Proverbs 2:16-19, Wicked Women!

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January 20, Proverbs 2:16-19

Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8, 22:15 “whoso pleases God should escape from her” (Eccl. 7:26)

Wicked Women!

This is a new paragraph but continues the theme of avoiding evil. In v.12-15 wicked men were portrayed. Now it is wicked women who lure eager clients into sin. In 1:11-19 criminals appeal to greed. This women panders to men’s lusts. Other passages in Proverbs also deal with this wicked woman (5:3-21; 6:24; 7:5-23; 22:14; 23:27). So in this respect the seamy-side of life is not much different with the passing of the centuries.

  1. Their Deceitful Design: She flatters with her words. She forsakes the guide of her youth (v.16b, 17a). She forgets the covenant of her God, and her victims are easily snared. How tragic is the picture of fallen humanity, but the most ghastly sight of all is a fallen woman. Her beauty is but a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout (11:22). Was not the guide [friend] of her youth her husband, and should not husbands and wives be friends and faithful partners? Was the covenant she made with God her marriage vows? Ah! What a costly lapse of memory, and is not this that has ruined her and so many, many more. “When she speaks fair, believe her not, for there are sevenfold abominations in her heart” (Lawson). Indeed, this account of the prostitute hasn’t changed much. Solomon himself forgot this and fell from fidelity and from his God.
  2. Their Determined Delusion: Her house inclines, leads down to death (v.18) and with ever increasing speed. Her paths conduct to the regions of the dead, the place of no return. She is ruined and she ruins everyone that falls into her clutches. Everything decays under her touch. Spirituality, mental and moral freedom, and beauty, all are blighted. To follow this ‘strange woman’ brings human misery as well as reversing the divine order for the human family. Such short-lived delight brings long-time despair. “Yoke-fellows in sin are yoke-fellows in pain,” (J. Donne).
  3. Their Dreadful Destiny: None return again (v.19) from her house of death. Her path is a track or rut. Any contact with this woman is to be avoided, for it is a One-Way-Rut to Hell. There is no love, no holy union, no helpmeet; only wild passion followed by God’s vengeance. They will be cut off from, rooted out of the earth (v.22)! What lies beyond death is not in view here. The wicked are not usually much concerned on that score. The point is that those in this rut soon find no place to stop or turn, and this hastens their date with death. What a dreadful destiny! God’s Law says the soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ez. 18:4). None is by comparison very few who return again. Yet there are a few cases of pardon even for such. God’s grace can save to the uttermost. Yes, the deepest-dyed sinner can be saved, but let no one presume on God’s mercy. Such are as brands plucked out of the fire (Zech. 3:2, 1 Cor .3:15). Are you among the living-dead or the dead-living? Make no mistake, “Dead man shall live, and living men shall die.”

Thought: It is easier to put out a spark than a blazing forest fire.

Prayer: O Lord, there but for Thy grace go I.