What do I have to do to stay away from the forbidden woman?
Well this is what we will discuss
1) Keeping the commandments
2) Benefits of keeping the commandments
3) Why keep the commandments
4) The actual commandment
5) Why keep this commandment
6) The advise
7) Judgement
1) Keeping the commandments
Proverbs 6:20-21 (ESVST)
Warnings Against Adultery
20 My son, keep your father ‘s commandment, and forsake not your mother’ s teaching. 21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.
The first thing that you do is to keep the commandments of your father and of your mother. Binding and tieing them simply means that ensure that you never forget them. Ensure that you always remember them. Who best to give you direction than the two people who brought you into this world. Your parents have been in the world longer than you have, listening to them is not a bad idea. I like the way the amplified translation writes this same verse:
Proverbs 6:20 (AMP)
My son, keep your father’s [God- given] commandment and forsake not the law of [God] your mother [taught you].
Notice that the commandments that your father gives you and the law that your mother teaches you, is not their own but, these comes from God. God send these teachings and commandments to you through your parents. So, keeping these commandments and the law, is actually keeping God’s commandments and God’s law.
2) Benefits of keeping the commandments
Proverbs 6:22 (ESVST)
When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.
Commandments lead, protect and advice you. If you listen to the commandments given to you and keep them, they will lead or guide you, protect you and advise you. Each time you meet this situation, these commandments will help.
3) Why keep the commandments
Proverbs 6:23-24 (ESVST)
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
The commandment itself is a lamp and the teaching that comes out of it, a light. This will light your way in the dark because without it, you may fall in potholes that you did not know existed. Without the light you stand a better chance of being caught in the trap of a forbidden woman, for you will not see her coming and you might be caught off guard. The rebuke or correction that comes with the commandment, are the way of life to preserve you from the evil and forbidden woman, from the smooth toungue or speech of the adulteress.
4) The actual commandment
Proverbs 6:25 (ESVST)
Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
Proverbs 5:7-8 (ESVST)
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,
These are the commandments from and the teachings from God through your parents. Do not desire, do not lust after an adulteress in your heart. The heart is where it all starts. Don’t allow your heart to be pulled into her beauty. Avoid being captured by her eyelashes, no matter how beautiful she might be. Stay away from her and do not even go near her. Do what Joseph did when the wife of Potiphar in Egypt seduced him. This women is an example of an adulteress who was pursuing Joseph day and night trying to make him sleep with her. Joseph kept on denying her and rejecting her advances. One day the woman grabbed Jospeh’s garment or clothes and Joseph in realizing what was about to take place, he ran.
Genesis 39:11-12 (ESVST)
But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “ Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.
Like Joseph, run away from her. Don’t even give her a chance to talk. Slightest chance you give her, might be all she needs.
5) Why keep this commandment
Proverbs 6:26-29 (ESVST)
for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. 27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? 28 Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? 29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor ‘s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.
Proverbs 5:9-14 (NIV)
lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to one who is cruel, 10 lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another. 11 At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. 12 You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! 13 I would not obey my teachers or turn my ear to my instructors. 14 And I was soon in serious trouble
in the assembly of God’s people.”
Why keep the commandments to stay away from the forbidden woman? You will be punished. You are only bringing trouble in your life. A prostitute leaves a man with just a loaf of bread but a forbidden woman, goes straight for your life. She takes the very gift that God has given you, your life. Going after a forbidden woman is like carrying coal next to your chest which can only lead to your clothes being burned. It is like walking on hot coal, bare foot and expect not to be burned. It is simply stupid. You will loose your honor and dignity, strangers will feast on your wealth and your toil will enrich the house of another. Why, when caught, you will pay, not only monetary but even with your life. Look at these verses, punishment for adultery is death and if you are lucky not to die, you pay.
Leviticus 20:10 (ESVST)
10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (ESVST)
“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
At the end of it all, you will only have regrets and nothing else.
6) The advise
Proverbs 5:15-21 (ESVST)
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? 21 For a man ‘s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he ponders all his paths.
This is an advise from God himself. I’m am not going to explain this passage lest I do injustice to it. Secondly, the passage itself is rated 18 years and contains explicit sexual content. So, as I said, if you are of age, you will understand it. Lol.
7) Judgement
Proverbs 6:32-35 (ESVST)
He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. 33 He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away. 34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. 35 He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.
Proverbs 5:21-23 (ESVST)
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.
I can just see some saying but you said that if I am a Christian under grace, I am not liable to judgement if I sin. True, that is correct but I also said that if you are under grace, you would not want to commit adultery anyway, simply because you understand what God has done for you through Jesus, because you understand that you did not deserve any of it and all you want to do is to praise and glorify God all your life for what He has done for you. So, if you are under grace, adultery is the last thing in your mind and should not even be there.
However, if you look at Proverbs 6:34-35 above, you will realize that the person passing judgement on you if you caught, is the forbidden woman’s husband. The verse says jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare you when he takes revenge. He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts. All he will want is your head on a platter. God will forgive you, yes, but the husband will not.
Everywhere, the word woman is used, replace with man and it will be equally applicable. This message is applicable to both men and women. A forbidden man or woman is very dangerous and anything to do with him/ her, can only lead to nothing but trouble. Adultery is bad an God hates it.
Just in conclusion, I suppose one can understand why only a woman was used in these passages. These scriptures were written by men. Proverbs was written by Solomon, the son of David. If I was in Solomon’s shoes, I suppose I would have also used a woman for the simple reason that, I don’t see myself describing a man’s lips as dripping with honey. Never, never, never!