Daily Devotional Thursday 5th May 2022

by William Moody

Proverbs 5

Warning Against Adultery

5:1   My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
    incline your ear to my understanding,
  that you may keep discretion,
    and your lips may guard knowledge.
  For the lips of a forbidden1 woman drip honey,
    and her speech2 is smoother than oil,
  but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
    sharp as a two-edged sword.
  Her feet go down to death;
    her steps follow the path to3 Sheol;
  she does not ponder the path of life;
    her ways wander, and she does not know it.
  And now, O sons, listen to me,
    and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
  Keep your way far from her,
    and do not go near the door of her house,
  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.”
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 intoxicated4 always in her love.
20   Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
    and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?5
21   For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD,
    and he ponders6 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.

Footnotes

[1] 5:3 Hebrew strange; also verse 20
[2] 5:3 Hebrew palate
[3] 5:5 Hebrew lay hold of
[4] 5:19 Hebrew be led astray; also verse 20
[5] 5:20 Hebrew a foreign woman
[6] 5:21 Or makes level

(ESV)

The warning against adultery is uppermost in this chapter, but there is truth we can apply here to all the temptations of sin.

The young man is warned that the adulteress is smooth talking and promises much (v1-3) but in the end she will bring misery and death (v4-6). Fear sin, it promises so much but the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6 v23).

The advice is to stay as far as possible away from temptation (v7-10) unless at the end of life we’re filled with regrets about our failure to listen to wise advice (v11-14).

One of the best defences against adultery is be filled with joy from our own cisterns, in other words for married people to seek delight in their own marriage (v15-20). For this to be achieved couples always need to work at strengthening and deepening their marriage by God’s grace.

Likewise, in resisting all sin, the key is finding delight in a deepening relationship with Christ. The joy of the Lord is our strength.

The chapter warns with a warning that we’re under the gaze of the God who sees all and who brings down severe consequences for sin (v21-23).

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.