Good evening, everyone. Christian and I committed to make our way through the book of Proverbs. And typically on Sunday mornings, as we share the pulpit, I outline what we're doing on Sunday morning, where we'll be, what texts he's responsible for, and so forth and so on. But on Wednesdays, he's been responsible. And so I've been assigned the topic tonight of Proverbs and the adulterous woman. And I just want you to know that I'm much indebted to you, my brother back there. But if you have your Bibles, turn with me, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 2. And by the way, as you're turning there, we're excited what we're going to do when we're done with Proverbs at the end of March. By the way, next week, for the first time, we've asked Will Collins. He'll be teaching the next subject on Proverbs. And so I'm excited for him to be able to do that. I'm not sure if he's bringing the student ministry in here. Is somebody else going to take care of it in their own place? But Dr. Collins will be here next week, and then I'll finish it out. Christa will finish out the rest of it in March. And then beginning in April, we're going to begin a long series of walking through all the parables of Jesus. And we outlined those according to, what's his name, Craig Blomberg. Isn't that right, Craig Blomberg? And there are various types, kind of synthetically, compositionally, different types, categories of proverbs. And we sort of divided them up to go kind of in various segments of that type of proverb. It's going to be a great study. So Proverbs in the adulterous woman, look at chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart towards understanding. For if you cry out for her and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek her, it is her, as silver in search for her, As for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and discover the knowledge of God. Then, if we could jump to verse 10, same chapter, beginning verse 10. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be delightful to your soul. Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you, to rescue you from the way of the evil, from a person who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of unrighteousness to walk, from the paths of unrighteousness, to walk in the ways of darkness, who delight in doing evil, and rejoice in perversity of evil, whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. To rescue you, here it is, from the strange woman, from the foreign woman, who flatters with her words, who leaves the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks lead to death. None who go to her return, nor do they reach the paths of life. So we will walk in the way of the good people, and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it. But the wicked will be eliminated from the land, and the treacherous will be torn from it. Let's pray together. Our God and our Father, Your Word is always simply Your Word. It is truth. It is light. It is eternal. It is life-giving. It is alive and active. And You are at work through Your Word, always at work in each and every one of us through Your Word. And so we pray tonight, Lord, that You would Give us eyes to see and ears to hear as we take a few minutes just to consider the subject of Proverbs and the adulterous woman. And we ask for your guidance tonight, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Whether you recognize it or not, a lengthy section of Proverbs is largely the record of a conversation that takes place between two males about two females. two males having a conversation about two different types of females. The two males are a father and a son who are talking in this conversation about two females. One is the virtuous woman who is described in various passages in the book of Proverbs and who is fully described in Proverbs 31. Some of you are very familiar with that. But the second woman is the adulterous woman who is described as well in various passages throughout Proverbs. And so we're looking at a conversation in Proverbs between a father and a son. And by the way, the father in this conversation addresses the son in the Hebrew with the word son, my son, often, you know, it's the word Ben, Ben, you know, and every time you see in the Old Testament word Ben, it's son of, you know, Benjamin was the son of Jamin, and so forth like that. The word Ben or son appears 40 times in Proverbs, a resonating reminder that a father is speaking to his son. My son such and such and such and such. And this conversation about these two women, one, the virtuous woman, who Proverbs refers to just using adjectives as being excellent and worthy, blessed, wise, a woman who fears the Lord. Conversely, the adulterous woman, who's called an evil woman, the strange woman, a woman of folly. She's referred to as a harlot, and she is referred to as simply an adulterous woman. As you look at Proverbs chapter two, in this chapter, what we're given is a contrast, a contrast between the virtuous woman and the adulterous woman. And I want you just to watch with me, walk through some verses, it's sequential, seven truths about this moral woman, about this virtuous woman. or excuse me, seven truths about the immoral woman, about the adulterous woman who's really posed as sort of a seductress or a temptress. And you'll notice beginning of verse three that number one, seven truths, number one, she lures and seduces her prey down a road of unrighteousness. You'll see that in verse 13, look at it. from those who leave the paths of unrighteousness to walk in the