PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

There are verses that are hard to discuss in a mixed audience. Verse 19 is one of those verses. A lot of it is like the Song of Solomon, hard to read with your date.

“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4 KJV).

The marriage bed is undefiled before God and what happens there is between the man and the woman.

“Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe,” a hind is a deer, and a roe is a swift gazelle, “let her breasts satisfy thee at all times,” she will be your helpmeet, “and be thou ravished always with her love,” that takes us right back to verses 15-16, just be content with what God has given you. You’ve been together long enough to know that she isn’t as perfect as you thought she was when you were dating her—that doesn’t mean that you should start comparing her to other so-called “perfect” girls out there. You’ll find no better. If you did, you would just be a rat in a vicious circle of your own making. Paul knew exactly what he was saying when he wrote: “But godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Timothy 6:6 KJV).

There again, a man gets to looking at other women. You’ve seen your wife in every kind of situation. She’s looked bad in the morning, and she’s looked bad at night, even bad in the afternoon. When you go out in public, women have fixed themselves up and they look really good. Believe me, that woman that you see out in public that looks so good can look just as ugly as your wife can in the morning. Don’t be fool by Satan! Stop thinking that the grass is greener on the other side—it isn’t!

But that is the problem with men—they are affected by what they see. God put that in a man—He made women attractive to look at. The problem is for a man keeping his eyes where he ought to and love his wife: “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1 KJV). We need to be more like Job in this area! Be satisfied with her, be ravished with her love, and don’t allow yourself to let your eyes roam.

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11 KJV).

Just teach that old flesh to be content with what its got. If you are unmarried, don’t try to get married. If you are married, don’t try to get unmarried. “Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife” (1 Corinthians 7:27 KJV).

Listen, God may give you a wife, and that is fine. But don’t you go looking for one. Just turn it over to God and say, “I’ll just leave it with You, God. You can pick out the right one if that is Your will.” Yea, that’s rough—but that is best.

Let’s read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let’s keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread!

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I just read it to my wife.

“Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe,” a hind is a deer, and a roe is a swift gazelle, “let her breasts satisfy thee at all times,” she will be your helpmeet, “and be thou ravished always with her love,

So much for sexual relations btwn married (male and female) couples being restricted to purposes of procreation. Yet the sanction of mutual eroticism in marriage even if not for the purpose of procreation does not sanction preventing procreation by the pill.