Proverbs 2-The Strange Woman

Prov 2:16-19 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

This is a very frightening warning and one that fathers should spend a great deal of time teaching their sons. Of course, a father does not want to raise a daughter that will be such as the strange woman but the warning here is to sons. We live in an age of multiplied strange women. They have left the path of light and lurk about seeking some man to devour. Of course, they would not be successful unless there were many willing marks. And there are. However, this does not lesson the warning here to sons. Look out! This way is perilous. Note what he says. Those who go into her find death. We have heard that before and may have grown callous to the warning. Many sons do not find death there at all. At least not at first. They find pleasure. They find personal sexual pleasure in the strange woman. They also like being flattered. She tells him how great he is. Men like this sort of thing immensely and if they do not hear it from their fathers and mothers and later their wives, then they are prone to seek a strange woman to tell them these things. But what will a son find there? A trap. A trap of the soul. It is like Hotel California. Easy to get in, near impossible to get out. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

Sons, husbands, beware! Not only will you get burned if you go to her, in your mind first, in your sneaky actions second, and in your deeds third, but you may be stuck forever. Perhaps not with the same strange woman. There may be many. But you are stuck with her curse. You may enter into the darkness in such a way that you can never return. You are now in the paths of the dead and the curse will never be broken. You are forsaken of God. You have become like the man in the iron cage in Pilgrim’s progress, or Esau seeking vainly for a place of repentance, or Saul knowing that David is chosen but hating him all the more for it. Forsaken. That is the kind of death the strange woman brings.