describes the “strange woman”, it becomes apparent that the ones she catches in her snare are actually those who are wanting to be caught! Sure, there’s seduction involved, but Solomon lets us know that any man could see her coming from a mile away, just by the way she was dressed, or in most cases, how she is undressed! (7:10) But Solomon lets us know that she also possesses three other unmistakable characteristics in 7:11:
- She is LOUD.
- She is STUBBORN.
- She doesn’t like to STAY HOME.
These three traits should be a major caution to every young man who finds himself being attracted to a young lady possessing any of them, and should cause every young lady to do some major introspection to determine whether any of these characteristics have begun to surface in her life! Culturally, there is a temptation for teenage girls to possess these characteristics in order to gain acceptance with her peers, but it is an absolutely disastrous path to be on! Parents, recognize that we are not just bringing up SONS, we are bringing up someone’s HUSBAND and someone’s FATHER! We aren’t just bringing up DAUGHTERS, we are bringing up someone’s WIFE and someone’s MOTHER! The stakes are incredibly high, and sexual sin is so costly! (1st Corinthians 6:18–19)
Notice in 7:15–18, that ironically enough, what this “strange woman” does would be totally appropriate if this preparation was done in anticipation of spending this time presenting herself to her husband. It actually fits perfectly in the context of the Song of Solomon!
The opening theme in chapter 8 is three-fold: wisdom, understanding, and truth. Note that in 8:15–21, Solomon personifies these traits into one “individual”, as it were, declaring that, “By ME…
- …kings reign.”
- …princes decree justice.”
- …princes rule.”
- …nobles rule.”
- …all the judges of the earth rule.”
- …are all riches and honor.”
- …is leadership found into the way of righteousness.”
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
As the CREATOR WHO prepared the heavens — Proverbs 8:27–31 (Hebrews 1:10; John 1:3)