Proverbs 5:3-4 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil
If you are reading Proverbs 1-7, there is a continual address from a specific person to another specific person. Now, it is general in the sense that it is God’s wisdom for the ages and it is God’s wisdom for you, but in Proverbs 5:1, for example, it says, “My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to mine understanding.” Proverbs 6:1 says, “My son, if thou be surety for thy friend…” Proverbs 7:1 says, “My son, keep my words.” Who is the specific speaker in the Proverbs 1-7? The answer is that a father is the one speaking. It may represent the wisdom that comes from God, but it is in the framework of a father.
Who is instructed in these chapters? It is a child, a son, specifically. Why is the father addressing the son? What is the reason? Well, there are a number of applications for these chapters, but there is one specific danger addressed every time the father is addressing the son. It is almost universally the same thing. What is the one danger? Take Proverbs 5:2-5 as an example. Verse 1 tells the son, “Listen to your dad.” Then, verses 2-5 say, “That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.”
So, there is a very specific danger, and it is the danger of the strange woman. We could argue that girls need to be careful and be on guard. That is true and applicable, but this is a dad talking to his son in seven chapters of the Bible about a very specific danger. The danger is the danger of a strange woman.
What is that talking about? That is not talking about some woman who is weird or odd. It is talking about a woman who is a stranger to you. She is not your wife. She is not yours. She is a stranger and that is the danger from which the son is being guarded. Again, in verse 10 the son is to listen and be aware of the strange women “lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger.” He is it not talking about a collection of strange women, but just people who are not your family, who are not yours.
When we are sexually immoral, things become very complicated very quickly. There is no law that simplifies what sin complicates. So, this is saying that when you are involved in this kind of sin, you hemorrhage the things that ought to be a blessing to your family. Things like your wealth, your labors, and so on, go to the house of a stranger instead of your family.
Again, verse 17, speaking on marriage, says “Let them be only thine own, and not a strangers’ with thee.” There is a very specific danger. Why? It is because this sin, the sin of the strange woman, of being immoral, of not sticking with God’s guidance in marriage, leads to all kinds of destruction. We specifically see here that nature produces humans but marriage produces a home. This is not politically correct, but a family is not just some helter-skelter collection of humans. Marriage produces the home and family. It is God’s design. Nature produces humans. Any two people can do that, but marriage produces the kind of home that God is talking about.
Now, there is help and hope regardless of your past, your failings, and your sin, but if we are going to get help and have hope from God, we have to be honest about God’s ethic, His governing principle for the universe that is based upon the most basic elements of His creation. That is the home, the husband and the wife.
Something you learn from Proverbs 5 is that you protect your home when you protect your heart. You protect your heart in two ways. First, you protect your heart with the guidance of parents. A young man or woman receives protection in the guidance of parents. “My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding.” This is wonderful. My end goal is for my child to understand for himself, but until he does, he has a dad and mom who have experience to help him do what is right. “Listen to me,” he says, “So you can have a clue and discernment because the lips for a strange woman…”
So, the heart of a young man is protected by the guidance of parents. Then, in verse 18 a married man is protected by the love of a wife. Verse 18 says, “Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” So, God has a plan, the guidance of parents and the love of a wife. Help and hope are available now, but we are looking to the future for safeguards that will help us not hemorrhage the happiness that we have. Instead, we want to cultivate our happiness and grow it in the marriage that God has designed. We are not a collection of random individuals. We are people who are in a commitment to other people in families. That is God’s design for the home.
So, how do you protect your home? You protect your home when you protect your heart.