- 7 months ago
Common Sense Bible Study's complete discussion of Proverbs 5.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
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From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@AmericanTorah
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://social.ttn.place/jaycarper
Follow me on Twitter: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/americantorah/
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LearningTranscript
00:00:00Proverbs 5 and the Forbidden Woman. So let's start just by reading through the chapter
00:00:08and then we will talk a little bit about the first part and then we will move on and get all
00:00:17of your thoughts. My son, listen to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding, so as to
00:00:24watch over discretion and your lips guard knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman
00:00:28drip honey and her mouth is smoother than oil. So I didn't realize I'm reading this in the
00:00:34scriptures 2009, which isn't bad, but I prefer to read it in the ESV because I'm just a little
00:00:38more familiar. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go
00:00:44down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways wander
00:00:50and she does not know it. And now, O sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
00:00:55Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to
00:01:02others and your years to the merciless. Lest strangers take their fill of your strength and
00:01:08your labors go to the house of a foreigner. And at the end of your life you groan when your flesh and
00:01:13body are consumed and you say, how I hated discipline and my heart despised reproof. I did not listen to
00:01:20the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in
00:01:25the assembled congregation. Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
00:01:30Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself
00:01:35alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of
00:01:41your youth. A lovely dear, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight.
00:01:46Be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and
00:01:53embrace the bosom of an adulteress? For a man's ways are before the eyes of Yahweh and he ponders all his
00:01:59paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him and he has held fast in the cords of his sin.
00:02:05He dies for lack of discipline and because of his great folly he has led astray.
00:02:08All right, the forbidden woman, it talks about the strange woman, which is actually, it doesn't
00:02:16mean strange as in weird or, you know, unknown. It means the woman who is not yours, talking about
00:02:23a married man. You know, this woman is some other man's wife.
00:02:27In verses five through six, it says that her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to
00:02:39Sheol. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways wander and she does not know it. Her feet go
00:02:46down to death and she doesn't even know it. Now, the immediate context, this is talking about marriage
00:02:52and an adulteress. But this same principle applies much more broadly. There are always people out
00:02:59there who are, you know, giving you ear-tickling doctrines, telling you what you want to hear or
00:03:07telling you what they know will provoke a certain response in you. Not necessarily because it's true,
00:03:14but because there is some kind of reaction they want and whether the reaction is donations or
00:03:19they want you to join a movement or something that they want from you. The problem is that I don't
00:03:26think that most of these false teachers and false prophets even know that they are false prophets and
00:03:32false teachers. Most of them really believe that they are doing the right thing. If you think about
00:03:38Korah's rebellion against Moses, I mean, Korah had just witnessed the destruction of Egypt and the
00:03:45Egyptian army. He had seen the sea divided in God's presence on the mountain. And yet here he is
00:03:52challenging God's chosen man for the priest and saying, you know, we're all holy. Why can't we all
00:03:58be priests? Well, the answer is because God said so. You know, God's got his plan. Korah doubted the word
00:04:07of Moses and Aaron about God's plan, despite all the evidence that showed that Moses and Aaron were the
00:04:13men that God had chosen. And he and his entire family and everybody associated with him paid
00:04:18dearly for it. They lost their lives. And they didn't even know that they were false teachers.
00:04:27There is no way that Korah would have gone up against Moses and Aaron, having seen all of these
00:04:36miracles from God, if he believed that he was in the wrong and he was making himself an enemy of God.
00:04:44And the problem with people like Korah and Nadab and Abihu, you know, the sons of Aaron, who
00:04:51kind of colored outside the lines with worship and God destroyed them. The problem is that they followed
00:04:58their own inclinations about what they believe to be right and wrong. And they got other people to
00:05:02follow along with them. They died and the people who followed them died. When the solution, the thing
00:05:09that kept them all alive was right there in front of them the whole time. But it was outside of
00:05:14themselves. You know, the world wants to tell us, if you want to know what's right, look inside
00:05:19yourself. You know, if you've been praying and studying the word for decades, you're, you know,
00:05:27that's going to be helpful. Looking inside will frequently get you to the right place. It'll point you in
00:05:32the right direction. But not always. Our hearts will always be corrupted. Until we're resurrected
00:05:37in perfected bodies, we're always going to be struggling against the flesh. We're always going
00:05:43to have poor judgment at times. And so we need an external objective source to measure right and wrong.
00:05:52And unless we are able to find that source outside of ourselves, we're always going to be susceptible
00:05:58to falling into these traps. And moving on from there, these are the four sections that I thought
00:06:07Proverbs 5 most easily divided into. Certainly inside of these different sections, there are
00:06:13subsections, you know, individual sentences and thoughts, specific qualities of the woman or qualities
00:06:19of the man who follows her. And all of these things have profound connections to the rest of
00:06:27scripture. And even outside of the immediate context of the strange or forbidden woman.
00:06:34So I'd like to ask in, if anybody has any specific thoughts on verses one through six,
00:06:42anybody get a chance to spend some time on that?
00:06:45I did notice that it goes downhill pretty fast. I mean, it's literally five, three is,
00:06:52you know, the carrot, and four through six are the stick. I mean, it's like, there's, there's very
00:07:01little positive other than that. Once you're, once you become her slave, I guess, because it talks
00:07:12later about what happens, but essentially become a slave to this woman. It's just nothing but destruction.
00:07:19Yeah, we're definitely a slave to your own, to your own bad decisions. Because she's making,
00:07:27she's making just as bad a decision or worse, is what you are. I mean, not you, of course, you know
00:07:33what I mean? You know, Solomon couches most of his advice as father to son. But most of this advice
00:07:40applies just as well to his daughters. There are some things that are specific, of course, to,
00:07:47you know, how a male is attracted to a female. But the principles are the same, no matter which
00:07:53perspective you're coming from. There are men who are also out there, maybe even more so,
00:08:00who are trying to seduce people, seduce women, people into whatever scheme they've got going on,
00:08:08using flattery and persuasion to make you think that whatever it is that they're proposing is a good
00:08:16idea. I mean, this happens with all kinds of people.
00:08:20And, Jay, I know that, just to let you know, the T, ISR in verse 7 actually says,
00:08:30so now listen to me, children. Which I like that, because it makes it like everyone, you know,
00:08:37not just the sons, you know, but it says your children. But could you also look at this as
00:08:43the strange woman as the whore of Babylon come out of her, my people, and, you know, the deception
00:08:54of, like, replacement theology and all that?
