Proverbs 5:4-6, Her End – Your End!
February 25, Proverbs 5:4-6
Psalm 17 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pr. 14:12)
Her End – Your End!
Her end, is literally her afterwards, for surely there is an end (Pr. 23:18). Proverbs uses this word frequently in order that we may not forget that everything has a finale for good or ill. Don’t be deceived by beginnings; it’s the end that counts (Pr. 5:11; Num. 24:20; 1 Tim. 4:1). However sugary beginning with her may be, the end will surely be sour for all.
- The Lustful Way is also Sinfully Seductive. Let all heed most earnestly the things spoken of there, for there is not one of us that is above falling into these temptations.
a. She Divides. Bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword (v.4). In Hebrew, swords were said to have two lips or mouths, which ate their victims. The mouth of the adultress, at first so delightful, will later become the means of bitterness and death. The sword is both an emblem of that bitterness, and an instrument of death bringing division. The bitterness suggests the bad after-taste of conscience, and the sword cuts-up, severs, its victims. Homes shattered, friendships smashed, churches split – through lust.
b. She Destroys. Her feet go down to death (v.5)! The path she travels leads only to the grave. It is always downhill. Satan uses powerful weapons – drugs, drink, and illicit sex for his destructive purposes. This woman enslaves and stupefies. The bitterness of the wormwood may also refer to the noxiousness of this herb (Rev. 8:10-11). She may even be a loose woman who can transmit disease, bringing painful and premature death. Note how everything gets reversed. The delicious ends in disgust and death.
c. She Damns. Her steps take hold on hell (v.5)! There is more than loss of face involved in this. Her end leads to hell (sheol), to eternal separation from God. She takes hold on hell “as if invading it with a high hand; grasping it as if her home” (Bridges). Her path is a toboggan-ride to hell We can hide our actions and passions from men, but the ways of men are before the Lord (Pr. 5:21). He who will not repent and seek cleansing through the blood of Christ becomes a victim of sin and staggers into that hell (Rev. 21:8).
d. She Distracts. She does everything possible to prevent her clients from pondering the path of life (v.6). Ponder, as we saw (Pr. 4:26), means to weigh, and also to make level or straight. Therefore, weigh carefully her path by God’s measuring-stick. “She winds herself in thousand moveable ways; works upon every weakness; seizes every unguarded moment. The checks of conscience must be diverted. No time must be given for reflection” (Bridges), that her spell be not broken and the victim escape. Lest thou ponder could be Lest she ponder. In Hebrew it could be either. This would suggest that not only her victim, but that she herself knows she, too, is on the road to destruction!
Thought: “If I am afraid of sin, I need not be afraid of hell” (Rowland Hill).
Prayer: More holiness give me; more strivings within.