Proverbs 5: September 2013

Proverbs 5: the warning to avoid immorality. We have a song in our home, called “Children, Don’t Touch the Hot Pan.” It’s part of my forthcoming album of titled Melodies for Kitchen Safety, and it goes something like this:

 

Children, don’t touch the hot pan

It will burn you

And you’ll cry

Oh, oh

Children,don’t touch the hot pan

It will burn you

And you’ll cry.

 

That’s the chorus. The verses need work. It’s a common refrain around here, and we’re adding a few other songs. Like “Don’t use your sister’s arm to test the sharpness of the knives.” But those need a good chord progression.

 

Back to the Proverbs: you would think a warning like those above would be so self-evident to be unnecessary. But it is necessary. So is Proverbs 5. You might think it unnecessary, but it’s critical. Avoid immorality. It destroys.

 

Proverbs 5:9 speaks of one portion of the price of immorality. Your efforts go to something that you cannot hold, someone that you cannot tame. Destruction follows this: how many years are wasted? How much time? Think of the stories of “I thought he’d eventually leave his wife for me.” or “She was just playing me for a fool the whole 5 years.” Guess what? Immorality wasted those portions of life.

 

And then there’s an extension on building a relationship on immorality that never gets better, even though you try. The sex was great, so you got married. Then the marriage was awful, and years later there is nothing but regret. Hmm…

 

Proverbs 5:19 speaks to the exhilaration that love can bring, that romance can be. It is like a glorious fire. In the right places, at the right times, it is a wonder and a comfort and a cheer. Keep it there and let it be so.