00:08:59Definitely an adulterous system. You know, if you look at, if you look at us as, you know, God's bride,
00:09:10there is this system out there that wants to lure us away into this adulterous relationship with
00:09:15foreign gods or foreign ideologies. And, yeah, it fits very, very neatly into that same picture.
00:09:22I've found one that says that another word for strain is hostile. So it could be, like,
00:09:30people call hostile for this word. And if the oil coming off her lips is smooth and, you know,
00:09:38by crushing the discipline, you get the good oil, would that be, like, the easy way, the easy road,
00:09:44you know, the wide road, the eye of the needle?
00:09:46Yeah, it certainly could be. That's probably one of the main things that, you know, outside of the
00:09:57context of adultery, or maybe even in the context of adultery, one of the main attractions is how
00:10:03easy something is. You know, something I've told my son, I don't know how many times over the years,
00:10:11that nothing worth having is easy. If it's something that's of real value, it's going to
00:10:17take work. And it doesn't always take work to get it, but it takes work to maintain it.
00:10:22Somewhere along the line, it's going to get hard. You know, our salvation is free. There's nothing we
00:10:27can do to earn it, but it's still hard. Yeshua demands everything from us in return. And maintaining
00:10:34that relationship is very difficult over time. And if it's easy, then you've probably gone astray
00:10:41somewhere. And people who want to make it easy, whether it's, you know, easy financial gain,
00:10:47easy relationship, easy, easy salvation, you know, what they call greasy grace. They're the strange
00:10:55woman too. They may not even know that they are, but they are leading people astray. And in this,
00:11:03her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to Sheol, those people do too.
00:11:13I was going to say, along with the, I guess, the possible connection to the Whore of Babylon,
00:11:21is I see what appears to me to be a pretty strong similarity with verses three and four,
00:11:29where in Revelation 10.10 says, I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. And it
00:11:41tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. And some of the
00:11:49translations use the word bitter as well. But there's just several similar terms there. And
00:11:57it just kind of got me thinking about, you know, when, and that was specifically spoken to
00:12:07many people's nations and tongues and kings. And so when we think about that, you know, that Babylon
00:12:17system, mystery Babylon, and all of that together, that when it comes to the judgments of God,
00:12:25that, that, that I think that there is very much a similarity between what's happening when a man
00:12:33chooses, you know, to follow after the whore, that it is sweet, but then, but then it just turns bitter.
00:12:42And so anyway, just something that really popped out to me.
00:12:48And isn't the first mention of Wormwood and the Torah, isn't that talking about the man that
00:12:56thinks his wife has committed adultery, goes before the priest?
00:13:01Oh, the Sotah trial.
00:13:03And then she drinks the person's water. Is that where Wormwood is first mentioned?
00:13:07I don't think so.
00:13:08So, um, but it's in the Torah somewhere.
00:13:11Yeah, it could be. I'm not sure. Um, in the case of the Sotah, the woman drinks a mixture of
00:13:18sanctified water and dust from the tabernacle floor and ink from the parchment that the curses were
00:13:24written on. So the curses are written on the parchment. The water is mixed with the dust from
00:13:31the tabernacle floor and poured over the parchment to wash off the words. And then she drinks it.
00:13:37Now, I don't know what the ink is made of, so there could be something there, but I don't think
00:13:41the text mentions Wormwood.
00:13:44Those are some interesting connections, though. I'm not,
00:13:48not exactly sure what to make of it.
00:13:51Oh, the forbidden thing doesn't start out as bitter, or it wouldn't be a temptation.
00:14:00Right.
00:14:01There's the whole point of a temptation is that there's something about it which is appealing
00:14:06to you that would cause you to compromise in order to attain it. And I mean, just that
00:14:13temptation alone is such a, this, this whole, you know, first part talking about, if you're
00:14:19looking at it just as a simple temptation, you know, the forbidden thing is enticing, but
00:14:25this is where it will lead you. And that's why it is forbidden.
00:14:31Um, I thought it was interesting in the, um, verse two, keep discretion. Your lips may guard
00:14:36knowledge. We have so many words. There's so many words in the world that we live in. Everybody
00:14:43has a blog. Everybody's got a comment, a, a tweet, uh, you know, so many words, but that
00:14:51it's, you know, that, that your mouth, that's where you guard your knowledge. That's where
00:14:55you keep that discretion, where you guard yourself. And I think often we can, I can, I'll own
00:15:02that, talk myself into permissiveness in ways that is, I don't know, that's just that I can
00:15:10talk myself into it or that I can allow myself that words can be that thing.
00:15:18I got stuck on verses one and two as well, because I was thinking of, so be attentive to
00:15:25my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding, uh, keep discretion in your, uh, and your lips
00:15:34make our knowledge. So wisdom, understanding, and knowledge are three different things.
00:15:39And, you know, we get, we get knowledge from, uh, hearing information.
00:15:45Right.
00:15:46We, we obtain knowledge and our understanding comes from our experiences, our observations
00:15:52and additional knowledge that we add to that. And all of that together come, hopefully results
00:15:59in wisdom if we're wise. Um, and so when I think about again, just like Heidi was talking with verse
00:16:08two, um, that you may keep, uh, discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. So he's saying
00:16:13attentive to my wisdom because I've had the experience. I know a lot more than you do. I've
00:16:19been on this earth a lot longer than you have. I've seen a lot more and I have understanding
00:16:25based on my life experiences. And so from that has come my wisdom. So pay attention and keep
00:16:33discretion. Um, and just like, just like Heidi was saying with all the social media and all
00:16:39of the opportunities for us to express our opinions, um, most of the time we should probably just keep
00:16:45our mouths shut and, uh, allow our understanding to belong to us, allow our knowledge to be protected
00:16:53so that we don't let that time trust get ahold of us and say something that is so sweet and
00:16:58slippery that we fall into that line. Because, and I think it's, I think it's, it's pretty, um,
00:17:06uh, pretty clear to me, at least why the analogy is a time trust and adulteress is, is that sexual
00:17:13sin is one of the hardest sins to break away from once you compromise yourself to be involved.
