Monday, 10 May 2010

• The Immoral...Man?

  Proverbs 2:16-19 states the following: “Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the adulterous woman. She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God. Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to Hell. The man who visits her is doomed. He will never reach the paths of life.” But what does this mean? Notice the phrases it uses. “The immoral woman…” “She has abandoned her husband…” “Entering her house…” It’s almost as if the verses are a written segment of a man-to-man or perhaps father-son conversation. I would like to flip these verses over and break them down statement by statement.

  First it says, “Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman.” I assume you know what it means by “immoral” from the context of the passage, but what about the immoral man? The verse doesn’t mention a man’s immorality, but it doesn’t mean that men cannot be immoral in the same ways. What if it said “Wisdom will save you from the immoral man.” Would the meaning be any different? No!

  How about in the next verse? What if it said “He has abandoned his wife and ignores the covenant he made before God.” Would it’s meaning change then? No! Divorce is a major problem in today’s society. Who’s to say who left who? Who abandoned who? Is it not in some if not most cases the man who ignores the covenant he made before God?

  The remaining verses can be flipped in the same way. “Entering his house leads to death.” “The woman who visits him is doomed.” My point is not to shift the blame over to the men, or to pardon the women, but to remind you that not all immorality lies in the hearts of women; to make you understand that sometimes it’s the husband who breaks the covenant; the husband who is the immoral one.

  Have a look at the flipped verses together as a whole:

  “Wisdom will save you from the immoral man, from the adulterous man. He has abandoned his wife and ignores the covenant he made before God. Entering his house leads to death; it is the road to Hell. The woman who visits him is doomed. She will never reach the paths of life.”

  Does this make any less sense or hold any less meaning than the actual verse? I don’t think so. What do you think?

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