ways of darkness." And here is her seduction. She's luring them down a path that will not lead towards light or godliness or goodness or whatever. Second truth about her is in verse 14, and that is she finds happiness in her sin. Verse 14, who delights in doing evil and rejoices in the perversity of evil. And so you get that. It's simple. This is someone who delights in her sin, who parades their sin, who's not ashamed of their sin. Number three, verse 15, the course of her life, that is her ways, are deceptive. She's characterized by deviousness. Verse 15, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. So it's deception. There's not honesty. There's not truth. It's a lie. It's a masquerade. It offers something but delivers just the opposite. Number four, probably the key mode of operandi, is that her words are seductive. Verse 16, to deliver you from the strange women, from the adulterers who flatters with her words. So you know, here she is, her prey. She's telling her prey just how great they are, and so forth and so forth. And there's nothing more than a man likes than be told just how wonderful he is. Number five, she's characterized ultimately by covenant breaking, both covenant with her husband and her covenant with God. Verse 17, that leaves the companion of her youth, there's one covenant, and forgets the covenant of her God. So she's a covenant breaker, a vow breaker, a promise breaker. And number six, verse 18, she offers happiness, but the end of that isn't happiness or joy, it's death. Verse 18, for her house sinks down to death and her tracks lead to death. And number seven, the trap she sets is a sure trap. That is to say there's really no escape. Once she gets her clutches on someone, they're trapped. So verse 19, none who go to her return again. in order they reach the paths of life. So Proverbs 2, seven characteristics. about the immoral or adulterous woman. She lures down a road of unrighteousness. She finds joy in her sin. She's deceptive. Her words are her tool. She's characterized by covenant breaking. She offers joy, momentary joy or happiness, but the end is death, and that she is a sure trap. She entraps and keeps her prey until demise. Before we move on to the righteous woman, some additional characteristics that appear in Proverbs 2, or excuse me, apart from Proverbs 2, Proverbs 5 says that her lips drip with honey and her speech is smoother than oil. She does not ponder the path of life. She's not a spiritual thinker. She's not a God thinker. She has no godly concepts or truths in her. Her ways are unstable and all along she does not know it. She's unaware of who she is and where it's all leading. Proverbs 22.14 says of this adulterous woman that her mouth is a deep pit, those cursed of the Lord fall into it. And Proverbs 23.28 says of her that she lurks as a robber and increases the faithlessness among men. So in other words, you find a man who goes to her and who's fallen apart from God and all of that, his sinfulness gets worse. So those are the seven characteristics of the adulterous woman. If you look at Proverbs chapter eight for a minute, let me give you seven characteristics of the virtuous woman. Verses six and following, the first is verse six through nine, and the characteristic is that she speaks truth. Unlike the adulterous woman, she is a speaker of truth, veracity in her words, no lies, no deception, just the opposite. Notice verse 6 and following, "'Listen, for I will speak noble things, and the opening of my lips will reveal right things. For my mouth will utter truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing crooked or perverted in them. They are all straightforward to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge.'" So that's characteristic number one. Number two, this righteous woman is in and of herself of infinite value. Again, a father to a son. Find a woman like this because she is of infinite value. Verse 10 and 11, take my instruction and not silver. and knowledge redder than the choice's gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all desirable things cannot compare with her." She's of infinite value. And I think any man sitting here who feels they're married to a virtuous woman would say amen to that, of infinite value. Number three, I like this one. This virtuous woman, you know what she is? She's modest. She's modest. Verse 12, I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. Modesty. Her steps, her presentation of herself, her actions, her behavior are guarded. Prudent, discretion. Number four, this virtuous woman loves humility, verse 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogance in the evil way, in the perverted mouth. This woman says, I hate, I hate these things. Number five, what husband wouldn't want a wife that does this, verse 14, and that is that she offers wise counsel. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom I am understanding, power is mine. Number six, she's the kind of woman that is behind every great man. Verse 15 and 16, by me kings reign, rulers decree justice, by me princes rule and nobles, all who judge rightly. Behind every great, right, just, godly man is a woman like this. And finally, seventh trait in verse 17, And that is that she is loyal to the one who loves her. She's loyal to her husband. Verse 17, I love those who love me, and those who diligent seek me will find me. So this is the characteristic of a adulterous woman and a virtuous woman. And just for a practical side note, if you're a parent, talking to your son and daughter about dating or marriage, is not this a great list of things to talk about? A great list. Let me go through it again briefly. Son or daughter, look for someone who speaks the truth. Look for someone who is of great integral value. Look for someone who's modest. Look for someone who is and loves humility. Look for someone who is able to offer you wise counsel. Look for someone who will help you to be the best that you can be. And finally, look for someone who will be unquestionably loyal to your love. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. How important are those truths? Everybody say amen, right? On the other hand, avoid. Someone who will lead you down the road of unrighteousness. Someone who delights in evil and perversity. Someone whose paths and ways are deceptive. Someone who uses insincere words. Someone who you suspect will not keep covenant to you or to God. Someone who enhances your life. And someone who will end up not being a trap for your soul. I've been doing this long enough. I have seen both the good and the bad in marriages, in marriages. What a great, what a great set of instructions. So again, in this conversation between two men, a father and a son about two women, not only do we have a contrast as we just looked at in chapter two and chapter eight, but also the book of Proverbs also includes a whole section of semblance. What I mean by that is the similarities between these two women. Look at Proverbs chapter nine. Proverbs nine. identifies resemblance between the two. The idea that at first glance, a shallow glance, they may appear similar or the same, that there are parallels. And I'll get to that in a minute. For the sake of time, I'm not going to read all these verses, but I'm going to let you look at them. I'm just going to point them out, the similarities. And on the front end, why would there be similarities? Here it is. Here's the key. That these similarities exist because the adulterous woman wants to masquerade herself in the character of the virtuous woman. She tries to sell herself. And when I conclude, this is going to really be important. She tries to sell herself as being something she really isn't. So if you'll just look, I'm not gonna read all these verses, maybe a few, but if you'll notice, for instance, in verse one, and then in verse 14, both the virtuous woman and the adulterous woman both have are credited as to be owners of a house. They both offer a house. Secondly, if you compare verse 3 and verse 14, both of these women's houses are located on the main thoroughfares of the city. That is, they're accessible. The virtuous woman is accessible as the adulterous woman, and vice versa. You'll notice, compare verse 4 and 16, that both women invite seekers into their home. Somebody read verse 4 for me out loud. Anybody. Whoever is naive, let him turn in here, to him who lacks understanding, she says. Okay, and somebody read verse 16. Come on in. Verse 16, someone. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here, and to him who lacks sense, she says. Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. There you go. So you got the virtuous woman looking at those who are in need, travelers, strangers. She wants to offer them shelter. And on the other hand, the adulterous woman, the evil woman, she's doing the same thing with completely different motives and intents. And again, in line, along that line, if you compare both verse five and then verse 17, both women, invite seekers into their homes, and offer them refreshment in their homes. And yet, the next step, verse 11 and 18, comparing them, both women offer something more than shelter and more than refreshment. Verse 11, for by me your days will be multiplied and the years of life will be added unto you, the virtuous woman. What beyond shelter and refreshment? Life. The adulterous woman, verse 18, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of soul. What does she offer? Death. Both have a house, both houses on the main thoroughfare of the city. Both invite seekers into their home. Both women offer refreshment. Both women offer more than shelter and refreshment. Ultimately, they offer eternal destinations, consequence. So on one hand, Proverbs, again, is a conversation between a father and son about two different kinds of women that the son should seek. In this conversation, the father is encouraging the son to find a virtuous woman. This is on the surface. And on the surface, this father is encouraging his son to stay away from the virtuous woman. Here's my take. This is how I would, writing, I would say it's something like that. The part of Proverbs is a proverbial conversation between a father and son about the birds and the bees. And the message of this conversation about the birds and the bees is real simple. Birds sing, and bees what? Sing. There you go. And there it is. That is the lion's share of the book of Proverbs. Now, I had to stop and pause for a minute, because as most of us know, or we think, I mean, it's impossible, but we think that Proverbs was written by Solomon. And I believe it was. But what in the world, how does this fit, or how does this square with the life of Solomon? Everybody say amen. How does this make sense to the life of Solomon? Well, there's a couple of possibilities I just thought through, I've never heard this articulated, it's just my mind wandering, is one, that Solomon is actually in Proverbs recording a conversation that maybe took place between he and his father David before he was grown. are fully grown. So David would have said to him, here's the birds and