00:17:20And so once you're, once you're in it, it is so difficult to break away. It's probably one of
00:17:26the, um, probably one of the, um, spiritual issues that are dealt with most in church counseling
00:17:35is sexual sin. And, um, and so allowing our, our mouths to get us into a situation where, where we
00:17:44are now compromising our, our, uh, understanding of the things that we've learned in life and the
00:17:50wisdom that has come from that, we start to lose the wisdom and we come, become the same as the
00:17:56foolish. Yeah. And that is especially easy online and social media. And I, I am constantly typing out
00:18:04long paragraphs of comments and then just deleting it all. Yeah. And I still manage to post all kinds
00:18:11of crap that I know that I'll regret at some point. Yeah. Well, you know, later on in the chapter,
00:18:17it talks about, um, how you, you've destroyed everything that you built. Allow yourself to fall
00:18:24into this trap because your reputation is gone. People think you've lost your mind. There are a lot
00:18:31of people who I put a lot of credence in over my adult Christian life and their behaviors over the
00:18:39last couple of years, the last three or four years on social media has led me to believe that they
00:18:46have just completely lost it. And I'm like, I can't take, I can't take anything you say serious
00:18:50anymore. I have to guard the knowledge that I have and the understanding of that knowledge that I have
00:18:56so that I don't slip into those to into the believing those lies as well. Yeah. I think that's
00:19:03pretty reasonable thing to do on social media. I mean, you don't friendships or connections or
00:19:08follows, whatever you want to call it, depending on which platform, those aren't your real relationships.
00:19:14I mean, it's a kind of a relationship, but the real relationships are the people that you interact
00:19:20with, that you see face to face or that you can call and talk to on the phone. And whether you are
00:19:26following or connected with those people online, isn't really relevant to the relationship itself.
00:19:32And you can, you know, I unfollow people all the time. There are certain topics that if I see
00:19:38somebody going off on about it all the time, I'll just mute them because I don't, it makes me angry
00:19:45or it makes me disappointed in that person or think badly about them. So I just mute it. And
00:19:52it's probably better for our, for our friendship. If maybe we're not friends on Facebook sometimes.
00:19:59I do that to family all the time. Um, because I love them. I love them too much to listen to what
00:20:06they have to say. Um, Genesis chapter three. Um, when we were talking about this, your keep discretion
00:20:14in your lips for our knowledge and talking about our words and how we get in trouble with that. I couldn't
00:20:18help thinking about how the, the serpent says to the woman, did God really say you're not to eat
00:20:26from any tree in the garden? And the woman answered, what would that story have been like? Had she not
00:20:31engaged? I mean, obviously this is, you know, this is the story of mankind, but the point of it is,
00:20:39is that when, when the enemy or someone who is an enemy to our soul, to our, to our spiritual wellbeing,
00:20:44tries to engage us, we don't have to answer in, in that context. He wasn't asking her, you know,
00:20:54you know, please, you know, leave me to the Lord. He wasn't asking her, please instruct me in the ways
00:20:59of Yahweh. He was, he was testing the word of God and she answered him. She did not guard the
00:21:07knowledge that she had. She lacked the discretion, the understanding, and ultimately the wisdom to
00:21:12abstain from that whole thing. Yeah. Whether, whether Adam failed to, you know, communicate
00:21:20God's words accurately, or she failed to remember it or whatever it was, she had access to what God
00:21:26actually said. So when the serpent said, did God really say that? She had a way to verify it
00:21:33and she just didn't. Uh, Crystal, did you, was there something you wanted to add?
00:21:40Yeah. Uh, awesome that you went back to the tree because when I was looking up the, let's keep
00:21:45knowledge and, you know, the boundary of God's and God, the Nats and the branch came up
00:21:50when I was looking into that. So that's really cool that it went back to the tree. And I was
00:21:56thinking about, even when we're walking with, um, other believers and how some things are
00:22:03just between us and him. And, you know, depending on where they are in their walk, et cetera, some
00:22:10of these things, and me and other sisters have thought about this the other day about not wanting
00:22:16them to stumble, you know, depending on what people are on their path. And some things are
00:22:21really just meant between us and him. No, there was no question. I was just saying, when she
00:22:28went back to the tree, and when you look up the words, you know, the lips, keep knowledge,
00:22:35you know, the boundary to your thoughts, under guard, Nats are came up, the branch. So I thought
00:22:42it was cool when she went back to the tree. But I was also thinking discretion with our knowledge.
00:22:50Some things are just between us and him. And I was wondering, because I was having issues
00:22:57with 16 and 17 and letting them be their own or being out in the streets. And I'm wondering
00:23:05if those tie together.
00:23:10I think what Crystal was trying to say, because we've had this conversation, and may I, Crystal,
00:23:17speak? Yes.
00:23:18Okay. Is that when you should keep some of that alone is some of the communication you
00:23:26have between you and Yahweh is really not meant to be shared, especially with maybe those
00:23:33who are like maybe newer in the walk. And if you shared them, it'd be like casting your pearls
00:23:40pearls among pigs type thing where they couldn't receive it. And, or it could cause them to stumble.
00:23:49So what she was saying is, you know, let it be to you alone is, you know, maybe you shouldn't
00:23:57always share everything that Yahweh shows you to others. Does that make sense?
00:24:03Yeah, I think so.
00:24:04Isn't that kind of what you were saying, Crystal? Did I interpret that right? Okay.
00:24:08Okay. Yeah. Thank you, Randy and Crystal.
00:24:12Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean, we have to be a little bit careful with that because
00:24:16we don't want to get into the idea of secret knowledge and, you know, that there are, you
00:24:22have to be an initiate at the right level to know certain things. But there are things that not everybody
00:24:27is ready to hear. And you have to introduce people to things slowly. I mean, like in the
00:24:35whole debate in Acts 15, when the apostles were, you know, bringing in all these Gentiles who
00:24:41didn't know Jewish traditions. And, you know, a lot of the Jews were saying, oh, no, we can't
00:24:46accept these people. They got to go through all this conversion and be circumcised and learn
00:24:50all our rules before they can come into fellowship. And Peter and James step up and say, no, it's
00:24:56it's, we're just, we'll just start them with these simple rules. And that's fine for now.
00:25:01And they can learn as they go. And I think there is a lot of truth to that.
00:25:06And the idea also that some things you don't need to share, it's just between you and you
00:25:12know, that maybe you don't need to share it with others, or maybe that one on one, you
00:25:17know, someone you're real close to only.
00:25:19Yeah, probably, especially, well, things that apply to your own personal life, especially, you
00:25:24know, if, if God gives you guidance about a relationship or about something you're supposed
00:25:29to do, you know, there may or may not be a reason to share that with other people. And
00:25:33it may be best sometimes just to keep that to yourself.
00:25:37There was something, something else that I was thinking.
00:25:42Here it is in verse nine, a man gets involved with this adulterous woman.
00:25:47And Solomon is saying, you know, stay away from her and lest you give your honor to others
00:25:53in your years to the merciless.
