seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Proverbs 7:1 My son, keep my words
and store up my commands within you.
2 Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and to insight, “You are my relative.”
5 They will keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the wayward woman with her seductive words.
and store up my commands within you.
2 Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and to insight, “You are my relative.”
5 They will keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the wayward woman with her seductive words.
This is from blueletterbible.com.
The task of keeping men and women from sexual immorality sometimes seems impossible. This is due to many factors, including:
These factors are not all unique to the present day; Christian was founded in a very sexually permissive culture. Yet they highlight the great need for Christian men and women to rely on the power and wisdom of God’s word to remain pure. It also means that such purity, even in the sense of rededication to purity, is a great sacrifice and gift to the honor and glory of God.
- A secular, sexually saturated and permissive culture
- The widespread availability of pornography
- The disconnection of sex from pregnancy and reproduction
- Laws making divorce easy and impossible to contest
- Social media technology making anonymous meetings easier
- Widespread prosperity that lessens the financial impact of family breakups
- The large and growing gap between the time of puberty and the average time people get married
These factors are not all unique to the present day; Christian was founded in a very sexually permissive culture. Yet they highlight the great need for Christian men and women to rely on the power and wisdom of God’s word to remain pure. It also means that such purity, even in the sense of rededication to purity, is a great sacrifice and gift to the honor and glory of God.
I'm sorry.... it's really hard for me to keep saying this... but so far Proverbs must really be about Solomon's troubles with women. I'll ask it again... what would a man with 700 wives and 300 concubines and only four children... know about women? When would he have found the time to have an honest relationship?
I think what's really going on here... is Solomon is tainted by David's affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of Uriah the Hittite as well as the death of the baby created during the affair. I think.... now this is my personal opinion.... Solomon knew it wasn't Bathsheba's fault.... totally.... and he regretted it.... and he wanted to do something to make up for his father's actions.
It's my opinion.... that while David was building his erector set.... Bathsheba was spending time with Solomon. I bet she told him how David was as much [if not more] to blame for what happened to her, Uriah, and the baby, as she was. I don't think all those women were really his wives or his concubines... I bet he saved them from being thrown into a whorehouse. I figure Solomon knew that one way to stop men from hurting women... was to protect the women from the men.
I still don't buy that he's teaching his son about monogamy. Solomon didn't do monogamy.
