Well-placed words

We've been studying Proverbs.  Today, i taught a difficult lesson about sexual sin and marriage.  The first seven chapters of the book of Proverbs reverberate with this message from father to son:  stay away from the immoral woman.   As a woman, it's tempting to dismiss that text with a sigh of relief.  Phew.  That has nothing to do with me.

Not true.  Sadly.

Not that i'm admitting to such immorality in my own private life.  Let's not start any rumors.

But the truth of the matter is that there is a feminine side of that warning.  If Solomon harped on Rehoboam about steering clear of certain kinds of women, it seems that there is a message to the sisters to be warned about becoming that kind of woman.  Now there's a message that'll make a girl popular!

And, on another note, there is merit to asking ourselves:  who is she?  What motivates her and how did she become a woman described as "forbidden", an adultress, a seductress?  Surely no one sets out with such aspirations of low living....

It won't be popular, but there is so much important stuff here that it seemed "blog worthy".  So here goes.

Solomon repeatedly remarks on the speech of the woman Rehoboam was to avoid.
      2.16 and 7.5 speak of her smooth words.
        5.3 warns of her words that drip honey.
          6.24  describes her as having a smooth tongue.
             7.14-20, 21  provides graphic illustration of her seductive speech and smooth talk that is almost embarrassing to read out loud.

It is interesting that the King warns his son more about what this woman says than about what she does.  It makes you think that Solomon knew the power of a well-placed, well-seasoned word.  Hers were full of flattery and seduction.  She knew how to appeal to his desire and his need...and she played to those weaknesses.

Well-placed words with grave and disastrous potential for destruction.

Why?  What might have been her motivation?  We'll come back to this in another conversation, but it is enough to consider that this young man came along "ripe-for-the-picking" (my Grandmother's saying) to satisfy her desires. 

She had her own craving. 
     Her own need. 
         And she would use him to fill the void in her own life.
               He became the object of her obssession to meet her need.

Sound familiar?  Maybe not to such an extreme and perhaps in a less public, more respectable way...
    but i do this.
        i see people as a means to meet my own need...
            and i do what i must to draw them in.

i have done it with my children.
    i have done it with my siblings.
        and my husband.
             and my co-workers.
                  and my friends.

i am the adulterous woman.
     My agenda is my own pleasure. 
           My own passion. 
                My own comfort.

i have more to say, but that's all i can take today.

i am clinging to this verse from John 7.  "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven."