Marriage and Folly

Introduction

In light of the confusion of our current generation, we need to pause and consider the deep connections Proverbs makes between marriage and wisdom and the abuse of marriage and folly. The goal is to understand life as God intended it to be lived.

Politics, what positions we are to take publicly.

Good life

In the context, the writer of Proverbs gives two, practical situations to illustrate the real world ways God’s wisdom offers protection.

Both of them relate to the “allure” or “enticement” of some alternative way to live.

Gangs of men and an adulterous woman.

Alternative ways of living and alternative viewpoints exist in the world (see Prov. 1).

Other viewpoints about how to live will be seductive to the person who foolishly rebels against God.

An important part of the teaching of Proverbs 1-9 begins here.

We will see other relevant passages soon.

Prov. 5.

Prov. 6:24-35.

Prov. 7:6-27.

Prov. 9.

All these passages relate, in some way, to the relationship between the forbidden, evil, adulterous woman and her enticing speech. Wisdom vs. Folly. Fidelity in marriage vs. Adultery.

A Reminder of the Basics

We see from the passage that God’s instruction delivers from the “strange” woman.

While this word may refer to foreign, it does not, in this case, refer to a non-Israelite.

Prov. 2:17.

Instead, she is someone strange to the married young man.

She is foreign in that regard.

God made men and women for one another in marriage.

In our generation, we have forgotten that men and women need one another for healthy intimacy and companionship.

Did this get lost in the waves of feminism which focused on turning women into equal tools of capitalist production?

Marriage makes sense as a feature of Proverbs because one of the arguments of the book is about living life as God intended for it to be lived in creation.

It was not good for the man to be alone, so God made woman. Neither the man nor the woman were meant to live as independent entities.

Human sexuality does not exist purely for the pursuit of personal pleasure. It is a vital part of the companionship that is to exist between a woman and a man who are married to one another.

Think about all the different ways that we corrupt the making of men and women and of marriage.

All three are present in Gen. 2.

Human beings in our sinfulness reject creation in at least the following ways:

Deny the male is made for the female and vice versa.

Privilege the importance of marriage or its relevance at all.

Deny maleness and femaleness by blurring the distinctions between them.

Marriage is not an unessential option to the way human beings were made.

Gen. 1:28 combined with Gen. 2 makes this clear.

The writer of Proverbs clearly refers to something literal here that is equally applicable to both men and women.

Prov. 5 makes it obvious the writer of Proverbs encourages fidelity in marriage.

Indeed, this is what we know God wants. “You will not commit adultery.”

Note the destructive nature of being involved with this woman.

Departed = “rephaim.” These are the “dead inhabitants of the netherworld.” (TWOT 2198).

Like the alternative way of living offered by the “gangs” so too yielding to this woman’s enticing words leads to death.

We must be very careful with how we understand the final three verses. However, they most likely have meaning similar to Peter’s in 1 Pet. 3.

Generally, if you live a faithful, dependable life, you are less likely to undergo a premature shortening of your life.

A person greatly increases their chances of living longer.

It is also certainly true that God would drive the wicked from off the land, and the Law itself demanded their death.

The Adulterous Woman as Allegory

Ch. 9 makes it obvious that something else is going on as well, namely, wisdom and folly are being allegorized through appealing women.

There are consequences to the decisions that we make, especially the decision to reject that God has anything to say to us about how life ought to be lived.

The adulterous woman will present listening to her and giving in to her as though there will be no consequences. However, this is not the case.

Listening to her leads to death and destruction.

While there is literal destruction, there is also something far deeper, far more significant being pointed to in these passages.

An adulterous woman enticing a young man with her “smooth words” becomes a perfect illustration for the appeal of rebelliousness and untruth.