00:25:56And yet the immediate context is that you get involved with this other woman.
00:26:00You're putting your life at risk because the penalty for adultery is death, but you can
00:26:07also destroy your household.
00:26:08You can destroy hers.
00:26:09You can cause all kinds of havoc in your life.
00:26:12It can cause you financial problems in, you know, this cascade of bad events that just
00:26:17go on and on.
00:26:18And one of the reasons, just one of the many reasons for that is that going all the way back
00:26:25to Genesis 2, Genesis 2, 18, then Yahweh God said, it is not good that the man should
00:26:36be alone.
00:26:37I will make him a helper fit for him.
00:26:38You know, from the King James, the classic term there is the helpmeet.
00:26:42And people get totally the wrong idea about this word helpmeet that, you know, this is
00:26:48the Stepford wife or, you know, the subservient, you know, whatever word you want to use.
00:26:54And not making any comment about egalitarianism versus complementarianism or anything like
00:27:03that, the idea of a helper, a helpmeet is a helper fit for him, someone who is like him.
00:27:12And I really like the way that the scriptures puts that when it says, I'm going to make a
00:27:17helper for him as his counterpart.
00:27:20And the meet, the word meet means opposite him, the Hebrew word.
00:27:26And counterpart is a really good way to express that in English, because it means somebody
00:27:31opposite his face, someone that he can look at that's like him.
00:27:36But when you get involved with a woman who is some other man's wife, or you get involved
00:27:43with a man who is not your husband, then you are turning that on its head.
00:27:49Instead, the word can mean somebody opposed to you, or it can mean somebody who is like
00:27:55you.
00:27:56And you're turning it around to the opposite meaning.
00:27:59Instead of the counterpart, the helper that's fit for him, now she's become the helper who
00:28:05is opposed to him.
00:28:08And it makes marriage exactly the opposite of what it's supposed to be.
00:28:13Just real quick, Jay, I found first mention of the word wormwood.
00:28:18Uh huh.
00:28:19And it's in Deuteronomy.
00:28:21Where am I?
00:28:26Deuteronomy 29, verse 18.
00:28:31And wormwood means regarded as poisonous, therefore accursed.
00:28:37Himlock, wormwood, but first mention of wormwood is in Deuteronomy 29, 18.
00:28:42Okay, yeah, where the ESV has the poisonous.
00:28:47Right.
00:28:48King James and the IRS will say, ISR will say wormwood.
00:28:55So I just found that interesting.
00:28:58Is that the same word used in Proverbs?
00:29:00Mm, I think so.
00:29:02Let me double check.
00:29:04Bitterness.
00:29:05Yeah, Proverbs 5, 4.
00:29:08Yeah.
00:29:09But her end is bitter as wormwood.
00:29:12So it's a curse, hemlock, wormwood.
00:29:18Mm-hmm.
00:29:20They always say something about the word.
00:29:23When it's first mentioned in scripture, kind of go and see what it looks like, what the definition is there.
00:29:29Mm-hmm.
00:29:30That's just kind of...
00:29:31Yeah, the first mention of a word or an idea frequently sets the tone for it in later scriptures.
00:29:37Mm-hmm.
00:29:38Because, you know, the people who are writing later scriptures had access to the earlier ones.
00:29:42So that's going to have an effect on how they think of that word.
00:29:46Right.
00:29:47So I just thought I'd throw that out there.
00:29:49I knew it was in...
00:29:50I knew it was in the Torah.
00:29:51I just didn't quite remember where.
00:29:53So...
00:29:54Okay.
00:29:567 to 14.
00:29:57And we've already kind of jumped around a little bit, and that's fine.
00:30:00You know, bring up whatever it is that's on your mind.
00:30:04But moving into 7 to 14, there's always a lot of repetition.
00:30:08And listen to me.
00:30:09Do not...
00:30:10Do not depart from the words of my mouth, which is an interesting counter to do not let my words, you know, guard...
00:30:17What was...
00:30:18How was it put up here?
00:30:20Your lips may guard knowledge.
00:30:22May guard.
00:30:23I think they're saying the same thing, but putting it from an opposite perspective.
00:30:28Do not depart from the words of my mouth.
00:30:30So let your lips guard knowledge, and the knowledge is mine.
00:30:35Let your lips guard my knowledge.
00:30:38Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house.
00:30:43If you know yourself very well, you know that there are tendencies that you have.
00:30:48That there are things that are more appealing to you, or that will catch your eye easier than other things.
00:30:56And once you know that, it becomes important just to not even go near it.
00:31:01You know, like someone who is an alcoholic, it's better not to even touch alcohol, because they know that once you get to that, once you start, it's hard to stop.
00:31:12And for some people, they can't go to anywhere where alcohol is being served, because even the smell or the sights and sounds can trigger those memories or those desires.
00:31:25And how close to the woman's door that you can get is going to be different for each person, I think.
00:31:33And that's a very personal thing. I mean, there's no there's no commandment in the scriptures that say don't go to another man's house if his wife is there.
00:31:42But common sense says that if another man's wife is home alone and you're a man.
00:31:48You know, depending on the context, depending on on your relationship between your families is, you know, maybe visit tomorrow instead of today.
00:32:01Or maybe bring someone with you. Yeah. And even if they're even if the temptation isn't there for you, you know, if you're going into a situation that may appear to be compromising.
00:32:11You should bring someone with you or try to avoid it, because if you're alone and you're in a position that appears compromising to other people, it's going to be easy for those people to misinterpret what's happening and cause them to stumble.
00:32:26Or cause them to start talking about you, which could cause all kinds of people to stumble.
00:32:31But if you have somebody else there with you, at least you can say you can someone can come to your your defense as a witness and say, no, no, no, nothing was going on there.
00:32:42Right. We've had a standing room. We've we've been in. I mean, for our entire marriage, we've had some sort of involvement in church ministry or congregational ministry.
00:32:55And we've just from the very beginning always had a rule. It was one that my dad and my mom had. They were in ministry as well.
00:33:01That you just never have an alone meeting with anyone of the opposite sex.
00:33:07In fact, you try to have one on, you know, limit one on one meetings to absolutely necessary, even with the same.
00:33:13Because you want to, you know, keep things as above board and have as much integrity for everyone to protect them, to protect yourself.
00:33:21But especially with members of the opposite sex. And I remember in like.
00:33:25First 10, 15 years of our marriage and the different fellowships we were part of, there was definitely some pushback on on that.
00:33:35And I would be involved in worship ministries, other things and leadership, you know, men in leadership.
