Warning to Heed

Proverbs 2:16-19
16So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
18for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;
19none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

Not very uplifting words for a Friday morning, that’s for sure. But we are in the middle of a message of significant warning from a father to the son he loves. While the verses are short, the meaning is of vital importance to the person who wants to follow God with their whole life.

Describing a person, the adjective signifies someone who is alien or incompatible in some way, either a foreigner or a person who is unauthorized, prohibited, or illicit. Often translated as “strange,” the point here is that she is a stranger to the son who is being instructed in divine wisdom. It does not mean that she is a “strange woman” in the sense that something is wrong about her appearance or mannerisms. He is indicating that the woman is not his son’s wife and so is “foreign” to his son, and 2:17 implies that she is another man’s wife. She tempts young men with illicit sex, but this would violate the biblical mandate that the marriage of a man and his wife is the only legitimate and holy relationship in which sexual intimacy is permitted by God.
Steinmann, A. E. ©2009. Proverbs (p. 97). Saint Louis: CPH.

The first things that is going on here is an expansion of the concept of God’s relationship with His people as that of a marriage between a husband and wife. God is Husband, and the Church (you!) is His wife. When we go after other gods, we are defiling that sacred relationship, just as an extra-marital affair damages (and usually destroys) a marriage.

The words of wisdom from this Father are strong and promise desperate consequences for allowing oneself to be lured away from God. The enticement to share yourself with others is ever present in our marriages and in our relationship with God. These words are difficult but important.

This woman is portrayed as abandoning her husband and her marriage covenant, made before her God, just as evil men abandon God’s upright paths. The father depicts the temptation to adultery as a sinkhole, leading inescapably to death. This description is intended to horrify the son so that he will flee this trap from which there is no chance of escape to obtain life. a warning against spiritual adultery, straying from God to worship foreign gods or allowing anything to take God’s place, including (but not limited to) one’s sexual desires.
Steinmann, A. E. ©2009. Proverbs (p. 98-99). Saint Louis: CPH.

Proverbs is filled words of warning. I think that for the most part, none of these warning is particularly new or profound, but clearly, we need constant reminders, for we too are quick to wander.

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