Go astray

“and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray”  Proverbs 5:23

Go astray – You probably don’t need to be reminded about yesterday’s word (Proverbs 5:19)?  It would be hard to forget.  Saga is the word used for “drunken” love.  But here’s a little pun, hidden in Hebrew.  The same word, used in the context of the man who goes for punch-drunk love with someone other than his wife, ends up staggering into hell.  You see, the action is the same.  It is the circumstance that determines the result.  The first time we saw the word, we discovered the intoxicating pleasure that God built in to marriage.  Now we see the word used to describe the foolish intoxication of a man who takes sexual pleasure outside of God’s plan.  He’s just as drunk but he is on his way to utter ruin.

There are significant consequences for this kind of stupor.  Proverbs tells us that such a man will lose his reputation, forfeit his honor, give up his strength, trade away his wealth, destroy his health and crush his spirit.  Just what every man wants, right? 

Since this is the word of God, you can be fairly certain that it is true.  So, if it is certainly true, then why do men fall prey to such destructive actions?  Perhaps one reason is that men believe that they are in control of something that God invented.  Men like to think they are in charge.  It takes the imagery of being drunk to remind us that sex is much more powerful than we are.  That’s why God puts a fence around it. Sex is just too hard to handle out in the open.  It needs boundaries.  Inside the fence, you can get as drunk as you like.  Inside the fence of marriage, God wants us to be intoxicated with our mates.

But outside, the potency of sex just leaves us addicted messes.  Outside the fence we are likely to wander into a deep ditch or walk in front of a truck.  Being drunk outside the boundary means nothing but trouble.  It’s the fence that keeps us from hurting ourselves.  The fence is absolutely critical when you get that drunk on love.

Maybe we need to take the Song of Solomon and mark a big, fat border around the whole book.  Inside, ravishing pleasures.  Outside, drunken stupidity.  Inside, eternal bliss.  Outside, the road to hell.

Better make sure the fence is nice and secure.