00:33:41Well, we've got to have coffee and we've got to do this. And I want to come in. And I'd be like, no, I can't do that.
00:33:45Or even there was, you know, one one pastor that would just show up at my house because he had something he wanted to talk about.
00:33:51And I was like, I'm sorry, you can't come in.
00:33:53And it was really, it was shocking to me because it was so different from how I'd been raised.
00:33:59And also, you know, that this was a boundary that my husband and I had established and that there was still the pushback.
00:34:05And not that I felt like I was being wildly pursued because I was, you know, so tempting.
00:34:10But it was just, it was, it was not a, it was not a safeguard that was at that point, you know, about 15 years ago, that wasn't as consistently or as powerfully addressed, I guess, as it is now.
00:34:30And I think we've seen in the last 15, 20 years, we've seen the results of that.
00:34:36You know, Michelle was talking about that, you know, the, the, the corruption, the sexual sin, the failures that we've seen.
00:34:42I think some of, some of that has happened because those boundaries were just, we're all adults here.
00:34:47We can do whatever. We're all going to behave.
00:34:49And that, that sense of entitlement to another person's space or their time, regardless of who they are and their marital status.
00:34:55Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think this might've come up last week, but you know, there's that, that pastor who was recently reprimanded because he was having, and he was passing crude jokes, apparently, between, through text messages with some, some woman who's married to some other guy in the congregation.
00:35:15And he was put on administrative leave, you know, the elders determined that there was, you know, no physical relationship or anything going on.
00:35:21It was just inappropriate conversations by text.
00:35:25But he lost a lot of honor in the congregation because of that.
00:35:30Even those communications like that, I mean, even apart from, you know, in-person counseling or, or meetings, having those kinds of conversations where you, where you feel like you can cross those boundaries with somebody of the opposite sex, who's not your, your spouse.
00:35:48There's a lot of potential for, for problems there.
00:35:52I mean, there's no, there's no outright adultery going on, but that doesn't mean that there's not going to be a loss of honor and respect.
00:36:01And how can a pastor continue being a pastor if he doesn't have the respect of his congregation?
00:36:06You know, this concept of, of honor, it says in verse nine, lest you give your honor to others.
00:36:14It's hard for Westerners, I think, to really understand what that means.
00:36:17How does your mistake give your honor to somebody else?
00:36:22Rico Cortez and Ryan White both have some good teachings on honor, shame, culture and, you know, how that's different from our Western culture.
00:36:33Paula and I were listening to one earlier today from Ryan White, where he's describing the difference between traditional honor, shame, cultures and our Western guilt, innocence, culture.
00:36:44Where, you know, as long as you're not guilty, you're fine.
00:36:48But that's not really the way it works in an honor, shame, culture.
00:36:51If you are in a compromising position or if you are embarrassed somehow, then you're losing honor.
00:36:58And honor is a, it's a relative currency.
00:37:04Where if we've got paper money, I mean, we can print all the paper money we want.
00:37:08And, well, the government certainly does.
00:37:11And that does devalue currency to a, to a, it devalues, well, you know, we've got inflation.
00:37:17I don't want to get into this, kind of going down the wrong path.
00:37:21But we don't think of something like honor as a limited supply.
00:37:26So, like, well, honor is just something that you feel about somebody else.
00:37:30But in an honor, shame, culture, that's not exactly true.
00:37:33It's more like gold and silver, where there's a limited amount of it to go around.
00:37:37And if one person has more honor, that means somebody else has less honor.
00:37:42And that's because it's relative.
00:37:44And everybody's honor has value relative to the person next to them.
00:37:49So, if you are caught in a compromising situation or you are causing damage to somebody else,
00:37:56you now have less honor in the eyes of the rest of the community,
00:37:59which makes everybody else's honor around you go up.
00:38:03I think we have a hard time, you know, really comprehending how important that is in an honor, shame, culture.
00:38:13But that determines your livelihood.
00:38:16It determines your entire family's livelihood, your ability to do business and even to function in the community.
00:38:22If you are if you have great honor, then you'll be invited to sit in the gate where you will be a judge considered an elder in the city.
00:38:33If you don't have honor.
00:38:35Well, your your testimony in court isn't going to be respected, let alone being invited to be a judge.
00:38:41These things are.
00:38:45I mean, honor might be the most valuable currency of all in an honor, shame culture.
00:38:50And just making a bad decision.
00:38:52It's like taking your gold and throwing it out into the streets for everybody else to have.
00:38:58When I think from from God's perspective, you know, his whole deal is to restore honor.
00:39:06For his honor and ours to restore us from, you know, a place of shame and from shaming him to that place of honor.
00:39:17And and we don't as a culture, because we don't see those kinds of things, we don't really understand a lot of times.
00:39:24But that's part of his goal is to restore that.
00:39:28And it is a big deal, but I think we we do see examples of how this happens in the world around us, especially even in the Western world.
00:39:39I think we see it.
00:39:40I think we don't know how to identify it because we're not familiar with the with the concepts around honor and shame in the culture,
00:39:48because we haven't lived within those that context.
00:39:52So I think that's a really I think it's there if you have eyes to see it.
00:39:59I think I think you will see it.
00:40:00It happens all the time, but we haven't placed a value on that that other cultures have because we haven't we haven't understood why it would be important.
00:40:12Yeah, but I think it is an important idea to wrap your head around if you're really going to understand some of these.
00:40:21Some of the stories in the the relationships in Scripture.
00:40:27Well, that leads me to the question of, you know, since obviously, you know, we don't live in a shame on our society,
00:40:34although it is interesting that there is a lot of shame to go around.
00:40:39There's just very limited doses of honor.
00:40:41But that how do we probably a conversation for another time, but just it prompts the question of how do we.
00:40:52How can we interpret Scripture in the context of character?
00:40:57Without modifying our lens that we see it through with the understanding that it is honor, shame, that that.
00:41:06The thing about guilt and innocence is that you're guilty and then, of course, you must be punished or you're innocent and then there's no consequence.
00:41:17Where with shame and honor, it's a variable.
00:41:19I mean, there can be some shame and some honor still retained or a lot of honor with a little.
00:41:26I mean, it's it's a I don't know if that makes any sense, but even even in Scripture, we we I have seen a tendency to skip over the honor things like it's some sort of Star Wars Jedi or medieval mumbo jumbo.
00:41:42Instead of really understanding that it is the core of character and the drive for how you function within community, according to Scripture and God's.
00:41:53Well, I think that's why you have to when you're reading Scripture, you have to understand the context, the culture, who's speaking, who they speaking to all that has.
