Proverbs 4: 20 – 5: 23
Above The Law
20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. 24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, 2 That you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge. 3 For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell. 6 Lest you ponder her path of life—Her ways are unstable; You do not know them. 7 Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Remove your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, 9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; 10 Lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner; 11 And you mourn at last, when your flesh and your body are consumed, 12 And say: “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction! 13 I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me! 14 I was on the verge of total ruin, in the midst of the assembly and congregation.” 15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. 16 Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? 17 Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you. 18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. 19 As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. 20 For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, and be embraced in the arms of a seductress? 21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his paths. 22 His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin. 23 He shall die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
I have always enjoyed martial arts. One of the current actors who have come to movie and television fame for their self-defense tactics is Steven Seagal. One of his movies which I liked is ‘above the law’. In the movie Steven comes across some government people who think that they can do whatever criminal evil activity they want. Since they have government backing they do not have to obey the law like all of us common folks. The action packed movie’s good guy [Steven Seagal] wins out in the end over these criminals.
Today’s study in a way has reminded me of similar things going on in the church. Many ‘superstar’ Pastors have been caught up in things for a long time that if their thinking was accurate would tell them that they have disqualified themselves from their ministry.
The apostle Paul understood that your entire ministry can go down the toilet by responding to temptation. He wanted to make sure that he would not be disqualified from serving the Lord. Hey, you can be the ugliest guy in the world and all of a sudden because of the Lord’s increase in your ministry you have the beautiful ladies knocking down your door.
When a Pastor falls he is still a Christian believer. Yet, in God’s rules – one strike and you are out. Look at Moses from just losing his temper. He was disqualified from being allowed to enter the Promise Land. David was still loved by our Holy and Merciful Adoni Yahweh, Father God, yet the penalty for his sin with Bathsheba cost him four sons.
At the time of this Proverb Solomon was faithfully following the Lord. Later in life he went astray. Here he urges those who hear him and read his words to take them to heart and keep them there because they offer life and health. They are therefore to watch over their hearts (and minds and wills), to put away careless or false words, to look straight ahead without deviation, and to watch where they put their feet on the path of life. They are not to turn to either right or left but are to ensure that they keep their foot from evil. They are not to be like the ‘strange woman’, the adulterous woman or prostitute, who ‘does not watch the path of life’.
It will be noted how many parts of the body are mentioned in these verses: ear, eyes, heart, flesh, heart, mouth, eyes, eyelids, feet, hand, and foot. The whole body is to be involved in responding to wisdom. Now, please note the word ‘Wisdom’. This comes from our Holy God. It is His Wisdom, not Satan’s who offers worldly wisdom. Many teachers focus of this Proverb in the natural which is okay. However, if you look at the prior Proverbs, Solomon has referred to ‘wisdom’ as a woman. So, Godly Wisdom is a Good and Wholesome Woman. Worldly wisdom is a prostitute. In our study we will view this Proverb from the spiritual side not the natural side.
20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
Solomon here calls on his son Rehoboam to attend to his words, and listen carefully to his sayings. In previous Proverbs Solomon was addressing all his children and their descendants. They must read them constantly (let them not depart from their eyes) and keep them in the centre of their hearts, minds and wills. In ancient Israel the ‘heart’ was the centre of mind, will and emotions. They must read, mark, learn and inwardly digest. Note the assumption that the sayings can be ‘seen’ which suggests that they are in writing.
Folks take heed to this advice. You see you are our Holy God’s children. He also wants you to do the same things listed here. Make this a personal resolution to incorporate these actions into your lives. I know that you will be pleasantly pleased with the results of doing these Godly tips. Take a look at a promise from our Heavenly Father.
22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.
You see for all who truly discern them they offer the secret of wholesome living. They offer life and health. The life offered is spiritual life, life lived with God.
