Proverbs 2:19 (Mini Sermon)

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19. Pro 2:19 - "None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life." A. None that go unto her return again. i. Solomon gives one final reason to be wise and avoid the strange woman. ii. It's a one-way trip. iii. There is more than one reason for this. a. Foolish whoremongers could simply lose their lives for one of the reasons given in the comments on the previous verse, such as: (i) God slaying them directly, (ii) dying due to the natural consequences of an STD, or (iii) being killed by vengeful husband. b. But there is also another way in which those that go unto the strange woman will not return again. (i) They will not return as the same men that they went as. (ii) The man that commits adultery gets "a wound and dishonour...and his reproach shall not be wiped away" (Pro 6:33). (iii) The reproach of such an egregious act is never entirely removed, even after decades have passed, because the memory of it resides in the minds of his family, friends, and neighbors for the rest of their lives. (iv) Thus the man who was held in high regard never returns from the strange woman's house as his former self. (v) David experienced the devastation of social ostracism after he committed adultery with Bathsheba, which he painfully lamented when he besought the LORD's mercy, saying "my lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off" (Psa 38:11). (vi) As Solomon later noted in the book of Ecclesiastes, the social stigma of this sin increases in proportion to the reputation of the offender (Ecc 10:1). B. Neither take they hold of the of the paths of life. i. The man who commits adultery has gone the way of the evil man and has left "the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness" (Pro 2:13). ii. He has veered from the strait gate and narrow way "which leadeth unto life," and henceforth shall walk through the wide gate on the broad way "that leadeth to destruction" (Mat 7:13-14). iii. All the joys of living shall be taken from him. iv. As he tries to take hold of the paths of life, they shall slip through his fingers as sorrow compasses him. v. Psalm 38 is considered by many to be David's lamentation for his dreadful sin of adultery, in which he vividly expressed his feeling of despair after taking another man's wife (Psa 38:1-10). vi. Let the Christian man take heed and hearken unto wisdom in order to spare himself from the agony which will certainly befall anyone who follows in David's footsteps.