Welcome to Proverbs 5: A strong warning against adultery. In fact, the warning is so strong that chapters 5-7 are devoted to its urgency. I know that not every reader will sense the timeliness of this message, but I KNOW that someone needs to hear these words of wisdom today. Someone needs to yield to truth today before wrecking their own life and in the process, causing a several car pileup. Someone needs to know that God’s Word speaks specifically to the situation you find yourself caught up in. Someone.
Graze in your own pasture.
Drink from your own well.
When we’re young and fall in love, I think it’s probably hard to believe that we would ever be faced with the temptation to commit adultery. The young love we feel for our spouse is intoxicating, as it should be, and I would venture to say that most of us would never dream of straying from that love in unfaithfulness.
I think it’s vital for every single one of us to always remember that we are never immune to or above any sin. At any given time, you and I both are one sin away from moral failure. One. If we don’t put some safeguards and boundaries in place to protect ourselves from this devastating sin that destroys so many marriages, it’s only a matter of time before we will find ourselves confronted with the temptation face to face.
Proverbs 5 describes the “forbidden woman” in great detail. She’s enticing and inviting. Her words are smooth and desirable. To follow her, though, leads to destruction and death. In short, she over-promises and under-delivers, every time. Just like sin.
I think what this chapter makes clear is that the temptation of lust will present itself to everyone. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Proverbs 5 instructs us here to instead of following the temptress of lust down her crooked path, rather “be intoxicated always” in the love of your spouse. (Proverbs 5:19) The safeguard against the folly of lust and ultimately adultery is simply this:
Graze in your own pasture.
Drink from your own well.
Not someone else’s pasture. Not someone else’s well. Fill yourself to fullness with the love of your spouse, and find that your desire to look elsewhere will significantly decrease. The sad reality of today is that we don’t even have to try anymore to fail at marriage. The world does a pretty good job at throwing every possible thing at marriage that it can to sabotage it. We must be intentional about safeguarding the covenant relationship that God gave us.
Wisdom knows this. Wisdom speaks this. Wisdom is this.
For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword. Proverbs 5:3-4 ESV
Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well. Proverbs 5:15 ESV
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