The Folly of Sexual Sin

Proverbs 9:13-18

13 A foolish woman is clamorous;
She is simple, and knows nothing.

14 For she sits at the door of her house,
On a seat by the highest places of the city,

15 To call to those who pass by,
Who go straight on their way:

16 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here";
And as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him,

17 "Stolen water is sweet,
And bread eaten in secret is pleasant."

18 But he does not know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of hell.

These last verses of the chapter demonstrate the utter folly of sexual sin, of living for physical pleasure over following the wisdom from understanding God’s words of warning for our good.  The woman is used here because then it was almost exclusively they who were selling themselves as sexual favors for a price, though now the debauchery has spread further in our culture as it did in the Roman Empire.  The one who is loud and boisterous uses intimidating speech to belittle and blatantly entice the weak into her bed at a price higher than the money exchanged.  She is simple and has no knowledge, only cunning and brashness to make men overcome good sense and sin with her.  If she or her victims had the knowledge and understanding of God, their wisdom would embolden their hearts and minds to refuse to live contrary to God’s design enforced by command and consequence.  This predator sits in the entrance to the house of ill-repute or strolls the streets where rich people wander without good purpose to lure them into her bed.  She calls out to draw them in, the simple like herself who ignore God’s word and shun wisdom, let alone acknowledge the consequences of denying the commandments of His will for their good.  Those who lack understanding follow her piper’s call and run over the cliff of righteousness into sin’s waiting embrace.  She makes it seem a challenge and allurement to steal sensual pleasure from one who is not the spouse, to eat and drink and be merry, not knowing the end of that temporary sweetness is death (1 Corinthians 15:32-34, Luke 12:19-20) and defiantly or ignorantly choosing the passing and fleeting pleasure of such sin (Hebrews 11:25) to defile God’s temple.  Yes, the victims join the tempter in her bed housed in a death of judgment to come.  The simple reject God’s word and choose the passing pleasure, while the wise know to avoid and flee from such sin (1 Corinthians 6:18), not stopping to think of the pleasure, but of the consequences of living contrary to the understanding from God’s word.  May we all avoid the folly of enticement to sexual sin and think more of pleasing Him!  Amen.