December 5, 2008

Today's Reading - Proverbs 5
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Following Scripture Verses

1. My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2. That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3. For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4. But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6. Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
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!
14. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15. Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
18. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

Today's Pathway:
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"Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed," - Proverbs 5:09

One of the Devil's great tricks is to show the enjoyment of sin without showing the results of that sin. In commercials he shows people having a great time while drinking alcohol, but he never shows the men beating their wives and children when they come home, or trying to dry out after years on drinking, or dealing with the ravages of liver disease. In today's verses Solomon points out the end results of immorality; things that Satan tries to keep secret.

He lists four specific consequences in these verses. First, he writes that the immoral man gives his honor unto others. It is dishonorable to be involved in sexual sin, regardless of how the world tries to present it. The man loses his honor before his family, his friends and the Lord. He probably loses it in front of the woman with whom he has the affair. That special relationship that he is to share only with his spouse he gives to someone else who is not entitled to it and does not deserve it.

Second, he gives his years to the cruel. This perhaps has several applications. First, he gives his years to a harlot. She is evil, yet he gives his years to her rather than to his faithful wife. In addition, once his sin is revealed, he must live the rest of his life tormented by his iniquity. His thoughts will continually go back to it and taunt him. Those who know about it may throw it in his face.

Third, he sacrifices his wealth and labor. His sin will cost him financially, particularly if his wife ultimately leaves him over it. He will waste his money on a woman who has helped to ruin his life. If the affair continues he will labor to assist her in her home, while he spends little on his own household. Others will enjoy those material things that he has worked for all his life.

Finally, he will eventually realize how his life has been wrecked. Perhaps he will get a disease because of his sin that will cause his flesh and body to be consumed. But, even if he simply dies of natural causes, he will always regret his moral indiscretion.

Don't be a fool. Flee from fornication.

Pastor Mark J Montgomery