Health is especially important here because in the next subsection the warning is against going against God’s advice. Have you ever been bored with some Scripture in the Pentateuch, that is, the first five books of the bible, where our Precious Holy Spirit lists things to avoid? For example, in the book of Leviticus chapter 11 we read about certain animals not to eat, “24 ‘By these you shall become unclean; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until evening; 25 whoever carries part of the carcass of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening: 26 The carcass of any animal which divides the foot, but is not cloven-hoofed or does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Everyone who touches it shall be unclean. 27 And whatever goes on its paws, among all kinds of animals that go on all fours, those are unclean to you. Whoever touches any such carcass shall be unclean until evening. 28 Whoever carries any such carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. It is unclean to you. 29 ‘These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its kind; 30 the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. 31 These are unclean to you among all that creep. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. 32 Anything on which any of them falls, when they are dead shall be unclean, whether it is any item of wood or clothing or skin or sack, whatever item it is, in which any work is done, it must be put in water. And it shall be unclean until evening; then it shall be clean. 33 Any earthen vessel into which any of them falls you shall break; and whatever is in it shall be unclean: 34 in such a vessel, any edible food upon which water falls becomes unclean, and any drink that may be drunk from it becomes unclean. 35 And everything on which a part of any such carcass falls shall be unclean; whether it is an oven or cooking stove, it shall be broken down; for they are unclean, and shall be unclean to you. 36 Nevertheless a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean, but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean. 37 And if a part of any such carcass falls on any planting seed which is to be sown, it remains clean. 38 But if water is put on the seed, and if a part of any such carcass falls on it, it becomes unclean to you. 39 ‘And if any animal which you may eat dies, he who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening. 40 He who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. He also who carries its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. 41 ‘And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. 42 Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth—these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination. 43 You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps; nor shall you make yourselves unclean with them, lest you be defiled by them. 44 For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 45 For I am the LORD who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. 46 ‘This is the law of the animals and the birds and every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth, 47 to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten.’ ”
Can you imagine having pork out in the wilderness without refrigeration? Do you want to die from poisoning? Can you see here the Great Protector at work for us. Our Precious Holy Ruler Is watching over us stumbling sheep. If He didn’t we would probably all die from disease or other accidents.
In this chapter our Great Holy Master is warning uks about transmittable diseases. Thus those who listen to his words will avoid unpleasant diseases, and will have a healthy lifestyle. They will not be those whose ‘flesh and body are consumed’ which we find in chapter 5 verse 11.
Solomon now tells his listeners to guard their hearts, to avoid a wayward mouth and false lips, to concentrate their eyes on what is true, and to watch which path they place their feet on.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
The Israelite saw the heart as the centre of a man’s being. It was the seat of the mind, will and emotions. It was also the repository of knowledge, especially about God. Thus the thought was to keep a guard on such by obtaining God’s wisdom and living it out. For their response to the issues of life (basically all that they did) would depend on the state that their heart was in, and what knowledge and wisdom it contained. If their hearts were set on God’s wisdom, then all would be well. But if they followed man’s wisdom it could only lead to tragedy. Their hearts were therefore to be guarded ‘with all diligence’. A careful watch must be kept over them.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.
And part of this guarding involved putting away what was false. It is tempting to see this as an injunction to ‘his son’ to guard his words, but the main emphasis in the subsection is on receiving and responding to teaching, not on proclaiming it. It is more probable then that this is a warning not to listen to the false words of others. Solomon is saying, ‘pay heed to my words, and do not listen to false words’. Thus ‘his son’ is to ‘push away’ the wayward mouth and ‘put far from him’ perverse lips. In other words he is not to listen to those who say things which are wayward and perverse, who inculcate false wisdom. Indeed, the mouth and lips of those who are wayward and perverse are to be ‘put away’ and ‘put far from him’, because he is ‘guarding’ his heart, and letting his eyes look right on
By putting away and avoiding false advice it will be easier to look straight forward. Furthermore this ties in better with what follows later, where he is called on to avoid the strange woman whose lips ‘drop honey’, and whose mouth ‘is smoother than oil’.
Nevertheless it is undoubtedly true that Scripture does teach us to keep a watch on our mouths, and taken in this way this would be seen as an injunction to honesty and truth in all that we say.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.
In verse 20 Solomon’s words were not to depart from his eyes. Now, therefore, he is advised to ensure that his eyes and eyelids look straight on, following his words of wisdom. They are not to wander to other paths, or listen to wayward and perverse words, but are to concentrate on the pathway of God’s wisdom and knowledge. This reminds us of the importance of having ‘the single eye’ which our Adoni Messiah, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ pointed out in chapter 6 verse 22, where He advises us to be fixed on truth, which will cause our whole bodies to be filled with light. It is because men’s eyes wander so easily that they fall into sin.
26 Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.
In looking straight on he is to carefully watch the path that he treads on. He is to ensure that his way is established, walking in the straight path. He is not to turn to the right hand or to the left. He is to walk straight on, thereby removing his foot from evil. Please take note the point that the way in which the eye is fixed will be the way in which he walks. What we look at will affect what we do.
This is in direct contrast with the strange woman that we read about in chapter 5 verse 6 who ‘does not watch the path of life’ but wanders aimlessly in her own ways.
