September 5

Sep 5 - Today from Proverbs 5 we look at verse 15
"Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well."

Water. We take it so for granted in this wonderful land of plenty. Yet researchers suggest that upwards of 40,000 people a day die from lack of fresh, safe drinking water. About half of the hospital beds in the world are filled with people who are either directly or indirectly affected for lack of safe drinking water. I guess we don't think much about safe drinking water until it is a rare commodity. I remember driving into Romania with my family back in 1987. We were warned in no uncertain terms not to drink the water, or to drink any juices from open pitchers (because more than likely it would be made from concentrate). It was one of our several cardinal rules. Our sons were in their mid-teens at that time, and their drinks of preference were products like Dr. Pepper, Coke and Mountain Dew. It was a common summer sight to see one of them with their head in the refrigerator, and the dialogue would go something like this:
"Ma, I'm thirsty. Do we have any Coke?"
"No. Just drink some water."
"WHAT? Water!!! I'm going down to 'Stop-N-Go' to get a Coke."
Just a couple of days into Romania, and either of them would have traded a whole six-pack of Coke for one glass of cold water. Why? Because it was unavailable. We had some water in the van, and even though it was lukewarm, it was distributed it very sparingly.
When a Mid-Easterner read this proverb, he thought about it much more differently than we do. In the arid and desert lands the family well was about one of their most important possessions. The family would also most often have a cistern to catch and preserve rainwater for washing and irrigating and possibly even cooking. A Hebrew would not even consider buying a piece of land if there were no well on, or water available to the parcel. In the Old Testament times there were actually territorial wars fought over wells. Or, if an enemy wanted to make sure the conquered did not return to the land, as their victims fled the enemy would fill in their wells behind them. Water was such an important commodity that it was actually a crime to steal water from another person's well.
The Metaphor of this proverb relates to adultery, and its lesson was not lost on the listeners. To tamper with another man's water supply was a threat to the health and security of his entire family. So it is when a man commits adultery with another man's wife. The bond of matrimony is to provide something personal and pure for those who take the vows, and for their entire household. Marriage is one man bonded to one woman, a system of life that is not to be tampered or interfered with by outsiders. The consequence of such activity is destructive, and effects every family member with critical emotional damage. The Teacher ends his discourse on the subject with a question. "Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?" (vs. 20)
Why indeed! There is no good answer. The only answers any could possibly come up with would be self-serving, and that is the essence of evil. Evil destroys.