00:42:04You have to have a little bit of a knowledge of that to get the full.
00:42:08Understanding of Scripture sometimes.
00:42:11You know, ask those questions.
00:42:14Mm hmm.
00:42:15Yeah.
00:42:16And the culture is very different from ours.
00:42:18I think it's it's hard to even imagine just how different that ancient Israelite culture was from what we have today.
00:42:27It's it's really it's a really interesting thing, because like in our culture, because we're like so focused on innocence and guilt, like shame is paraded.
00:42:36Like shame is just like this, like it's a it's a higher value for whatever reason right now where we are in the culture, like parading your shame in front of the entire world is somehow like considered fantastic.
00:42:54I don't really I don't really I don't really know what else how else to put that, but it is just on display and nobody seems to really understand what that what the implications of it, I guess.
00:43:12Um, and partly I think it's because we are so far as a culture from clearly seeing what a position of honor would be when when we're so far falling away from God's standards, for lack of a better term.
00:43:33And it's like, how would we even know what honor is?
00:43:37And so we can wallow in shame all day long because we don't even have a concept for what honor would even look like.
00:43:46And I kind of wonder if that's what's happening with our culture.
00:43:49I think that it really it plays into the idea, you know, how Solomon closed the book of Ecclesiastes that, you know, after after all the things that I've said and done, fear God and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man.
00:44:04But you can't really understand what it means to fear God.
00:44:07And if you don't have some concept of the relationship between honor and shame and how that affects relationships, if you have the the utmost respect for somebody, if they if they are the most honorable person in in your universe, then you fear that person because they have the power of life and death over you.
00:44:31And it's not just that they have they have power, it's that they have legitimate authority that everybody recognizes because of their honor.
00:44:42You know, an example of honor and shame that we don't the first time I read, I didn't realize it.
00:44:48But in in the tour where the command is that if you hang someone, you do not leave them overnight, you take them down.
00:44:59And in an honor and shame society, God and Yahweh in his mercy, actually that because hanging overnight hung is a shameful thing for the family.
00:45:13And so by, you know, the command of you take that body down before sundown is really having.
00:45:22Showing. Showing loving kindness and stuff like that on the family, you know, that's why he said you couldn't leave the body up.
00:45:30And that's an honor and shame thing back then that it was shameful to leave the body up.
00:45:35And that's also why crucifixion of Yeshua.
00:45:39Is one of the reasons they brought the body down, from my understanding, before.
00:45:44Yeah. And they were doing it because it is a shame and it's a curse, but they were really more concerned about cursing their own festivities and their their rituals.
00:45:59Whereas in reality, it's a curse because it's a shame on God.
00:46:06By abusing his image that way, when you if you execute somebody and you hang them on a tree, you don't leave them out there overnight, because no matter how bad they were, they still bear the image of God.
00:46:17And you have to respect that.
00:46:18Right.
00:46:19You know, in 2013, a book came out called The Culture of Honor, and I never read it, but I have some family members that did read it and got very excited about the idea of the culture of honor and applying it.
00:46:34And yet the expression of it was they were they truly believed that honoring someone was all about the words you spoke over them and the things that you said to them.
00:46:49So it was all very sort of two dimensional.
00:46:52And and yet, because we don't live in an act.
00:46:57That is based on honor for someone just to come up and say, I'm going to say really nice things about you that may or may not be true.
00:47:03I mean, I'm not saying they were lying, but they were still very, you know, very positive, very uplifting, whatever.
00:47:11But if it's not followed up by actual tangible manifestations of what that means.
00:47:17So if I if I honor someone that isn't necessarily I say nice things about them and then ignore them throughout the rest of the month or the week or the whatever the time I have it, when you live within a my understanding, if you live in a culture of honor,
00:47:31it is that sort of status that dictates, that indicates how you function, how you in court, whether or not you have a good testimony, your reputation, how your children are viewed, how your wife is is perceived or your husband's perceived.
00:47:44It ripples out to your family to your family to your spiritual community.
00:47:49I mean, it's so integral to every aspect of your life that that it seemed like this the idea that my my family members gleaned from this book was that now we just have to make really strongly affirming statements to everyone.
00:48:02And we know whether or not there's anything other than words.
00:48:08And it turned out to be what happened with that, at least in my relationship with them, is that they become they became untrustworthy.
00:48:17Because it was just words and that maybe my just my own particular bent, but it wasn't it wasn't a holistic expression.
00:48:25So it didn't feel like honor. It felt like flattery.
00:48:27Yeah, that's that's an attempt at honor in a culture that doesn't understand honor and shame.
00:48:34If if you give if you speak honorable, honorable words to somebody like you're trying to give them honor just by praising them and then you turn around and act as if your words aren't true.
00:48:44You're actually shaming them because you're treating them as if they're too stupid to know that you're lying to them.
00:48:53And everybody who heard the words and sees the actions is going to know that and know that you don't really respect the person that you just said that you respected.
00:49:00This somewhat makes me think about the was it no, was it Noah and his sons?
00:49:12Who was it when they covered him when they went backward into the tent?
00:49:17Oh, yeah, that was what am I thinking about?
00:49:19Yeah, that's no. Yeah.
00:49:20OK, that's what I thought. It was like Shem, Ham and Yapheth.
00:49:23Yeah. Ham, Ham shamed his father.
00:49:25Yes. Ham and Yapheth were the ones who went backwards into the tent.
00:49:28Yeah. And I think whether that is actually what happened or it's an illustration of like what that looks like to me,
00:49:36that's an example of the two different the two opposing ways of handling things.
00:49:43Whatever happened there was not going to be known by anyone else unless it was made known.
00:49:53Right. And so for the two brothers that went backward into the tent,
00:49:58they didn't have to go backward into the tent, they could have gone forward, covered him, whatever they wanted to do.
00:50:04But instead, they really that was kind of an example of discretion.
00:50:07Like they they kept their eyes from seeing those things so that they didn't make anything out of those things for themselves so that they weren't tempted.
00:50:15And and and they covered that shame so they could hit their dad, their father could retain his honor.
00:50:23Yeah. And it's just two different ways of being, I think, that are exemplified in that particular story.
00:50:29And that's real honor versus shame kind of behavior where the rubber meets the road versus like just words.
00:50:40Hmm. That's like really or action to preserve honor and to avoid shame.
00:50:49Yeah. Yeah. You know, I know I realize that we're kind of getting pretty far off track from the text of Proverbs five,
00:50:56but I'm fine with that because it's it's an interesting conversation and it's all scripture based.