The constant depiction of the strange woman may be in deliberate contrast to woman Wisdom. The idea then is that people should look to wisdom rather than to the enticement of strange women [worldly wisdom]whose words lead astray
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, 2 That you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge.
To avoid the enticement of sin one thus needs God’s wisdom and understanding in order to combat it and ensure that his own lips preserve godly knowledge.
Holding on to that wisdom and understanding will make one discreet in what one does. This will enable him to overcome temptation. There is a great statement that addresses this point which says, ‘His word will keep me from sin, or sin will keep me from His word’.
3 For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
False information or worldly wisdom can soon persuade the unwary and the untaught, whose lips are not ‘retaining knowledge’, to walk in the way of sin. In going on this path we are advised that to do so is foolish, for in the end she turns out not to be as sweet as honey but as bitter as wormwood. Wormwood is a plant which is regularly paralleled with gall in order to emphasize bitterness. It had a reputation for bitterness. Furthermore she is as sharp as a two-edged sword. The person who goes down this path unconsciously awaits his or her death.
5 Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell. 6 Lest you ponder her path of life—Her ways are unstable; You do not know them.
For the woman is treading the way to death, she is going step by step to the grave-world (Sheol). As a consequence she does not find (or ‘watch’) the level path of life. Her eyes are fixed on her own way, not realizing where it leads. ‘Her ways are unstable.’ Some would translate, ‘her tracks meander aimlessly’. The point is that she has no fixed direction. She does not take the straight path. She wanders around in by-paths away from the path of life. But she does not know it. She is unaware of where her journey will end.
You see this first hand happening in our colleges and universities. You have these professors spewing out all kind of rubbish, not knowing how they are leading gullible young people to their own end. They are treading the way of death. Here in chapter 5, however, the stated warning is that they will endure degradation and slavery.
7 Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Remove your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
Solomon is so concerned for those who are taking this path that he includes another exhortation to listen to, and follow, the words of his mouth. They are not to depart from them, rather they are to remove their way far from her, and not come to the door of her house. So the choice is stark. Walk in God’s ways, as proclaimed by Solomon, or walk in her ways which she has made to sound so exciting. And his appeal is for them to heed the first and reject the second.
You may be saying to yourself, ‘ I have to go this path in order to be successful in life. Are we not in the world but not of the world? This is true but through God’s direction one can find a perfect career without becoming part of the evil empire. Look at Paul; he made tents for a living. Go and do likewise in some other endeavor.
9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; 10 Lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
The bible says, ‘Blessed is the nation, who God Is The Lord.’ Have you ever been to NY city? You stare at all those tall skyscrapers donning the little island of Manhattan. Guess who owns all those buildings? No it is not Donald Trump. Almost all of those buildings are owned by foreigners. Because this nation has forsaken The One Who gave it life, we are reaping exactly as this verse warns.
Please take notice of the term ‘Losing his years to the cruel’ may indicate that he wastes much of his time over the years at the hands of those who delight in bringing others down, thus using up in debauchery the years in which he could have been enriching himself. Or it could signify that he loses his years by losing his health. Of course he will not see those who fleece him as cruel to begin with. He will see them as good friends. It is only when he has lost his health and his wealth and seeks their help that he will discover how cruel they can be. They will have no time for an impoverished young man. Alternately the word translated ‘year’ may rather be translated as ‘dignity’, with the words speaking of losing dignity. But the same point is in mind. He will be dragged down into poverty and disgrace.
11 And you mourn at last, when your flesh and your body are consumed, 12 And say: “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction!
And the end of such a person’s way of life can only be one of mourning and misery, with his health gone, and his flesh and body finally consumed by illness and the effects of debauchery and high living. Then he will come to his senses, but it will be too late. He will recognize what he has done, hating instruction from his parents and other authorities, and despising their reproof. And he will regret it bitterly.
‘How I have hated -- and despised.’ Most teenagers can identify to this feeling in respect of their parent’s restraints. At the best they endure them at the worst they hate them. The hatred of them suggests deep-rooted rebellion. In this case his heart was so set on enjoyment that he could not bear to have it refused to him. He had a rebellious and sinful heart and so he despised his parent’s advice and hated their guidance.
13 I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me! 14 I was on the verge of total ruin, in the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
He will then have to admit that he has not obeyed the voice of his teachers. He has not followed their wisdom and understanding, and he has not bent his ear to those who sought to instruct him.
