The Lips of a Forbidden Woman

“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 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.

Her feet go down to death;

    her steps follow the path to 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,

lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

    and your labors go to the house of a foreigner.” (Proverbs 5:1-10 ESV)

The “forbidden woman” here appears to represent a harlot (prostitute) or an adulterous woman, which may be a physical woman in real life who sells herself or who gives herself away for sex. But a harlot in the Bible also symbolizes Babylon, which is a symbol of materialism, worldliness, sin, idolatry, wickedness, debauchery, corruption, evil-doing and sensual pleasure. She is also representative of an apostate, corrupt, unfaithful church and/or of a great city which rules over the kings of the earth.

[Revelation 14:8; Revelation 16:19; Revelation 17:1-18; Revelation 18:1-21]

So, this warning here may cover way more ground than just warning men against female prostitutes. For this warning may well be against the enticement of sin and of wickedness and of sensual pleasure which covers way more ground than just that of a singular woman who prostitutes herself for money or for sinful pleasure. For this is a warning against worldliness and self-indulgence and going after the ways of the flesh and participating in what is immoral, wicked, worldly and against God and his righteousness.

And this includes a warning against becoming followers and supporters and loyal devotees of any person or people group or government or church or church denomination or pastor or politician who is worldly, wicked, corrupt, materialistic, sensual, idolatrous, lying, cheating, and stealing, and who alters the truth to make it more attractive and acceptable to human flesh. So all these market-driven “churches” of today fit into this category, for they alter the truth of the gospel in order to draw in large crowds from the world.

So, if we are to follow Jesus Christ with our lives, we are not to be partners with those who are worldly, wicked, immoral, and corrupt, and the like, and who alter the truth of the Scriptures in order to attract the world to themselves or to their gatherings. We are not to join in with those who give permission to “believers in Christ” to continue living in sin while they claim God’s grace covers it all and that they will still go to heaven when they die, regardless of how they live. We are not to support those who deny Christ.

So, when this speaks of the lips of the forbidden woman dripping honey, and her speech being smoother than oil, what I see there are all these “pastors” who are saying what people want to hear, who are tickling itching ears with lies they make up. They are all about being “positive” and not “negative,” and so they skip over so much of what the Scriptures teach and they center on the promises of God, but don’t usually let the people know that there are conditions to be met for those promises to be fulfilled.

Therefore, this isn’t just about keeping away from literal physical prostitutes (male or female) or away from anyone who is sexually immoral and promiscuous, but this includes keeping away from any type of sinful behaviors which may engage in what is wicked, immoral, dishonest, unfaithful, corrupt and sensual, etc. So this includes all sorts of expressions of sexual immorality and lying and cheating and taking advantage of others and abuse and manipulation and sinning against God and others.

And this includes not partnering with others who are professing faith in Christ (or not) who are living wicked and immoral lives, and who are teaching against the truth of the gospel, and who are giving professing Christians free license to continue in deliberate and habitual sin. And this would include not supporting and not partnering with these market-driven “churches” (businesses of men) which are not teaching the truth and which are leading people astray.

We should avoid as much as is possible all that is against God and that is trying to draw us away from our pure devotion to the Lord in order to get us to give our loyalties and devotion and honor to what is not of God and to what is against God and his morals and his divine character and will for our lives. For the danger here is that we end up becoming like those we are engaged with in close relationships so that we end up straying from the Lord and from his will for our lives to become more like the world, instead.

And then at the end of your life you may groan, 

“How I hated discipline,

    and my heart despised reproof!

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

    or incline my ear to my instructors.

I am at the brink of utter ruin

    in the assembled congregation.” (Proverbs 5:12-14 ESV)

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Galatians 5:16-21]

Walk With Me

By Al Langdon and P.J. Zondervan

Walk with me, walk with me, 

Lest mine eyes no longer see 

All the glory, all the story of Your love; 

Talk to me, talk to me, 

Like You spoke so tenderly, 

When You talked there, 

When You walked there by the sea.

Talk to me, talk to me, 

Lest mine ears no longer hear 

All the wonder, all the beauty of Your grace; 

Walk with me, walk with me, 

As You walked so lovingly, 

When You walked there, 

When You talked there by the sea.

Let me follow in the footsteps 

That trod the shore of Galilee, 

Let me learn to pray like He did 

In the Garden of Gethsemane; 

Take my hand, take my hand, 

Teach me Lord to understand, 

All the duty, all the beauty of Your love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no8_yctK-Zg

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