Passage Read: Proverbs 6-9
Meditation Verses: 6:33-35
Thought
This is a warning to young men of what most men will do if they find you sleeping with their wife. There would be violence and no way to buy him off. But would the husband also execute vengeance on his wife or does his jealousy protect her? The Law God gave Israel required the death penalty for both the man who slept with his neighbor's wife and for the wife. There should be no need for the husband to take personal vengeance against the man or his wife, except to turn them in to the authorities for judgment and execution. In his jealousy, a husband might be furious enough with his wife to turn her in for judgment. But it's also possible that his jealousy is prompted by such love for her that he would seek to protect her--and so take vengeance into his own hands. Yet this doesn't seem to hold true today. Today, the spurned husband will just divorce his wife and go find another--in large part because we don't treat adultery as God requires. But today, many men put their wives up for rent! They find they can make a lot of money off them! That is the real shocking thing. Men don't keep their wives to themselves any more, and they certainly wouldn't have the kind of rage as these verses speak of. Which is better? Modern man or ancient man? There is a huge mental shift between then and now, and I don't think it's for the better.
Application
A man's wife is his own wife, and he should see her that way. If she betrays his trust by going astray, he should be enraged and bring the full force of law against her and whomever she sinned with. Marriage should be held is much higher honor than it is today. We lost something important, when we made marriage something flexible, when it was no longer a true binding of man and wife. There is such a different worldview behind these chapters about adultery. Man, woman and society need to rediscover these truths, not just correct outward behaviors, but inward beliefs--to the kind that would produce this kind of rage. The kind of rage God feels when we spurn Him.