the bees, Solomon. And if so, if that's the case, guess what? Young Solomon ultimately didn't listen to his father's advice, ultimately. And maybe the reason he didn't listen is that young Solomon saw discontinuity in the life of his father, David. That's a possibility. Two, a second possibility, is did Proverbs initially rise out of God's gift of wisdom to Solomon? Before Solomon would leave and go on to make a long string of bad decisions. You'll remember 1 Kings 3, God said to him, because you have asked for this and have not asked for yourself a long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but you've asked for discernment and how to understand justice. Behold, I've done according to your words. Behold, I've given you a wise and discerning heart so that there has been no one like you before you and there shall be no one to arise like you afterwards. So his Proverbs are the immediate product of God's gift of wisdom and discernment to Solomon. And if that's the case, then you get it. It isn't very long into Solomon's life that whatever wisdom he once possessed as he wrote Proverbs really is jettisoned. Does everybody remember how many wives did Solomon have? How many? Not 300. 700 wives. How many concubines? 300 concubines. That's a lot of women. That's a lot of women. And we know from the record that some of them were the product of military and political alliances, but many of them were the product of his own lust and seduction. You know, the Bible actually adds commentary to all of this in a weird way. And you know what that is? By what it doesn't say. And I got a question. Room full of Bible scholars and students. Of all 700 wives and princesses and all 300 concubines, can you name one of them? Just one. You got 1,000, just one. You know why you can't name one of them? Because only one of the 1,000 is named. And that is found in 1 Kings 14, 2 Chronicles 12, and the name of that woman is Nammah, and she is an Amorite. And the only reason she's named is because she goes on to become the mother of Solomon's successor, his son, which is who? Rehoboam. And you remember Rehoboam, Jeroboam? That's when the nation divides, and you end up with a divided kingdom. Listen to where all of this ultimately led for Solomon. If you want to turn there, turn there. 1 Kings 11. So this is not just politics. That's what I'm trying to get to. This wasn't just, you know. In some cases, yes. Most cases, no. Beginning of verse 1, 1 Kings 11, now, King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Amorite, Edomite, Sidonite, Hittite women from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Solomon held fast to these in love. Solomon was a ladies' man. And he had seven hundred wives and princesses, three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. And when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after their gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father, as it had been. For Solomon went after the Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Ashtamilkom, the detestable idol of the Amorites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. Get this, this is a shocker, verse 7. And Solomon built a high place, that's a place where these false gods and idols were worshipped. for Shemoth, the detestable idol of the Moabites. And he built this thing, listen to this, a mountain which is east of Jerusalem. Do you know what mountain that would be? The Mount of Olives. There where Jesus wept in the Garden of Gethsemane. There where Jesus wept, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I would that you would come to Him. There where I believe probably Christ was crucified. In that very place, that sacred mountain that you look at, if you ever go to Jerusalem, if you ever go on a tour there, when you approach Jerusalem, that's the first place your bus is going to stop, and you're going to get out of the bus, you're going to walk to this big scenic view site, and you're going to look over the modern city of Jerusalem. Right there, smack dab, for all of Israel to see, he built these idols on Mount Olive. Verse eight, thus also he did for all his wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Here again, we're talking about where the adulterous woman leaves, where adultery leaves. And interesting, again, we've said it many times in the Old Testament, there is this unique comparison and equality behind the concepts of idolatry and adultery. Idolatry is spiritual adultery before God, and adultery, as we see, leads to idolatry. To be clear, every wife after his first was an adulterous wife. Every one of them. And at some point, what do you learn about Solomon? At some point, Solomon, in my mind's eye, just became spiritually numb. His heart was hardened, his conscience was seared. What's one more? What's a hundred more? Seared. And then there is one more possibility, I think, and that is that Solomon wrote Proverbs in the later years of his life, after he realized the disaster he had created with his life, maybe as a way to teach Rehoboam a son, we don't know. But I need to say this, that beyond this being just about a conversation about the kind of woman a son should seek, or the kind of woman a son should avoid, in Proverbs, these two women ultimately become personifications. And you want to take a guess? The virtuous woman is the personification of what? Wisdom. And the adulterous woman is the personification of what? Foolishness. Folly. And that's why, I said it would be important, that's why when we looked at Proverbs 9, and we considered the similarities