Posted by Jeff Short on September 9, 2016 · 1 Comment
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
– Proverbs 5:8
Wisdom discerns the way of evil and folly and does not begin in it. Remove and come not nigh are the heart of this admonition. We could say keep away and don’t even go near. Joseph once made a narrow escape though he was near enough to still come to trouble (Genesis 39:7-12). I suppose we could debate what his level of responsibility was in the matter, but the text tells us she sought him day by day and that he entered the house with no one else present. If nothing else, let his account reinforce the wisdom of Solomon that we keep away and don’t go near.
The New Testament echoes the command of wisdom here (2 Timothy 2:22). Jesus also spoke to this with terms of urgency (Matthew 5:28-30). Each generation has some particular applications of this verse, but the intent is always the same. Stay away. We need wisdom to discern the strange woman, for it was the young man devoid of it that was caught by her (Proverbs 7:7-13). Having discernment, let us practice radical avoidance.
Way is road here as elsewhere. It speaks to the path, or course of life you are on. Solomon instructs to remove your way far from the strange woman. This would include rerouting your life if necessary to avoid “accidentally” bumping into her. That would certainly include the online world today as well. The door of her house is the entrance, the way in. Applications are numerous but the point is clear. If you do not come near the entrance, you will not be inside the house.
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Posted by Jeff Short on September 7, 2016 · 1 Comment
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
– Proverbs 5:6
The center of this verse is the key to understanding the whole—“her ways are moveable.” Underlying her changeable ways is the design to deceive and ensnare. The strange woman is practiced in many arts of temptation, so she changes easily from one to the other to catch her victim. She also changes to prevent any preponderance of the true path of life. She doesn’t want men to consider what they are doing or what the consequences will be.
She is also unknowable in her true heart. She is a flatterer and deceiver. She is adaptable to suit her ends but a man can never really know her ends. What she really thinks or feels is concealed. The contrast with marriage comes later in this chapter, but here we see an inescapable reality with the strange woman. She may provide a moment of physical pleasure but she can never provide the deep, intimate connection and emotional satisfaction a man has with his own wife. That relationship develops and deepens over time between a husband and wife who love each other. The strange woman only brings ruin and misery and everlasting destruction to those who cannot keep from her way.
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Posted by Jeff Short on September 6, 2016 · 1 Comment
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
– Proverbs 5:5
Feet and steps continue the theme of a path or way, which stands for the course of life. These are continually contrasted in this first section of Proverbs. The strange woman presents a companion picture to the way of the evil man warned against earlier (Proverbs 2:12). Death and hell continue the death symbol from the sword in the previous verse. The warning of death is pointed and has two main senses. First, it is hyperbole for a life that is destroyed through adultery. Rarely does adultery end in physical death, but it certainly ends in destroying lives. Second, death in Proverbs is often in consideration of the spiritual and contrasting from the eternal life of wisdom. The strange woman’s is not a good way and the wise will not begin in it.
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Posted by Jeff Short on September 5, 2016 · 1 Comment
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
– Proverbs 5:4
End means future and is a stern reminder there is an after, as Kidner pointed out. She may at first appear with smooth sweetness and delicious promises of where she is going but the reality is opposite. Rather than sweetness is bitterness, and rather than smoothness is sharpness. Solomon uses two figures to illustrate how all adulterous activity must end. Wormwood is usually related to bitterness and is a symbol of suffering in Scripture (Deuteronomy 29:18). The sword is obviously a symbol of death as that is what her house inclines to and her path leads to (Proverbs 2:18).
Solomon demonstrates the nature of wisdom in this warning. Wisdom considers and weighs. Wisdom looks to the end or the outcome of a path and not just the exciting prospect at the beginning. In relation to the strange woman, Solomon intends for this end to be considered before she is ever met in person (Proverbs 5:8).
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Posted by Jeff Short on September 4, 2016 · 1 Comment
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
– Proverbs 5:3
The strange woman was referred to previously (Proverbs 2:16-19) and much of chapters 5-7 is spent warning against her and her ways. The term refers to a foreign woman and is mostly used in these chapters to refer to a married woman. This chapter opens exhorting the ear and lips to be employed in attending wisdom and keeping knowledge. These are a defense against the enticements of the strange woman.
We must never discount the danger of flattering speech, for that is one of her tools (Proverbs 2:16; 6:24; 7:21). Her lips and mouth are here put for her speech. Dropping honey is sweet to the taste and enjoyable. Her words are suited to appeal to the taste in similar manner. Smoother than oil is an expression that refers to treachery. It is an intentional deception that is wholly designed to ensnare to the flatterer’s purpose. It is no wonder Solomon advised the best course of action was to avoid her altogether (Proverbs 4:14; 5:8).
