Sunday Service 5-26-19 - Proverbs 5 - Be Intoxicated

Proverbs 5 1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom;     incline your ear to my understanding, 2 that you may keep discretion,     and your lips may guard knowledge. 3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,     and her speech 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 follow the path to Sheol; 6 she does not ponder the path of life;     her ways wander, and she does not know it. Intro: Continuation from Prov 4: How to get going, how to keep going, how not to get lost along the way … 3 generations present – grandpa, pa, son. End: 25 Let your eyes look directly forward,     and your gaze be straight before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet;     then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;     turn your foot away from evil. Echoes of those themes … One special way to get lost, to swerve, to turn your eyes away from the path and the goal: Sex! There is sexual wisdom and sexual foolishness – a sexual path that leads to fulfillment and purpose and a sexual path that leads to emptiness, misery and destruction. V1-2 Again, the call to listen … faith comes by hearing. Watch what happens in V13 when one doesn’t listen. The power of the tongue – to keep discretion and to guard knowledge: again verbs from the garden. The power to impart good or to sway to evil, to bless or to curse. V3-4 Sweet  bitter (I don’t know what wormwood is, but it sounds bad). smooth  2-edged sword – p The argument is to look past initial appearances to the results/consequences/destination of the path. This path starts out one way but ends another. Remove the blindfold from the eyes … Person going to hell says, “We’re going to Miami beach, I can feel it getting warmer.” V5-6 Ponder the path of your feet, where do these steps you’re taking lead? Don’t just take a careless step, each step takes you closer to something. You’re going somewhere!!!!!!!!!! Let me show you where her steps are headed. The hallway to her room is the hallway to hell (Prov 2). So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, [17] who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; [18] for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; [19] none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. Back there, it portrayed wisdom as a woman calling out in public contrasted with the forbidden woman who seduces secretly. To which woman will you listen? We’re told to ponder, to weigh, to consider, to think! This path is one of carelessness, thoughtlessness, pointlessness, non-intention … The problem is that doesn’t exist. Her ways wander and she doesn’t know it. She deceives because she’s deceived. Now, let me say that this passage is in context addressed to the young men of the court, the sons of the king, but it is applicable to all kinds of sexual temptations, weaknesses, dangers, vulnerabilities. Wisdom can apply this to whatever situation is needed – man tempting woman, homosexual temptation, pedophilia, etc. 7 And now, O sons, listen to me,     and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep 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 merciless, 10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,     and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, 11 and at the end of your life you groan,     when your flesh and body are consumed, 12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,     and my heart despised reproof! 13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers     or incline my ear to my instructors. 14 I am at the brink of utter ruin     in the assembled congregation.” V7 Listen! V8 Flee, not just to not look at her or to not talk to her, but don’t even allow the chance. Get you some gone, some distance, some buffers, some safety barriers/boundaries away from that edge. V9-10 If not, here is what will happen: your honor. Heb., hod used only here in Proverbs. In Num 27:20, Moses gave some of his hod (authority) to Joshua. In 1 Chr 29:25, hod is royal splendor; in Hab 3:3, God’s “brilliant splendor” fills the heavens. Whatever in the young man reflected kingly glory or was lofty and commanded respect would be cruelly lost Your honor is given away to one unworthy, your glory is given to that stealer, that liar, that imitator; the position, honor, wealth, blessing, life will be taken by another. This could be because you lose your reputation, or your time and effort, or your money. Especially your heart, your thoughts are all taken up. Context – you lose your family, position in the community, illegitimate children, alimony, coercion, etc. merciless wronged husbands; merciless porn industry, merciless devil. V11: Listen to how wisdom treats her friends: For they are life to those who find them,     and healing to all their flesh. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn shining brighter and brighter to noon day. She is your life. Length of days (quantity), years of life (quality), shalom (completeness, peace) they will add to you. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Contrasted with how lady folly treats her “friends”: at the end of your life, you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, The end is the most powerful argument. V12-14: This is the result of not listening: REGRET! We will be defined by what we love and hate, by what we listen to and what we ignore. Our honor and/or ruin will not be hidden in the end, it will be exposed, Luke 8:17 “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” Lord Byron was the bad boy of the nineteenth century whom everyone secretly envied. He was in Greece on his thirty-sixth birthday, all alone. Here is what he wrote: My days are in the yellow leaf, The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone! In other words, “I’m thirty-six, and I’m already old. All I have left is VD and depression. It’s important to see this: The loose woman is the temptress, but the blame is laid at the feet of the man who did not listen. See Adam, Eve, Satan. Danger is on the outside, but our problem is on the inside. If the inside is right, there is no danger on the outside. You do battle with Satan’s temptations of the flesh inside your heart. 15 Drink water from your own cistern,     flowing water from your own well. 16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,     streams of water in the streets? 