Proverbs: Week 3, August 20, 2017

Water is good for you.  It’s one of God’s great gifts.  But water can kill you too.  Drinking water gives life.  But drinking water can also end life. If you drink too much water in too short a period of time, it can throw off your body's balance of electrolytes, cause brain swelling and lead to seizures, coma, or even death.  It is called “water intoxication.”

 

In 2007 a radio station held a contest to win a Nintendo video game.  The objective of the contest was to drink the most water possible in a 3-hour period. One of the entrants was Jennifer Strange.  She wanted to win a Wii system for her 11-year-old son.   Jennifer drank some 2 gallons of water.  She got second place in the contest.  Her prize was a pair of tickets to a Justin Timberlake concert for that same night.  The tickets went unused.  Jennifer was dead by 3 that afternoon due to the effects of acute water intoxication.

 

What makes it even more sad is that it was so preventable.  During the contest, she could be heard complaining about experiencing pain to disc jockeys at 107.9 "The End." "Oh, it hurts," Strange said, while one male disc jockey remarked that she looked pregnant and another, a woman, said "That is so funny."  Warnings were called in by listeners.  One caller (named Eva Brooks) said (and they have the tape of her call):  "Those people that are drinking all that water can get sick and possibly die from water intoxication."  The disc jockeys replied that they "were aware of that" and that contestants had signed a release "so we're not responsible."

 

A jury disagreed with that and awarded Jennifer’s widower and children $16.5 million dollars in damages. 

 

Water is good for you, but even water can kill.  It’s ok for the boat to be in the ocean, but it’s not ok for the ocean to be in the boat. 

 

There’s another gift that God has given us.  It too is essential for life.  It is the marriage union.  It is good.  Sexual intimacy gives life.  But sexual intimacy can also end life—and that’s not hyperbole.

 

Good’s good gifts, like marriage, are meant to be enjoyed!  God has given us guardrails--boundaries and guidelines--so that we can rejoice in His good gifts.  As long as we honor God’s design—one man faithfully married to one woman—we are safe.  But when we violate that design, destruction lurks. 

 

An encompassing term for violating God’s design in marriage is adultery.  Today we will look at some of God’s counsel in a message entitled, “The ABCs of Adultery.”  We will see the allure, the bitterness, and the cure for adultery.

 

Proverbs: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Days

“The ABCs of Adultery”

Proverbs 5:1-23

 

1. The allure of adultery

“For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil” (5:3).

 

1. Lips are alluring
2. Looks are alluring

2. The bitterness of adultery

“But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.  Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol” (5:4-5).

 

1. Expectations will be crushed
2. End will be costly

3. The cure for adultery

“Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house. . . .  Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe.  Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love” (5:8, 18-19).

 

1. Distance yourself from lust
2. Delight yourself in love