or the semblance of the two women, that we see really, remember, both have a house, main street, inviting seekers into their homes, offering refreshment, and something more than shelter and refreshment. What do we see about folly? What do we see about the danger of folly? That is to say this, that folly always disguises itself as wisdom. And it's everywhere. It's everywhere. All you got to do is walk on any university, and you will see someone with The masquerade of wisdom teaching abject foolishness to the vulnerable. Come here. I offer you shelter. I offer you refreshment. I offer you joy. And where does it lead? Disaster. It doesn't just take place in the schoolhouse, it takes place in the church house. takes place in your neighborhood. Always we see this idea of God rejecting folly, disguising itself as wisdom, packaging itself as wisdom. Folly seducing by posing itself to be wisdom. Although in reality, truth of the matter is that folly according to Proverbs and wisdom are absolute polar opposites, polar opposites. I think it's a scary thing to set your kids off into the world. I really do. And if your kids go off into the world and they land right, praise God. Praise God that He has protected them. Close with a familiar passage, but I couldn't think of a better one. Look at Romans chapter one. I'll pick up at verse 21. And here's folly, here's foolishness, for even though they knew God, They did not honor him as God, or give thanks, but they became here as futile in their speculations. Futile in their speculations. Man, have I heard some foolishness passed off in the name of wisdom. Foolish in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Here it is, what? Professing to be wise, they became, what? Fools. And what begins the path to abject foolishness? They exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of man, birds, four-footed animal, crawling creatures. In other words, what's being described there, here it is, idolatry. Idolatry. And so, there's my brief treatment tonight on Proverbs and the Indulgent Woman. Any thoughts, comments, complaints? Now's your time. Yes, sir, Steve. Yeah. And I think in Proverbs, you'll see a sense, I think, that there's also the idea that she also, not in defense, man can be guilty just as much as a woman for sure. I mean, the adulterous man could be the adulterous woman. I mean, you get it. It could be a mother and daughter talking about two kinds of men. Right? But also that she prays on the naive. She prays on the vulnerable, or he prays, either way, on, you know. Saved by the grace of God, there I go. You know, so. Repentance and Solomon? Nothing comes to my mind. Christian, do you think so? There's debate on Ecclesiastes with sort of Fischer-Pentence And by the way, you know, something I've learned about Sin 2, you can flourish in other ways, even though you're living in opposition against God. You know, we have in our family of people that are wealthy who shake their fists in the face of God. You know, those things do not qualify. I remember being in Israel with a train. We were talking about that today, that the guides over there are all like PhDs in all things Israel. And we were with a guy who was actually a student. But you know, you're walking through. Now right there, those were Solomon's stables. They're sort of the ruins. He had the finest horses in the world. And over there were his copper mines, and over there were his silver mines, and over here were his vineyards. I mean, the guy had everything. Commentary on Ecclesiastes. Most of us live this life thinking if we only had this, it would make me happy. Just this, this, this more. You know the problem with Solomon is? There wasn't any more that he couldn't have. I mean, what, 1,001 wives? Would that have done it? He had wealth untold. He built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. I mean, women, money, riches, all of that. People would travel to behold Solomon. Fame. And you know what? What is the message, Ecclesiastes? There's nothing to live for. There's just nothing to live for. Because he didn't have God. He didn't have God. I'll let Christian speak to that. Do you think Solomon wrote it? I do too. Do you think he was describing an adulterous relationship? Really puts a different spin on it. Number one. Good question. That's one book you'll never hear me teach. Staying away. It's for someone far greater than myself. Anybody else, Rick? When you were reading through the seven characteristics of the wicked woman, I kept thinking of false teachers, pastors, these charlatans. I mean, it fits perfectly. I agree. Because again, it's really a personification of all that. Anybody else? Yes, Nate. During the reign of Solomon, that's a good question. I guess you would have, at some point, you would have had all the pre-exilic prophets, right? I would think some of them. Do you know what I mean by that? So the prophets who prophesied to Judah about the impending division and ultimate captivity of the Babylonians. Anybody know? Can you name any pre-exilic prophets? Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, a lot of them. Chuck. I was just going to say, without God, Solomon wasn't as wise as he thought he was. No. It's really hard for me, in a practical sense, to figure out how this, in history and in time, worked its way out. I mean, I remember as a little kid, my mother telling me the story of the, remember the two mothers who claimed to have the same baby? You know, he's talking about evolving the wisdom of Solomon, and yet he ends up being really quite a fool.