THE HARLOT CHURCH IN THE BOOK OF PROVERBS - PART ONE

Using the Book of Proverbs chapters 5 through 7 we see a great metaphor for the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3 and the rest of the book of Revelation. The message here is to seek the Lord and hear what he says. If we have the love of the truth we will hear a true word. If we have deception in our hearts and refuse to hear the truth we will be deceived--he who has ears to hear will understand.

 

Proverbs Chapter 5 - Stick to Your Own Wife

5.1-6...¶ My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my intelligence; that thou may keep council and that thy lips may conserve knowledge. For the lips of the strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps uphold Sheol, lest thou should ponder the path of life, her ways are unstable; thou shalt not know them.

The adulteress is deadly and a man must keep away from her or he will pay dearly. A strange woman’s words are sweet and seductive but will leave a bitter aftertaste.

The adulteress is the “harlot that rides the beast” in Revelation 17. She is the false apostate secular human church that has deceived the world. Her words of ecumenism and social justice sound sweet--but she refuses to recognize the word of God and sin. She is lawless and deceitful. She will lead those deceived to death.

5.7-14...Hear me now therefore, O ye sons, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and do not come near the door of her house, lest thou give thine honour unto others and thy years unto the cruel, lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labours be in the house of a stranger, and thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed and say, How have I hated chastening and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of those who chastened me, nor inclined my ear to those that instructed me! I have been in almost every kind of evil, in the midst of society and of the congregation.

Stay far away from this seductress. You will lose your honor, wealth, and life if you allow yourself to be seduced. Verse 11 seems to indicate venereal disease--flesh and body consumed. The adulterer will be ashamed and regret that he refused chastening and instruction. He has been shamed in the midst of the congregation!

Those in the apostate church who refuse to hear, come out, and allow the Lord to get the pagan mixture out of their lives will be consumed in the tribulation. They will regret that they did not obey the Lord and His law. Some may repent at this time but it will cost them dearly as they suffer needlessly things that could have been avoided. If they had just truly obeyed and followed the Lord!

5.15-23...¶ Drink waters out of your own cistern and running waters out of your own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of thy waters in the streets. Let them be only your own and not for strangers with thee. Thy fountain shall be blessed; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love, without eyes for anyone else.

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a woman belonging to someone else, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he weighs all his goings. His own iniquities shall take hold of the wicked, and he shall be imprisoned with the cords of his sins. He shall die because he did not submit to chastening; and due to the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

The young man is exhorted to enjoy the pleasures of his wife alone. The verses speak of a man’s wife as his well, a source of refreshment. The writer depicts the delights of sanctioned marital sex as no less intense than those of “stolen waters.”

In a prophetic view, the Lord is exhorting His people to remember when they first came to salvation--the joy and excitement of knowing the Lord. Now they have lost that glow and are going down paths in their churches and lives that lead to mixture and human secularism. The word of God is being questioned. It is looked upon as archaic and without meaning in modern times. Come back to the Lord and the pureness of His word! The apostate church is imprisoned in their sin and will die because they refused the Lord’s chastening!

Proverbs Chapter 6.20-35 Adultery Kills

6.20-26...¶ My son, keep thy father’s commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother: bind them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is lamp, and the law is a light; and reproofs of chastening are the way of life, to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyes. For by means of a whorish woman a man is reduced to a piece of bread, and the woman will hunt the precious soul of the man.

Even though an adulterer may think that his sin is secretive, he will not evade punishment. Bind the teachings/law/Torah like a pendant around your neck so they rest over your heart. The commandment and Torah are seen here as the teaching of the parents. The forbidden woman’s first means of seduction are in her speech. The punishment for adultery comes naturally as the adultery’s life goes out of control--harlotry costs money and adultery kills.

As we turn away from the Lord He sees it as spiritual adultery. The apostate church is committing adultery by turning away from the word towards human secularism. They have become lawless. They support abortion, gay marriage, gay leadership in the church, and despise Israel. These chapters are a metaphor on the current state of Christianity.

6.27-35...Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So is he that goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whosoever touches her shall not be innocent. Men do not take a thief lightly, even if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; and once he is taken, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house. But whosoever commits adultery with a woman has a fault in his heart; he that does it corrupts his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall never be wiped away. For the jealous rage of a man will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom; neither will he want to forgive, though thou give many bribes.

Just as burning coals will scorch the clothes and the feet of one who walks on them, so too will the man who commits adultery suffer severe punishment. The man who steals because he is hungry, has public sympathy, but must pay a heavy fine in the Torah. The adulterer lacks any excuse and will not be able to pay his way out of trouble. The adulterer will suffer serious wounds from the angry husband--money in the form of a fine will not change this reality!

Use this as a metaphor to see how saddened and angry God is with the state of His church today. His people are corrupting their own souls by their turning away from Torah. At some point the Lord will release His anger on the church and the nation that disobeys.


Tomorrow Part Two