00:51:01So that's that's fine. But that reminded me of the coronation of Solomon.
00:51:06And I can't remember his brother that was competing with him, whether it was Absalom or whichever brother it was who declared himself king.
00:51:17And, you know, he paraded through the city with trumpeters and, you know, had a troop of 50 men going running in front of his chariot.
00:51:27And he was. He was trying to honor himself.
00:51:31He was declaring his honor. And whether or not he actually got to keep that honor depended on other people recognizing it.
00:51:39And if nobody had challenged him, he would have been keeping that honor.
00:51:44But instead, David brought in, you know, Nathan and the priest and said, OK, everybody, Solomon is the king.
00:51:51Now, take out 50 men to run before his chariot and take out some trumpeters and go all over the city blowing the trumpets and pronouncing Solomon is the new king.
00:52:01Long live the king. And by doing this, by the current king, David, giving honor to Solomon and by the high priest and the prophet recognizing this,
00:52:12not only did they legitimize Solomon and give him honor that nobody else could deny.
00:52:18They also made Solomon's brother have even less honor than when he started because they they publicly repudiated the honor that he was pulling that he was putting on himself.
00:52:30And it reminds me of it because Ham tried to shame his father.
00:52:35You know, essentially, he's trying to usurp his father's place by pulling honor away from his father and leaving shame behind.
00:52:43But his brothers repudiated this and went in backwards and tried to restore honor to their father.
00:52:49And in doing so, brought shame on Ham, which brought a curse when as soon as Noah found out what happened.
00:52:57And this reminds me of like when stuff like this happens, especially gossip or any of those kind of things, when like when people stand up to that, when people actually like instead of participating,
00:53:15try to cover the shame of the person maybe being talked about or whatever.
00:53:19It's like it does bring shame on the person who was talking.
00:53:22It automatically points out that that flaw, that error that they've made.
00:53:31You know, I was going to say kind of back to the text where there was several points where I couldn't couldn't read it without David.
00:53:41Coming to mind and and and just thinking about, I guess, biblically or, you know, in the Bible, the epic scale of his of his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.
00:53:56And and obviously the shame, losing honor and everything that went along with that.
00:54:05And and and and I, I think about, you know, redemption in the midst of that for him when he was confronted with his sin, that he that he repented immediately and I'm sure sought forgiveness in whatever ways that he could.
00:54:22He humbled himself before the Lord.
00:54:25And and I believe that from that moment on that he began to, in a sense, rebuild his honor.
00:54:32And but then thinking about it and this came to mind earlier, Paula, when you mentioned, you know, that that basically we have shame on parade in our nation at this point in so many ways.
00:54:46And then thinking about Absalom, that Absalom, you know, they set up a tent on a roof and he went in to have relations with one of David's concubines.
00:54:59And it was just so arrogant and it was just so arrogant and out there for everybody to see.
00:55:06And I think maybe he thought somehow he was doing a positive thing, but it was it was pride and it was again, it was epic.
00:55:17But I see that even though David did rebuild honor, that at the same time, there were consequences that played out in in his life, the things that he experienced from then on, as well as in his kids.
00:55:35So. So. But redemption, you know, it is always possible as long as there's still breath, you know.
00:55:42Mm hmm. Yeah, I got Absalom and Adonijah mixed up earlier.
00:55:48It was the other son, Adonijah, who later declared himself king instead of Solomon.
00:55:55Right. Yeah. You know that. David also had a great response, you know, when Nathan confronted him about the adultery with Bathsheba.
00:56:06David didn't try to defend himself. He didn't try to restore his own honor.
00:56:11He immediately repented and. You know, sackcloth and ashes, at least virtually, he humbled himself.
00:56:21And by openly admitting his fault and humbling himself publicly, he actually brought honor to himself, whereas if he had defied the prophet and denied any wrongdoing.
00:56:31Maybe he would have gained some temporary honor there in the court, but.
00:56:37He would have lost a whole lot of honor. I mean, through history, we would not be remembering David so fondly today.
00:56:47The next section is 15 through 20.
00:56:52I know it's after it's after eight. So if we're going too late for everybody, then.
00:56:56We can always call it quits.
00:56:58Just let me know if it's becoming a problem, if we're going too late.
00:57:04Verse 15 to 20 is kind of the.
00:57:07The solution to the earlier problems.
00:57:11You know, if you if you know you're tempted, stay away from this.
00:57:15The strange woman's door. Don't even go near.
00:57:17If you go near, if you listen to her words, you're going to get into all these problems.
00:57:21Well, here's the solution.
00:57:24It's a lot like what Paul said in to the Corinthians, you know, if.
00:57:28You know, it's better in our current situation, you know, under under persecution.
00:57:32It's better to remain single.
00:57:34But, you know, if you've got a problem with lust, go get married.
00:57:38Go, you know, find a wife.
00:57:39And that it's not only part of God's primary design for mankind.
00:57:46You know, men and women are designed to be married and have children.
00:57:48But it also helps keep you honest.
00:57:52If you've got if a man has his own wife, if a woman has her own husband and if they are trying to do what's honorable and right.
00:58:01Then they're going to they're going to be less opportunities for temptation.
00:58:06And when the temptation does come, they're going to be less susceptible to it.
00:58:09It doesn't mean that everybody's infallible.
00:58:12I mean, obviously, with our divorce rates and every marriage has problems.
00:58:18Nobody's perfect.
00:58:19So there will always be temptations.
00:58:20But the primary solution that God has provided to avoiding complicated situations with the opposite sex is marriage.
00:58:31And, Jay, could you take this on a deeper level, i.e.
00:58:35Knowing your king, your future husband as the bride.
00:58:40In other words, knowing Yeshua as our king, as, you know, Israel being the future bride.
00:58:48You know, you want to stay in him.
00:58:50You want to stay YAH-centric.
00:58:53You know, therefore, you don't wander.
00:58:55You don't stray to the other false teachers and the tickling of the ears and all that.
00:59:01Because if you stay in him, you know, you're not going to hopefully wander to the Babylonian horror or the false prophets or whatever.
00:59:14So it could even be a deeper level than just on the surface.
00:59:18Yeah, and there are all kinds of opportunities for unfaithfulness there.
00:59:23You know, God gave some very specific instructions to Israel and, you know, a lot of ambiguous instructions, too.
00:59:29But he did say, don't go to the pagan nations and learn the way that they worship their gods and then come and try to do that with me.
00:59:38Like, God has told us how he wants to be worshipped.
