Proverbs 5:7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
In verse 7 God changed the recipients to the “children” and not just to the son. We said already that the application of the book of Proverbs is not limited to the son. The son needs to listen and be able to lead.
The children need to hold on to God’s Word. As we noted, the strange woman would have been wise to hear God’s Wisdom as well. Here we are again commanded to hear and not depart from the words of the father.
In verse 8 we are again reminded of the need to remove thy way far from her. The wise children will reroute their path. They will not want to be anywhere close to the strange woman. They will not want to come close to the door of her house.
I suppose every larger centre has an area where the strange women like to hang out. Certainly bars would be a place where they are. Bars are not a place for God-fearing people. There are also other areas that would be known to be places where she and her type spend their time. The godly person needs to steer clear of those places.
In verse 9 we see the real danger in not listening to God. God wants His children to be honourable. He wants His children to have a clean record that reflects their faithfulness to Him.
Mr. Trump has spent thousands of dollars in courts trying to clean up messes that he has made over the years. He is not known to be a morally clean man. He has made it to be president of the U.S. because there are too many people who also have very poor moral standards. That is what is wrong with the mentality that we need to hold our noses and vote for the best of the worst.
We do not know about all the filth our politicians get involved in. We do know none of them are willing to stand up and protect the unborn. We also know none of them want to protect our children from the abuse of fluid gender teaching. Why would a true child of God want to be seen as being supportive of such a mess?
God points out that those who lack this necessary discernment will give their years to the cruel. As we have already noted, the time and money wasted in court trying to defend against the facts is costly.
In verse 10 we see that strangers will be the beneficiaries of the wealth of the immoral children. The effort put into making money will go to strangers. Most parents want to try to help their children get ahead if they can. When a person lacks this basic discernment the money will go to others, like lawyers, judges, strange women, etc.
In verse 11 we see that the man that gets caught in this mess, will come to his senses, at least in part. He will feel sorry at least for getting caught. Often times there are physical health issues and could also be mental health issues that flow from the guilt of being involved in this immorality.
Notice what God says about the person that gets caught up with the strange woman. They hated instruction, and they despised reproof. There will have been those who have tried to warn against this, but this person refused that. In verse 13 we see that this person refused to obey the voice of his teachers. He did not incline his ear to those who instructed him.
Obviously king Solomon did not have much wise counsel to pass on to his sons. He was so involved with multiple wives that his words would fall on deaf ears. However, God’s Word supersedes the bad examples of men and women. Adults should not have the attitude of: ‘do as I say and not as I do’. The son does not need to follow the evil path of an ungodly parent. Each person is given the opportunity to choose wisely. Each person has a conscience and needs to exercise that conscience for good. The Holy Spirit is at work in each person to convince them of the need to be saved and that God is the righteous judge.
Regret is a terrible thing. If we will not listen to God’s wise counsel, there will be regret. Some years back I remember dealing with a young man who was the result of a man and a woman who lacked discernment. He eventually found out who his father was. He struggled with how he would make contact with him. His father ended up being a prominent man who married a different woman and had a family with her. Yet as is only natural, he wanted to meet his father.
Eventually arrangements were made for the two to meet together. It was an awkward situation for the father. How would he tell his wife and children of this gross indiscretion in his past. God is willing to forgive the repentant sinner, but there is still the regret there.
I am sure there are many children and many adults that would fit into that type of a situation. It is far wiser to listen to God’s wise counsel and avoid the pain and agony of having to face the after effects of this indiscretion/sin.
God knows what He is talking about. He is not just throwing out some ideas to try. He is giving us the facts. He is Wise. He knows the only way for the son and the children to avoid the pain that flows from rejecting Him, both now and into eternity.
Pastor Bartel