There is a teaching in Proverbs 5:15-20 that is applicable to us today and is extremely relevant, probably too relevant. Some cultures in the past dwelt in and on colonialism and geopolitical expansion and that is what drove that society. Some cultures were driven and controlled by class warfare, some by military warfare or militancy alone. Our culture? It is driven by impulse. Sexual impulse. We are a visually crazed society that is all about self-fulfillment and what is good for "me". When things don't work for "me" they are tossed with the leftovers. A disposable society. Permanence and consistency are so...yesterday. Our moral ambivalent society is about making the
individual happy and comfortable. We can now have unsolicited soft core porn send directly to our mailboxes in the form of lingerie catalogs and our children can get their hands on it before we even know its there...and its legal. It is truly one of my pet peeves. We can no longer turn anywhere without constantly being barraged with some type of sexually questionable material. Protecting my children from it is a full time job because it is on my television, on the Internet, Facebook, Billboards, in public in the form or people with poor judgment in attire, unsolicited circulars and catalogs in the mail, etc.
Unfortunately, this applies also to many relationships and marriages. More often than not many men and women in this day and age (culture) are focused on immediate need gratification and self need. These impulsive, lustful, sexually oriented mitigating factors are just as damaging to marriage and society-at-large as open warfare. Self-focused people care nothing for others and this type of mindset is not conducive to monogamous relationships or monogamous marriages. Additionally it is inappropriate for the public sector where my children become victimized by it.
Proverbs 5:15-20(15) Drink water from your own cistern
And fresh water from your own well.
(16) Should your (A)springs be dispersed abroad,
Streams of water in the streets?
(17) Let them be yours alone
And not for strangers with you.
(18) Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
(19) As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.
(20) For why should you, my son,
be exhilarated with an adulteress
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
These ideas and precepts are what we read in Proverbs 5. The two overall ideas in this passage are water/fluid and sexual desires. More specifically it is water “control” and “moral” or properly controlled sexual desires. It is referring to chastity or restraint of some form. All the analogies of water embedded here or alluded to are allusions to control of the water. What reins it in? Cisterns, wells, springs, streams and fountains (preferred method) control water keeping it from “scattering abroad” or creating “streams in the streets” (not preferred). These water metaphors are placed adjacent to the passages on proper or improper sexual desires. The verse implies that proper sexual relations are in marriage because of the terms “wife of your youth”. That true sexual desire is best fulfilled in a marriage setting as God ordained in Genesis 2:24 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” The proper control itself is the marriage. This is the boundary. Move outside this boundary and things become sinful, messy and uninhibited. Instead of clean, pure “unadulterated” water, your water becomes muddled, dirty, confused. It just runs freely or wildly in the streets. The terms parallels and metaphors here are rich and I see them all over this short passage. Simple juxtaposing of words and a clever use of words and I could write an entire page on them (but I won’t).
The application to modern day is so obvious as to be a smack in the face. We live in a society that not only allows divorce and extramarital sexual behavior, it actually appears to either: encourage it or no longer frown upon it. Verse 20 asks us why we should be intoxicated with forbidden woman and the bosom of an adulteress. These are predominately sensual or physical allurements that draw people in, mostly for selfish and self-gratifying reasons. Marriages are usually not selfish relationships governed by self motives. The mindset to engage in these two different types of sexual relations are diametrically opposed. I’ve mentioned this American mindset numerous times in the course of posting on this blog. They had Generation X and Generation Y. We are now in Generation “I” or “Me” and it has pervaded all of society simultaneously except for a small remnant or holdouts (Christians) that refuse to be assimilated into the culture like a mindless horde of visually crazed, sexually over-stimulated drones. There is still small segment that still hold moral values in high esteem. A remnant that still obey and honor God not only with their mouths but their actions also.
Many people believe that abstinence until marriage is untenable, unrealistic and naive. I believe it is commanded by the Lord. Proper sexual relations are to be in a proper marriage relationship. A proper marriage relationship is outlined in the Bible in multiple places as being between a man and a woman. Period. The most obvious case of this being:
English Version: Genesis 2:24 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh."
The best literal translation/transliteration that I can produce from my lexical sources is this:
[על כן יעזב איש את אביו ואת אמו ודבק ...
