1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,

2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;

6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

The reason Proverbs is so helpful for men is because the intended audience is a man. King Solomon wrote this to his son to teach and train him. Something Solomon learned first hand, and we are going to look at, is the foolishness of adultery, letting sexual gratification direct your life. Something to notice about Proverbs, wisdom is referred to as a woman. In fact the relationship between man and woman is extensively explored throughout the book of Proverbs. But, in this section we read about how enticing a "forbidden woman" is. For some of you guys there is a literal "forbidden woman" you may have indulged in (Brother's there is hope for you!) but for most of us we are going to regularly be tempted by a digital "forbidden woman" and this scripture has truth to help us!

See the rich metaphors here? Her lips "drip with honey" this is a metaphor for how sweet she appears to be causing us a craving or her, and once you've got a taste of her (maybe literally) you want more! Then her speech is "smoother than oil," she says what we wanna hear! She comments on the good things in us and talks about things we wanna talk about, she makes us feel like a man! She looks good to our eyes and she sounds good, what is not to love!?!

Well, Solomon goes on to say "in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword." Brothers she will taste bad eventually and you're going to get hurt. Solomon writes "Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it." It's important to recognize that this is probably a literal woman that king Solomon and his son's have easy access to. There are probably very pretty, high end prostitutes or women who are really interested in a "good time" with the king. King Solomon would have been a celebrity even bigger than our celebrities today.

Honestly, what man in the world wouldn't like to hear good things about themselves? What guy isn't enticed by some "forbidden fruit" that is sweet and seems like a non-complicated transaction? Well, Solomon has been down this path before. He went and married the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt (there was a lot going on there but we don't have time for all of it) and Solomon knows how "Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol" and that "she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it." Every guy who has gone to taste the "sweet lips" of a forbidden woman can tell you that it cause destructive in their life. Whether they ended up with the woman or not, there is hardship because they went that route.

While there is a literal woman for some, there is rich metaphor here as well. There are a lot of "forbidden women" type things in our lives that if we let them entice us into partaking we will certainly find our lives full of destruction and chaos (again, there is hope for you man!) and we won't know what to do to get back on track when drowning in that darkness.

Well, guys, the first thing to do is identify that you need to get back on track and things can start moving from there. Maybe you don't know what step to take after identifying a problem, but that's what your cell phone is for (It's not actually for games and scrolling, it's for communication) it's to help you call a guy! At FBC we're trying to become men that call a guy when we need support or prayer. But, first things first, we gotta identify the problems fellas. I'll say it this way, be the kind of man who owns his faults and does something about it. That's the kind of guy God wants you to be!