Planting in another man’s garden can get you planted!

☛ Probing Proverbs 6:26-29 For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, but sleeping with another man’s wife will cost you your life. Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire? Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet? So it is with the man who sleeps with another man’s wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished. ☚ 

Wisdom has been dealing the foolishness of sexual activity outside of what God has ordained. One husband, one wife, experiencing each other only. Now wisdom gets very specific of an action that will bring the greatest consequences. Be sure any sexual activity that God has not blessed will lead to a sad end…i.e. sex with a prostitute will rob a man of the richness God had intended in sex. However, wisdom now warns of an act that will bring the greatest fire into a man’s life. When a man takes the person that God gave to someone else, he steps into an area where very little mercy will be shown. It does not matter if she pursued him or even seduced him, when he comes between a husband and the intimacy that husband had with his wife, the adulterer invites a wrath that knows no rival. The picture painted is graphic. 

When any one thinks they can play with fire and not get burned they have become a very deceived person. A man that loves his wife will give his life for her and even if the relationship has entered a difficult time, woe to the fool that thinks his action is like any other. Bedding a single girl, even one much younger, (not a child, I mean a 50 year old man and a 25 year old woman), wrong…yes, regret…yes, most times for the young woman it is when she realizes what she has done. The older man pays in different ways; the greatest is self-deception…thinking that the fantasy he has is real. Usually she loves his money, power or needs a father figure and the sex is just part of the cost. Paying for sex…very wrong and will reap regret…but, he is not stealing someone else’s spouse. If he is married, even though he is not leaving his family, he is just fulfilling his sinful lust not caring what damage he does to his relationship with God, his wife, his family, the prostitute or society. However, when you enter another man’s domain and take the woman that is supposed to be just for him, you ignite inside him a fire that will be shot right at that foolish man. Why is this so? 

Perhaps it is because in the sexual relationship of marriage there is a sense this is from God and is the way it was intended to be. Now an enemy of what we would count most precious has broken in and destroyed that trust, that promise and the intimacy that belonged to only that husband. So why does this happen so often? The enemy of God knows that one of society’s greatest hopes for redemption is through the family. Satan hates marriage and families. The tragedy is the adulterer does not understand that they are nothing more than a pawn of the evil one.

“In” and “On” Two little words but a huge difference!

Scripture Read: Judges 6:33-35 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the sons of the east assembled themselves; and they crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel. So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they also were called together to follow him; and he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.

Application: We looked at this earlier in Judges, but it is worth our attention again, because the relationship a child of God has with the Holy Spirit is essential to intimacy with God. First, let’s remind ourselves of the difference in the relationship that we have compared to the Old Testament saint. The Holy Spirit would “come upon” a person. What that means though is that He also could leave. David shared this fear after his sin of murder and adultery:

Psalm 51:11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

This is a prayer that no child of God will ever have to pray since the event of the resurrection. The Holy Spirit’s role and relationship with the New Testament saint is very different and may even explain the reason for God’s patience and tolerance of sin in the Old Testament. Men and women were not “partakers” of the divine nature, so their ability to resist sin would have been more difficult. In the NT even the standards for elders are clearly more accountable – one and only one wife. This has everything to do with our ability to “not” sin; it has nothing to do with sin being greater today than it was then. Sin is sin, but our Lord is very loving and patient, He understands our weaknesses. However, with a new nature given by the Holy Spirit at regeneration and having the Holy Spirit taking a permanent residence in us, we have the ability to truly be free from much of sin.

Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

We still need to realize, though the Holy Spirit will never depart – sealed till the day Christ returns – that does not guarantee that we are His friend. That is the difference between relationship – which is secure – and fellowship – which is dependent upon our moment-to-moment walk with Him. Thank God that His Spirit is forever with you, but do not take for granted your friendship. Listen to Him and commune with Him.  

Meditation Questions: Do you ever ask the Spirit’s forgiveness when you grieve, resist or quench Him? If not, why? Do you understand the difference between a relationship and a friendship? What is the basis for a relationship? What is the basis for a friendship? How can you have a relationship with someone yet not have a friendship?  Do you have a daily awareness of your need to commune with the Holy Spirit everyday?

Think with the right organ!

Probing Proverbs: 6:24-25  It will keep you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of a promiscuous woman. Don’t lust for her beauty. Don’t let her coy glances seduce you. For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, but sleeping with another man’s wife will cost you your life. 

Wisdom has encouraged us to listen to wise counsel and now gives us a reason why. Obviously women can lust and fall into sexual sin, however, the Scripture makes a point concerning this issue for men. This is one of the weaknesses that most men have. From criminals to presidents there is a disconnect from rational and logical thinking. Men that throw away incredible treasures: a loving wife, children, callings, reputations and legacies…all for an excitement, an arousal and a fantasy that is at best fleeting and always fails to deliver the illusion the man had created. 

Sex is very sensory based for men. Notice how sin approaches – through the ears “smooth tongue” … the eyes, “her beauty” and “coy glances”.  

So the man has all these sensory messages that are communicating to him…but here is where the disconnect happens. We were made to “think” with an organ called the “brain”! Yet, time and time again men prove they are thinking with a different organ! Throw common sense, integrity and everything else to the wind the wrong captain is running the ship and his only focus is on the false trinity – Me, Myself and I!

This is why we need to stay close to God men, the Holy Spirit will help you think with your brain! When all that sensory communication comes in, He will help you channel it to your mind which has the power with His grace to keep the rest of your body under control. When a man slows down to talk to God about what he is feeling, God can guide him through that minefield without any damage. God understands our drives and desires…He made us…but He also knows that in the marriage bed a man can really experience what God had intended.    Everything else is counterfeit and will not only destroy but it will actually frustrate the very desire we were trying to gratify! Don’t destroy what God desires to produce… real pleasure and fulfillment with one woman! WOW! What a God we have!