באשתו... והיו לבשר אחד]
"on.so he-is-leaving man >> father-of.him and >> mother-of-him and.he-clings in.woman-of.him and.they-become to.flesh one"
Look very closely at the word [ באשתו ] or
woman-of.him (Strongs H802: 'ishshah or ish-shaw'), it is a feminine or female of 'enowsh or [אֱנוֹשׁ](Strongs H582: mortal man, person, mankind). A woman (in the same sense as H582): female, woman (opposite of man), wife (woman married to a man), female (of animals)
often unexpressed in English.
Interestingly, this word for wife (singular) is the word used in Hebrew to denote the female of a species,
very specifically it is the member of the union between male and female in the relationship that
produces the offspring from the union or "she" would be the
childbearing sex. According to the Bible then there are three things that can be implied here: (1) a proper marriage can produce offspring through natural or normal methods (i.e.: intercourse) and (2) The members of the union have to be different genders [Greek:
heter-, hetero: different; unlike] as the original statement denotes a clear breakdown of male or female from the Strong's Hebrew H582 meaning: mankind. (3) Since the verse is clearly referring to a man and clearly referring to a female or the childbearing sex, there is no need of further disambiguation necessary. This is clear cut 1:1 translation. Man (male) cleaves to Woman (female). If you believe in Biblical inerrancy as I do, there is no argument here.
Please also note it says
woman not
women (note to polygamists).
Please also note that I have not injected any opinion into the translation. The above statements are direct translations form the Hebrew text and are based on sound hermeneutics.
Anyone interpreting this Scripture in any other manner than between a man and a woman is either practicing eisegesis (reading into the text something that is not there) or is being willfully ignoring what the original languages said (*). People really needed to understand the original Hebrew of this text in particular to realize the implications of this statement in (v. 24) and how it effectively defines what constitutes a marriage to obedient Christians.
We cannot continue to have increasing divorce rates, broken families and increased totals of single parents without these factors having a deleterious effect on society. I don't care if many people believe it is unrealistic we need to try to stem the tide. I believe that the road we are on which continues to erode the family unit in society is detrimental. The moral ambivalence and apathy of secular society is unsustainable and non-conducive to maintaining the integrity of society. So to continue down that road and believe things cannot get worse or continue to degrade is...unrealistic. It is bleeding over into our churches
Christians and need to take the higher ground on this one. Yes, some of us have been in compromising situations
in the past. We may be Christians but we are also human. As Christians though we are obliged to be new creations and we have put those lives behind us. Hypocrites? No. We are only hypocrites if we are continuing in these sins as habit with no guilt of desire to repent. I believe people can change for the better. We as Christians are to forgive if a person is repentant but if there is a pattern of continuing/continual sin or unwillingness to do what is proper when the person knows what is proper, that is a different story. When we forgive we are to expect a permenant change and a turn away from the sinful behavior. If we forgive and there is no change then our forgiveness becomes only appeasement and we become enablers of the wicked and depraved.
(*) Sexuality and all its deviations are a blog topic within themselves that I will address at a later time. When I do address this ticking time bomb I will not be using the standard Scripture passages that most produce to rebuke sexual immorality outside of marriage such as Leviticus 18 and some other references similar to those. I will be going to other sources that most people do not use because they exemplify points better such as Genesis 2:24 above. If you read items properly, in their context and sometimes even in their original languages the truth becomes more obvious. The English versions such as KJV, NKJV, NASB & ESV are accurate but they convey the information in a black and white manner when sometimes the Greek or Hebrew bring it to 3D color. Additionally, I will be using quotes from Paul and Jesus Himself to defend the case. In particular I will address the relationship between Jonathan and David which has been hijacked by people with an agenda. Not only has it been taken out of context, the people that hijacked it couldn't possibly have read or understood the original Hebrew or the Septuagint. Is this hateful? No, hardly. It is obedience. I am trying to dispel half-truths or outright lies. I see sexual deviancy as no different than any other sin and I waited a long time before addressing this issue in my blog. I wanted people to realize that I am firmly rooted in the Bible and that I care about people and removal of sin from people's lives. I was told to dislike the sin not the sinner, just as Jesus did.