17 Let them be for yourself alone,     and not for strangers with you. 18 Let your fountain be blessed,     and rejoice in the wife of your youth, 19     a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;     be intoxicated always in her love. 20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman     and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? I love this section! The weapons to fight are two-fold – the knowledge of the truth, (ie the sword of the spirit, the word of god), the wisdom given from this counsel … and the faith that it provides (the shield of faith). AND the blessings of God in our life now given as a foretaste to be enjoyed before the main event. V16 Cistern, flowing water from well – highly erotic language – Song of Songs 4 The answer to thirst is not JUST willpower or toughness, it’s to drink good water rather than poison. (Singleness is exalted, but so is marriage, if you burn with passion, it is better to marry.) V17: Your wife could be the public fountain too. Following this, the image of springs overflowing in the streets and city squares refers to the wife’s sexual desirability—if she so desired, she could satisfy them all (like the loose woman)—but she reserves herself for him alone. The loose woman offers nothing that the wife cannot superabundantly provide. “I’m every woman, it’s all in me; anything that you want done baby, I do it naturally.” V18-20 And now a prayer: Your marriage bed has the full blessing of wisdom, the full blessing of the wise parent, the full blessing of God! The fountain is the wife, her body - Let that fountain be blessed - when you turn your attention away from her, away from your garden, your well, you will find that garden unkempt, that well has become covered over, hard to access, the water is still in there, and it could be what it once was with much effort and time … how do you bless your fountain (your wife’s _)? You rejoice in it. What you enjoy, you take care of - it’s pretty natural isn’t it? You don’t have to begrudgingly keep up with what you enjoy, you take care of it, you learn more about it, you gain knowledge about it, you think about it a lot, you give to it, you spend time on it, you daydream about it. Rejoice also has a connotation of transcendence - it’s a communication about her to another - thankful enjoyment - thankfulness to God for her in heart and in speech. “You make me feel like a natural woman.” The corollary is present also by implication – Wife, be rejoiced in, rejoice in the rejoicing. What if it’s one-sided? Perhaps must go through this at times and come out the other side stronger, but it could also mean it’s time to seek help through counseling. 19 A lovely deer, a graceful doe – cuteness, beauty, captivating eyes, graceful movement, sweetness, gentleness, (are you more like a deer or like a lioness or preying mantis?) Intoxicated: “led astray” or perhaps “increase”. (v19, 20, 23) That is a command of God! Back in the days of the Puritans—they were trying to be Biblical—when a New England wife complained, first to her pastor and then to the whole congregation, that her husband was neglecting their sex life, the church removed him as a member! The Bible says, “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except for prayer and then only for a time and then come back together so that you don’t fall.” Here is the question that exposes the folly for what it is! V20 Why should you??? NO REASON! 21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord,     and he ponders all his paths. 22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,     and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. 23 He dies for lack of discipline,     and because of his great folly he is led astray. And, here is the end of the matter. You may get away with it, but you won’t. the Lord sees all your ways laid out before him, he is weighing your path whether you do or not. He thinks about where you’re going, each step you take, and your ultimate destination whether you do or not. You don’t answer to mere earthly consequences or some impersonal karma. You answer to a great, person, the ultimate person, the judge of the universe … and he will by no means clear the guilty! Irony abounds here! Nothing is lost to chance or hidden from consequences. Her feet clinched death, now they clinch you. You want freedom? You got chains! Discipline = freedom. Discipline is about teaching yourself (your body) the truth about what it really wants/needs and what is poison to it, teaching yourself what to love/hate; so it’s not about denying pleasure but rather superior, deeper, longer lasting, fuller, pleasure. (be intoxicated - led astray - with the wife of your youth); not about anti-love / passion - we were made to love, to feel - God made us for pleasure (according to his good pleasure) - Satan’s drive is to fool you according to pleasure, to trade a lesser pleasure for a greater one. This is true of sexual pleasure and sexual love as well. God made that; in fact he enabled it as part of his blessing (he blessed them and said - be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth), and commanded it. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife - This is a great mystery, but I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. The best, purest, truest aspects of the husband-wife relationship, the unutterable delight of momentary intimacy, taken to an eternal nature, an unspoilable nature, incorruptible. So, we should absolutely reframe discipline. Discipline is investment, it is taking the time and effort to make the best wine rather than settling for something less - spoiling it. Taking something out of the oven before it’s ready ruins it, Taking the fruit off of the vine before it’s ready ruins it. God can turn our selfish desires around and use them against our sinful nature. Can we use selfishness to kill selfishness? YES! To do so requires faith - a better way to know, to see. (Illustration - family we met at Daytona lagoon - their church just experienced a pastoral affair, another down the road experienced a pastor who had to enter rehab, another down the road a ways from us is experiencing the same.) Your feet are led, they are ALWAYS led, because you are not God, you are not an independent being. So, Proverbs says you may be led by the one who unbeknownst to her is led by the evil one. And, you are led astray, away from the path of purpose, righteousness, peace, heaven, God, love, real life, to the wasteland of folly. Only Christ can bring you back, and it won’t be just because you know stuff about him or because you sit under preaching, it will only be because you surrendered to him and let him direct your paths, you LISTENED! To his wisdom, you changed your hatred of him and his discipline to love for him and his discipline. You ask for His yoke and take it joyfully and thankfully. You stopped looking elsewhere for your personal fulfillment and salvation and put all of the weight of your soul on the only one who can carry it. You gave all of your glory to another and it was the one who is worthy of it! Repentance from sin, and faith in the Savior. God offers you a bountiful table of blessing. He offers you sonship, will you throw it away for folly? Come ye thirsty, come and welcome, God’s free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance – every grace that brings you nigh/near. Revelation puts it before you this way: there is a harlot and there is a bride. The bride used to be a harlot, but was Redeemed and made pure. Will we enter that redemption and walk in it, exalting the mercy and grace of our great, pure, strong, wise, loving Savior?