The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security
Proverbs 2; I die daily devotional.
19 None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.
I didn’t realize just how important this verse was when I was engaging in sexual activity before and outside of my marriage (not to mention the sexual abuse I experienced as a child); let me explain the latter (outside of marriage).
Even though I was a believer when I married my wife, my marriage bed was still defiled (spiritually unclean).
Heb 13:4 — Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
I hope you’re wondering how because it will be hard to understand unless you’re willing to receive the truth of my testimony and how the work of God is alive in us who believe.
As I mentioned before, I had engaged in sexual activity before my marriage, with a # of different women. As God as my witness, He knows the number as well as my wife, but it’s not relevant to the purpose of this information. The point is that just because I became married to Laura, our marriage bed became defiled by what was going on in my heart and mind.
I had heard and read these proverbs in my youth, but I wasn’t ready to understand because I struggled against insecurities. I was terrified of marriage although desired to be “right” with God.
My shame … is a very real experience … and the experience is not to be taken lightly … because in it … is where I discovered the fear of the Lord.
So even though I was married, I still thought of previous sexual activity with women that were not my wife. I would still watch pornography. If I didn’t have pornography, I would create to fantasize and imagine it while intimate with my wife.
Proverbs 2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; 17 That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; 18 For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead; 19 None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.
It’s crucial that you recognize where Satan is in my testimony. Do you see how I used my marriage as a cover to continue in my sexual sin, that is how clever Satan is in our lives.
God designed marriage between a man and woman for a reason … we might get to that … we’ll see. Also, God designed the roles of men and women in the service of God to be holy. So if you’re a single male or female struggling against lust, please understand that it doesn’t change when you’re married.
1Co 7:29 — But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; 30 and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; 31 and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.
It is to the glory of God through Jesus my Savior that I can report to you in this devotional how Satan does not hold my soul captive to sin. I’m actively in repentance of these sins you’ve become a witness of and many more of my personal sins.
Jas 5:20 — let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Let me make it clear, though, that I’m far from perfect … although that is my aim, my direction!
Mat 5:48 — “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Going to Church has killed my life, you might need to read that again; I wasn’t joking. Going to Church has killed my life, but by God’s grace and mercy, I’ve been born again. And my devotion is to my King, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
I have been delivered from the strange woman, and you can be delivered as well. It is possible through much discipline. I have had the Holy Spirit alive in me working nonstop, the Holy Spirit is our Helper!
Jhn 14:16 — “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
The love of my wife has helped change me from a man of sin, to a man chasing after God!
1Pe 3:1— In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,
RESOURCE
[BP]
Proverbs 2 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
1 My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, 2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; 3 For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; 4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. 9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course. 10 For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, 12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things; 13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; 14 Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil; 15 Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways; 16 To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; 17 That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; 18 For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead; 19 None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life. 20 So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will live in the land And the blameless will remain in it; 22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.
COMMENTARY
Matthew Henry (P2-V19) Commentary
[2.] How fatal it will prove to those that fall in league with her, v. 18, 19. Let the sufferings of others be our warnings. Take heed of the sin of whoredom; for,
- First, The ruin of those who are guilty of it is certain and unavoidable, if they do not repent. It is a sin that has a direct tendency to the killing of the soul, the extinguishing of all good affections and dispositions in it, and the exposing of it to the wrath and curse of God and the sword of his justice. Those that live in forbidden pleasures are dead while they live. Let discretion preserve every man, not only from the evil woman, but from the evil house, for the house inclines to death; it is in the road that leads directly to eternal death; and her paths unto Rephaim, to the giants (so some read it), the sinners of the old world, who, living in luxury and excess of riot, were cut down out of time, and their foundation was overthrown with a flood. Our Lord Jesus deters us from sinful pleasures with the consideration of everlasting torments which follow them. Where the worm dies not, nor is the fire quenched. See Mt. 5:28, 29.
- Secondly, Their repentance and recovery are extremely hazardous: None, or next to none, that go unto her, return again. It is very rare that any who are caught in this snare of the devil recover themselves, so much is the heart hardened, and the mind blinded, by the deceitfulness of this sin. Having once lost their hold of the paths of life, they know not how to take hold of them again, but are perfectly besotted and bewitched with those base lusts. Many learned interpreters think that this caution against the strange woman, besides the literal sense, is to be understood figuratively, as a caution,
- 1. Against idolatry, which is spiritual whoredom. Wisdom will keep thee from all familiarity with the worshippers of images, and all inclination to join with them, which had for many ages been of such pernicious consequence to Israel and proved so to Solomon himself.
- 2. Against the debauching of the intellectual powers and faculties of the soul by the lusts and appetites of the body. Wisdom will keep thee from being captivated by the carnal mind, and from subjecting the spirit to the dominion of the flesh, that notorious adulteress which forsakes its guide, violates the covenant of our God, which inclines to death, and which, when it has got an undisturbed dominion, makes the case of the soul desperate.
"NOT WITH INK" 