00:59:40And it's not like those other people do it.
00:59:43But in the modern world, especially when we have instant communications with everybody in the entire world and we have more access to historical information than has ever existed.
00:59:56I mean, we know more about the Hittite Empire today than the Greeks did, who only lived a few hundred years after the Hittite Empire died.
01:00:05And so we've got access to the Egyptian Book of the Dead and we've got the Bhagavad Gita or the Rig Veda Bhagavad Gita is a book written later, I think.
01:00:16And we've got access to all of these pagan writings in religions.
01:00:23And for whatever reason, they are really tempting to a lot of people.
01:00:28Everybody wants to go and find out, you know, what did these ancient people do?
01:00:32What did these ancient people do?
01:00:34Maybe they were on to something.
01:00:35We should we should incorporate a little of that into our own stuff.
01:00:37But God said, no, it doesn't doesn't matter how valuable or how effective we think that those rituals might have been.
01:00:45We don't go to pagans and learn how they worship their gods so that we can worship our God better.
01:00:52It doesn't matter how much we we admire it.
01:00:56Exactly.
01:00:58The syncretism and stuff like that.
01:01:01He says no.
01:01:03Yeah.
01:01:03And it doesn't mean that everything that pagans did is bad.
01:01:06I mean, we can learn a lot from pagans, you know, practical stuff, as long as it's not religion in worshiping their gods and trying to do that with our God.
01:01:15And, you know, it just depends on what it is and does it fit in with God's commandments and his his way of living.
01:01:24As long as it doesn't violate it, then it's probably fine.
01:01:27Probably.
01:01:29You know, I see.
01:01:31Oh, go ahead.
01:01:33I said that says Jay.
01:01:36You know, going back to what we were talking about the beginning about the false teachers.
01:01:46I mean, obviously, the obvious ones stay with your wife, but it speaks of loyalty and faithfulness to that which you've committed yourself to and that which is you're loyal.
01:01:55You have that integrity.
01:01:57And so, you know, when it's talking about drinking water from your own sister and being focused, being devoted, being dedicated.
01:02:07Now, you know, Randy's talking about loving our love that we have for Yeshua and our following of Yahweh.
01:02:15And I think it was Randy earlier that had said something about, you know, the things that sometimes the father speaks to us, things that are for us and not for everyone else.
01:02:27And this kind of has some of that connotation to it, is that maintaining that initial first love.
01:02:36You know, in Revelation says, this I have against you, to this church, you've left your first love, you've lost your first love.
01:02:42They're no longer satisfied with what I've given you in the relationship that we have.
01:02:47And I think that in that context, this is the really stern warning in our relationship with the Lord to maintain our focus on him, to not be enticed by the teachings and the mystical things that seem really sexy and really exciting and really interesting.
01:03:08And that would keep us, but that would take us away from that focus of who our love is and who our loyalty belongs to.
01:03:17So, it's interesting that you bring that up because I think in terms of like a human relationship, marriage relationship, there's all kinds of ways, you know, that somebody could get bored or tired or whatever it is of their spouse's behavior that maybe they once thought was fantastic.
01:03:40And if we look at it through the lens of like our human experience and interpret God and our relationship with God through that, we could go very wrong.
01:03:54Because what God does for us, what he has provided for us from the get-go is better than and more than we could ever ask or imagine, right?
01:04:06Like if he had only, it would have been enough.
01:04:08And so, the place where I think we usually go wrong, obviously, is when we start looking at other things besides him and his sufficiency.
01:04:22Um, and we start thinking there's, there's more to the layer on top of that.
01:04:28Like it's God plus, it's Jesus plus, it's, you know, and, and I don't mean like only Jesus.
01:04:35I'm not like, not, I'm not trying to say like the answer to every question is Jesus and you just spout that out to people and it's that simple.
01:04:42Um, you know, life is complex and, you know, it's not quite that way, but I do think that if we're focused on our, just like in our, our, um, human relationships, if we're focused on, um, the sufficiency of our partner, we're going to try to solve problems within the context of that relationship instead of looking outside of it.
01:05:06Because we know that that's the thing we're committed to, but once we start thinking, there's got to be more and the world is ready to tell us that we're kind of like already in trouble.
01:05:21Well, I think on a really practical level too, I mean, just reading the plain text, it's like, Hey dudes, Hey women, you know, be, be satisfied with the spouse that you have is that.
01:05:33And, you know, it's, it's easy for us to think, well, you know, it's never been, it's never been easier to be tempted than it has been now.
01:05:40I mean, porn's free and you can find it anywhere.
01:05:43Right.
01:05:44And, and that with this availability and, and, and people dress modestly.
01:05:49And I, I was thinking like, man, you know, it's just, just a really hard season.
01:05:52And then I thought, well, it's not like we don't, you know, temple prostitutes and all that kind of stuff.
01:05:59But I mean, the ancient world was also, if, if there were no prostitutes in town, there would have been no need to warn everybody about them.
01:06:08Right.
01:06:09If, if there weren't women who were willing to prostitute themselves or to be adulterers or men that were willing to commit adultery, then there would have been no need to, to warn them about that.
01:06:19So this is obviously something that has been, you know, it's just a, it's a temptation that is common to mankind, but it's also, it's a choice.
01:06:26It's, it's that inherent choice that you have, whether you're a single person or a married person, um, a young person or an old person, where you make a choice to be satisfied.
01:06:41I will tell my soul to be still, to rejoice in the Lord.
01:06:46Um, because what he has given me today, while it may feel emotionally inadequate, it is what he has given me and it is enough.
01:06:55And I will rejoice to be glad in it.
01:06:56And it's that, that consistent choice of not saying this is what I'm entitled to.
01:07:01And so I deserve it, but this is what God has given me.
01:07:04And I am thankful and I'm a walk in gratitude.
01:07:07Yeah.
01:07:07Not, not just the choice to feel satisfied with what you've got, but to do what's necessary to be satisfied with what you have.
01:07:16Because there are choices in actions that you can take to make sure that what you have is working for you.
01:07:22And that's, I mean, anybody who's been married for more than a few months.
01:07:29Um, I'm sure must be aware of that, that there are choices that you can make to make sure that your marriage is more satisfying for both of you.
01:07:38Um, you know, not even speaking just sexually, but, you know, for the whole relationship and their choices that you can make to make sure that it doesn't work for you.
01:07:48Um, and that is a conscious decision to, to do the work necessary to make sure that it's going to be a satisfying relationship.
01:07:56And it's going to be, it's going to fulfill the purpose for which God instituted it.
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