Thus he will have to admit that the assembly and congregation of Israel (his contemporaries), whether national or local, will see him as having been nearly wholly taken up with all that was evil; adultery, gambling, debauchery and riotous living. They will have no time for him except to condemn him. It is an admission that he recognizes that his contemporaries have a poor view of him and will spare him no pity. He had brought it on himself. He had gone beyond the bounds. Now he must face the consequences, whether social or judicial. It is mainly a question of shame.
It is questionable whether we are to see this as describing true repentance. Rather it is describing a remorse that arises too late as he regrets the consequences that he is now facing. If only he had done otherwise, but he had not. Such people have been anti-wisdom and have continually blasphemed against God’s wisdom and by it he had become totally hardened. You see that this person was in almost total despair.
Solomon wants this to be an object lesson for all to take heed of and be far warned.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. 16 Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? 17 Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you. 18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. 19 As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. 20 For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, and be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
Solomon opens this subsection with a vivid illustration. ‘Drink waters out of your own cistern’ must surely be explained in terms of ‘let her breasts satisfy you at all times’. The cistern was a private source of water, not accessible to others without strict permission. The parallel ‘running waters out of your own well’ stresses the purity and satisfactory nature of the provision. Whereas the water from a cistern (a pit with a small opening at the top for storing water) might after a time become comparatively dirty and muddy, running water was always pure and wholesome. And note again the emphasis on ‘your own well’. The well would private and for the sole use of the householder, although it would be fed from a spring.
The change to the plural indicates the expression of a general situation and draws attention to the incongruity of people sharing their own private water supply (which was very precious in those days),. It is beyond comprehension. Indeed, to disperse their springs everywhere in widespread fashion or to pour springs of water into the streets would be to spread them so thinly that any enjoyment of them would be very temporary. Everyone would obtain quick enjoyment and then they would be gone. They would have no permanent container such as a cistern or a well enabling them to be retained for the future.
I like watching the weather channel. It is amazing the kind of storms that hit our country like hurricanes, tornados, floods, and earthquakes. We are advised to put together emergency packages for such natural disasters. These packs are not for your whole community but only for you and your family. If you share them with everyone who is about you will deprive you own family. Do you see my point? The directions from the Lord are for you only. Each person is personally responsible for their own lives before our Lord. You must seek and do the Lord’s Will. My prayer which you can incorporate as your own is this, ‘Your Will O Lord, Will be done!’
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his paths. 22 His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin. 23 He shall die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
The passage, like all previous passages, ends with an epilogue in which a contrast is made between the righteous and the wicked, although in this case the contrast is not so stark. The point is that our Great and Holy Father watches over men’s ways and makes them level, but the wicked man is bound by his sins, refuses instruction, and through his own folly goes astray. There is an important lesson in this. Our Adoni Yahweh works positively on behalf of all. It is the wicked who, by their own sins, forfeit His goodness.
I like to repeat this as often as I can. It helps me continue to understand how Awesome our Majestic El Shaddai, God Almighty Is. He Is Omnipresent – everywhere. He Is Omniscient - All Knowing, and He Is Omnipotent – All Powerful. In other words He Is Awesome in every way. Men and women walk ‘before the eyes of YHWH’. In other words our Father sees each of us and all that we do. Furthermore He makes level all our paths. He smoothes the way for us, and removes stumbling blocks from before him. As our Lord Jesus reminded us in the Gospel of Matthew 5.45, “ He makes the sun to shine, and pours out His rain, on both the righteous and the unrighteous.” Stop and think about this today. The true fact is that He has made full provision for us for our entire life. All are provided for and the pathway would be smooth were it not for sin, for God’s nature Is beneficent.
However, from our ancestors Adam and Eve we are born in sin and have sinful natures. And as a consequence man turns from His level paths, and trapped by sin, rejects instruction and goes astray. It is his own iniquities which ‘take’ the unrighteous, leading him astray. He is held by the cords of sin which prevent him taking the right way. The idea behind the cords is probably that of the animal ensnared by the hunter, although it could indicate a man taken captive and bound. Thus sin is seen as having entrapped the wicked man. Furthermore he dies for lack of disciplinary instruction, not because he has not received it, but because he has rejected it. He fell into the trap because he had ignored God’s instruction through His servants. And thus in his folly he goes astray. He is no longer walking happily along the level paths.
In terms of this passage those who walk in the smooth way are those who follow wisdom and cling to their true wives, finding their satisfaction in them, whilst those who lack instruction go after the pleasures of sin. But here the principle is generalized and applied to all sin. It is not just immorality which traps men, it is all sin.
