August 5

Aug 5 - Today from Proverbs 5 we look at verses 5 & 6
"Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked but she knows it not."

This verse refers to the adulteress (vs. 3). The specific reference is to a married woman who has sexual relations with men besides her husband. The specific warning is to men who would entertain the idea of having a sexual relationship with a married woman not being their own spouse. But - the principle covers all sexual immorality.
In light of today's casual attitudes toward sexual activity, the theorem of this proverb might appear to be archaic and irrelevant. Statistics reveal that sexual activity is common amongst our high schoolers and is ever increasing among the junior high crowd. It means nothing for a man and woman to live together outside of marital bonds anymore. Thousands of college students head for the tropical settings during Spring Break to partake in week long drunken sexual orgies, and rather than our society being shocked and outraged, they tune into MTV to watch - or they buy the videos for even more intimate shots of the activity. Our media entertainment continually promotes extra-marital sexual activity. They hardly make a Hollywood movie any more without at least some gratuitous sex - and TV sitcoms are loaded with sexual innuendoes. In spite of all of this, our life expectancy is increasing in our nation. So, the theorem has apparently been proven to be wrong; "Increased sexual immorality (according to the Bible. . .), does not decrease over-all life expectancy."
The 'students' who arrive at such a conclusion fail the test. Their downfall was their failure to learn the axioms involved. To think that life and death are simply organic is a position of ignorance. Yet, in order to indulge in self-serving pleasure, one must deceive one's self into taking such a position. But: If life originates from a Supreme God, then one must acknowledge and give an accounting to that God. Enter morals. If life is more than self-serving existence in an organic body, then one must contemplate what the greater meaning is. Enter eternity. If death is more than the termination of our organic function, then one must contemplate the greater consequences of moral failure. Enter judgment.
The teacher reveals to the students that engaging in sexual immorality (personified in the adulteress), "gives no thought to the way of life." The way of life is acknowledging God, seeking to live out His original intentions for us in a servant relationship to Him and to one another. Life is found in moral relationships, beginning with a relationship with Jesus Christ Himself. Every believer should have memorized the 'mother of all axioms' found in John 14:6 where Jesus proclaims, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Death is so much more than the ceasing of function of our organic body. "We're all going to die, so why not have as much fun as we can while we're living!" (sic). Death literally means separation. The curse of sin brought separation in relationships - first between God and man, then between husband and wife, then between brother and brother, then between men and angels, finally between nation and nation. These are all discovered in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Jesus came to restore relationships. The first restoration that needed to be accomplished was fallen man to the Father. That was accomplished at Calvary. Until we enter into that restoration, we will never be properly restored in our other relationships. Once we are restored, we are to appropriate His grace in turning from death to life in all of our relationships. Moral failure brings death into relationships - even for believers. It is not always instant, and it is not always as discernible as is physical death. The teacher points this out in the lament of the adulterer in verses 11-14 which begins, "At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and your body are spent. . ." If one lives in this organic body long enough, it will eventually be spent. It wrinkles and sags, things stop functioning properly, it aches and breaks down faster and more. It is then that one begins to lament that they had their values wrong. Life wasn't about temporal self-serving pleasures. They are but faint memories. Life was to be about relationships and the richness of them. One of the most destructive forces in relationships is that of sexual immorality. Trust in the Biblical axioms - when you build your life with them, you will leave legacies that will stand for generations.