Scripture Reading:

Proverbs 5:15–23

Proverbs 5:15–23

Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well. 

Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 

Let them be only your own, and not strangers’ with you. 

Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your youth. 

Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and you be ravished always with her love. 

And why will you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? 

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his goings. 

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins. 

He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. 

If a mother allows her son only one cookie before dinner, and he reaches for another from the jar, he is in the wrong. His mother is the authority over the cookies in the boy’s life. As Ruler over all, God is the ultimate authority over the sexual realm for His creature man, and He has properly assigned one woman for every man who is to be married. As the wedding vows go, she belongs to him, “to have and to hold until death do they part.” And so, the man has no right to reach for anything else out of the “cookie jar.” The man has no right to take his neighbor’s wife, hold her on his lap, and kiss her as he would with his own wife.

Similarly, the unmarried man has no business fondling somebody else’s wife, whether or not she is presently married or will be married to somebody else in the future. God will assign the young man a wife—that woman whom he shall marry.

“Drink waters out of your own cistern.” Problems arise when the lust monster within the heart rises up to grab for that which does not belong to him or is given to him. He seeks to satisfy himself with water from somebody else’s well. What the devil neglected to mention in the original temptation was the terrible consequences that would ensue upon the consumption of the fruit of the forbidden tree. He concealed the fact that we would be most happy when we are submitted to the will of God. “Let your fountain be blessed; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.” When men seek happiness by disobeying God and choosing their own way, they sentence themselves to a life of frustration. Attempting to live outside of God’s will is as futile as running a train off the tracks. The wheels only become more deeply mired in the dirt.

God has made certain things for man’s pleasure, including food, drink, and marital intimacy. But any one of these can be misused, idolized, and perverted. This usually happens where there is an absence of gratitude and the allowance for the lusts of the flesh to run wild in drunkenness, gluttony, and sexual sin.

God is good, and we must trust that He alone can optimize the good life for each of us. This may not be immediately obvious during periods of waiting and trial. The ultimate good always comes to those who wait for Him, “in the long run.” Only when Adam and Eve doubted God’s goodness and then reached for the forbidden fruit, did they open the way to the horror and misery of sin and death. Opposing God’s order may appear at first to be adventuresome, attractive, and delightful, but the consequences of such attempts are horrifying—much like the
sickening experience of sticking a hand into a fast-moving, industrial-strength blender.

The Christian married couple will taste and see that the Lord is good, because they believe the good comes from His hand. This is the root of all happiness. The ultimate good or the “best life” cannot be obtained when self rules, and the lust of the flesh is grabbing for that which God has not given. There can be no contentment, fulfillment, and peace this way. The Christian husband and wife must give themselves to one another in this area.

Much as healthy people must discipline themselves with food and drink, the Christian couple should discipline themselves in a healthy intimate life. All sexual needs must be taken care of within the context of the marriage where “The wife has not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband has not power of his own body, but the wife” (1 Cor. 7:4). Excessive fasting from marital intimacy is not always healthy or wise, and it may result in subjecting the husband or wife to temptations—the wife to discontentment and the husband to lusting after other women. Satan will take advantage where the marriage is not well cared for (1 Cor. 7:5). Therefore comes this wise counsel to the married man: “Be always ravished WITH her love.” Christians should have the happiest marriages because they believe that God is good and they act like it!

“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his goings.” A little boy may steal a cookie now and then without his mother’s knowledge, but he cannot escape the steady gaze of God in heaven. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3). He studies the thoughts, motives, and actions of every person, every minute of the day. No one can escape His notice. This is the basis for human guilt. Not only are men aware of the fact that they have violated the divine law, but they cannot avoid the sense that Someone is watching them. There would be no guilt and no psychological need for some satisfaction or atonement burning within the minds of men if this were not the case. Though not many would admit their guilt, all people by nature will exhibit the symptoms of a guilty conscience.

“His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.”

Unbelievers are thoroughly tied up in their sins. Viewing these folks through a spiritual lens, they would resemble a mummy wrapped in a hundred layers of cloth strips. Like spiritual zombies, they cannot escape the way of sin, so they perpetually give in to temptation. What a hopeless prognostication in these words! They shall die without instruction, because they rejected these words and would not listen. When warned of sin and the reality of hell, their hollow eyes would stare eerily into the void. Their ears were filled with concrete. The evangelist and the pastor left them to speak to others who would listen to instruction, and they were left to die in their sins. Fearful though it may be to think of it, this is the final epithet for the men and women of this world.

But Jesus Christ has come to set the captives free! He said that “if the Son will make you free, you will be free indeed!” ( John 8:36)

When Jesus spoke these words to the Jews, they would not hear Him, and they did not understand Him ( John 8:43, 47), and they picked up stones to kill Him. May God have mercy on us, that we may hear and receive the words of instruction today!

Family Discussion Questions:

1. If you were consciously aware of the fact that God was watching you all the time, how would this affect your behavior?

2. For young men: What are you doing to protect yourself from the temptress and prepare yourself for the wife of your youth?

For husbands: Do you have a happy marriage? Are you taking the command seriously to delight in the wife of your youth? What are the things that get in the way of this duty God has placed on you?