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 28, 2016 · 1 Comment
None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
– Proverbs 2:19
Solomon still speaks of the strange woman and gives a sober warning. Solomon elsewhere described the strange woman as “snares and nets, and her hands as bands” (Ecclesiastes 7:26). She is entrapping and enslaving. Those who give themselves over to her are not recovered in one way and rarely recovered in another. They are not recovered in the sense of the damage they do to themselves and their families (1 Corinthians 6:18; Proverbs 6:26-33). They are not recovered if they continue in sin without repenting and forsaking their fornication and adulteries.
They are rarely recovered in the sense that some through repentance and faith are changed and pursue holiness. Remember the warning in the context is that wisdom will keep us from entering into those sins. The warning is designed to keep us from going that way. The difficulty of being recovered should keep us from going there. Whoredom is a trap (Proverbs 23:27). Those who pursue it are devoid of understanding (Proverbs 6:32) and even good sense (Romans 1:28). Their minds are darkened and their consciences hardened (Ephesians 4:18-19).
Solomon will go on to give further instruction but much of it has to do with avoiding the strange woman altogether (Proverbs 4:14-15; 5:8; 6:5, 25; 7:25). Paul would say, “Flee” (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22). Likewise, Jesus warned of the sin by the eyes (Matthew 5:28)—lingering looks, second and third glances, staring at flickering screens, carrying images in our minds of those we frequently see. Jesus immediately after said it would be better to be blind and go to heaven than to have 20/20 vision we used to fuel lusts and go to hell. War presses daily on the eye-gate and we have to give our life defending it.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 27, 2016 · 1 Comment
For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
– Proverbs 2:18
The way of the strange woman ends in destruction. The underlying Hebrew in this verse presents difficulties for interpreters, but the overall point is that the way of the strange woman is the way of death. Inclineth means to sink down. Her house and her path go down to death and the dead. The word for dead here indicates the shades of the departed or spirits of the dead. That is the company to be joined by going into her house (Proverbs 9:18). To go her way is to choose death and give up life.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 26, 2016 · 1 Comment
Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
– Proverbs 2:17
Solomon describes the character of the strange woman. She is pictured as being unreliable and unfaithful. She forsakes and forgets her commitments of life. The word for guide is sometimes translated as friend. It means a close intimate friend and here, “guide of her youth” refers to her husband. She is well painted as an adulterous. The covenant mentioned refers to the covenant of the law, which forbade adultery (Exodus 20:14) and the lust that leads to it (Exodus 20:17). She is a woman of hard conscience, willing and ready to pursue her lusts wherever they may lead.
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Posted by Jeff Short on June 25, 2016 · 3 Comments
To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
– Proverbs 2:16
Solomon here introduces the “strange woman,” of whom he has much more to say in chapters 5-7. The word for strange means foreign and refers to the pagan women of the nations outside of Israel. Through usage the term came to refer to any loose, immoral, and adulterous woman. Solomon will go on to sketch her character and her ways more fully. Mention of her is accompanied with appropriate warning. The strange woman represents a second kind of danger for fools lacking wisdom and is a complement to the evil man previously mentioned.
The strange woman has a prominent role in Proverbs as she is set as the anti-wisdom, or the opposite of lady wisdom. Wisdom will protect from and deliver from this dangerous adulterous. She flatters with her words, meaning she uses smooth speech to persuade the simple to go with her. Her smooth speech is appealing and designed to ignite passion in the man she seeks to ensnare. So she is a manipulator as well, using all her wiles to take her prey.
The strange woman is also contrasted with the virtuous woman of chapter 31. Strange women are presented as being plenteous and seemingly everywhere present. The virtuous woman is immediately described as being hard to find, but imminently valuable when found. Solomon knew by bitter experience the difference between the two and gave impassioned warnings against the strange woman.
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Proverbs 5:8
Posted by Jeff Short on September 9, 2016 · 1 Comment
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
Wisdom discerns the way of evil and folly and does not begin in it. Remove and come not nigh are the heart of this admonition. We could say keep away and don’t even go near. Joseph once made a narrow escape though he was near enough to still come to trouble (Genesis 39:7-12). I suppose we could debate what his level of responsibility was in the matter, but the text tells us she sought him day by day and that he entered the house with no one else present. If nothing else, let his account reinforce the wisdom of Solomon that we keep away and don’t go near.– Proverbs 5:8
The New Testament echoes the command of wisdom here (2 Timothy 2:22). Jesus also spoke to this with terms of urgency (Matthew 5:28-30). Each generation has some particular applications of this verse, but the intent is always the same. Stay away. We need wisdom to discern the strange woman, for it was the young man devoid of it that was caught by her (Proverbs 7:7-13). Having discernment, let us practice radical avoidance.
Way is road here as elsewhere. It speaks to the path, or course of life you are on. Solomon instructs to remove your way far from the strange woman. This would include rerouting your life if necessary to avoid “accidentally” bumping into her. That would certainly include the online world today as well. The door of her house is the entrance, the way in. Applications are numerous but the point is clear. If you do not come near the entrance, you will not be inside the house.
Listen to the Proverbs sermon series
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