Proverbs 5:3-6 

³For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; ⁴but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. ⁶She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.

Legacy

If younger generations were to learn from you, what legacy do you want to pass on and impart to them? What legacy have you built for yourselves that next generation may learn from? Athletes may talk about trophies and medals they collected. Business people may talk about their success in business. You may talk about your achievements and attainments in your career. You may share about faith and devotion to the Lord.

When we are gone to the next world, legacy is great thing to leave behind. Great individuals who have lots of accomplishments may fall into the trap of immorality and ruin their legacy. Immorality may include dishonesty, lawlessness, criminality, delinquency, wickedness and debauchery. Sexual immorality is most often undermined and taken for granted in the history of mankind. People dress it and call it “love affair.”

What’s wrong with “love?” Everyone has freedom to love, right? So, when they call sexual immorality as “love affair,” they want to use their freedom to love. Well, freedom is not free in the real essence of the term “free.” “Freedom” has a tag price.

Godly wisdom helps us understand that sexual immorality is costly. King Solomon advised that a man with godly wisdom avoids the adulterous woman. And the one who rejects or ignores godly wisdom would likely fall into a trap of adulterous woman. The speech of the adulterous woman is sweet and smooth, but it’s bitter and deadly curse.

1. Speech

³For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; ⁴but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.

The term “adulterous woman” is one of the possibilities but not necessarily the exact meaning in the original manuscript. Some Bible versions use different translations like: “immoral woman, forbidden woman, another man’s wife or stranger.”

The translation “adulterous woman” may possibly impress to mind the thought of sexual immorality. And married men, who fall into sexual immorality, are tired of their nagging wives.  So, they are attracted by smooth talking woman who does not belong to his household. And the result of sexual immorality would never be sweet.

It is bitter as gall. What can you imagine when it says bitter as gall? Bile or the content of gallbladder readily comes to mind because its taste is bitter. What does it suggest when it added the phrase, “sharp as double-edged sword?” It suggests deadly result. So, is it acceptable to interpret that the speech of immoral woman is sweet as honey, smoother than oil but the end result is a curse of deadly bitterness?

In the Hebrew manuscript, the term that was translated as “gall” is interpreted also as “wormwood” plant with bitter taste, and it was supposed to be used for cursing.

So, to interpret that the speech of adulterous woman is like a deadly curse is also a possibility. Adultery had been compared to unfaithfulness to the Lord. God warned in Deuteronomy 29:18, ¹⁸Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

Interestingly, the term translated “bitter poison” has the same root word of the term “gall” in the Hebrew language which can be properly interpreted as “wormwood.”

Unfaithfulness to the Lord is like wormwood, a bitter poison and deadly curse.

Coach

There was promising basketball coach. He led his team in winning many games. Basketball pundits and observers predicted that he will become great basketball coach. Sadly, he was suspended from coaching. After few months of investigation, the said coach admitted that he made an inappropriate immoral violation of the team’s policy.

Such is just one of the many sad stories of great individuals whose legacies were ruined overnight after they fall into the trap of immorality. Sexual immorality is not relegated to non-religious people. Actually, it had been reported that there are many religious leaders who have fallen into adultery. Why? Did they take the wrong step?

2.  Step

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. ⁶She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.

Adultery or sexual immorality has deadly results. Adultery exhibits the absence of godly wisdom. Without wisdom, anyone won’t care about their destination, even if it means death. When it describes that the adulterous woman gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it, it suggest that she has no permanent residence; she has no personal purpose or plan about her future.

If her steps lead straight to the grave, her destiny in life is not very significant to her for sure. Why? She doesn’t even know where she goes. Such is the kind of individual who has easy-go-lucky or free-wheeling kind of life, so they say. They want freedom without paying the price. Most often they avoid struggles and difficulties.

Butterfly

There was a video of a person who observes how a butterfly comes out of the cocoon. As he waited, he observed that the butterfly struggled to come out of the cocoon. Several moments had passed by; the butterfly still cannot come out of the cocoon. In his compassion, he took a scissor, cut the cocoon and made an opening.

The butterfly slowly came out and fell down to the ground. It has little wings, and its body was bigger than normal butterflies. It cannot fly away like other butterflies.

In another video, another butterfly came out of the cocoon normally on its own strength. It has normal wings and little belly. Few moments later, the butterfly slowly but surely spread its beautiful wings. Then, it moves its wings and flies away.

Truly, the plan of God for each creation is wonderful. His ways are indescribable. God wonderfully designed it that butterflies must struggle to come out of the cocoon as  a process to build the strength they need for them to use their wings to fly.

Similarly, God allows cocoons of struggles to help us grow strong in our wings for us to move or fly according to his wonderful plan. But of course, it is easier said than done. We need godly wisdom to understand that difficult situations that God allows us to go through are actually part of his plan to build us stronger accordingly.

We need stronger faith in the Lord to trust that his plan is the best for us.

We need godly wisdom to understand and know which step we should take that would lead us to the right path that the Lord had designed for us.

May we pray just like King David prayed in Psalm 40:1-5, ¹I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. ²He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. ³He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. ⁴Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. ⁵Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

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