Proverbs – Week 9 Study Guide

PROVERBS 5(6/7):

OBJECTIVE/ STUDY: In Proverbs chapters 5,6,7, the Father is giving the son a robust set of warnings about a key human battle…moral purity. Specifically, the dangers of adultery (breaking marriage vows). The message really is a continuation from last week. The necessary instructions/warnings are geared to help the reader maintain a well-kept heart. The chapters are continually calling us to guard our hearts. Today we want to look at chapter 5 and see what it has to say to us about guarding our hearts.

DISCUSSION 1: Have the group read all of chapter five. They can read it together or silently individually. Please encourage them to jot down notes or highlight verses that speak to them. As they read, look for the ways and the tactics the enemy uses to lure a person off the good path. Pay attention to all the good things God has in store for the reader.

Proverbs 5

¹ My son, pay at­ten­tion to my wis­dom;

lis­ten closely to my un­der­stand­ing

² so that you may main­tain dis­cre­tion

and your lips safe­guard knowl­edge.

³ Though the lips of the for­bid­den woman drip honey

and her words are smoother than oil,

⁴ in the end she’s as bit­ter as worm­wood

and as sharp as a dou­ble-edged sword.

⁵ Her feet go down to death;

her steps head straight for Sheol.

⁶ She doesn’t con­sider the path of life;

she doesn’t know that her ways are un­sta­ble.

⁷ So now, sons, lis­ten to me,

and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁸ Keep your way far from her.

Don’t go near the door of her house.

⁹ Oth­er­wise, you will give up your vi­tal­ity to oth­ers

and your years to some­one cruel;

¹⁰ strangers will drain your re­sources,

and your hard-earned pay will end up in a for­eigner’s house.

¹¹ At the end of your life, you will lament

when your phys­i­cal body has been con­sumed,

¹² and you will say, “How I hated dis­ci­pline,

and how my heart de­spised cor­rec­tion.

¹³ I didn’t obey my teach­ers

or lis­ten closely to my in­struc­tors.

¹⁴ I am on the verge of com­plete ruin

be­fore the en­tire com­mu­nity.”

Enjoy Mar­riage

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cis­tern,

water flow­ing from your own well.

¹⁶ Should your springs flow in the streets,

streams in the pub­lic squares?

¹⁷ They should be for you alone

and not for you to share with strangers.

¹⁸ Let your foun­tain be blessed,

and take plea­sure in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹ A lov­ing deer, a grace­ful doe—

let her breasts al­ways sat­isfy you;

be lost in her love for­ever.

²⁰ Why, my son, would you lose your­self

with a for­bid­den woman

or em­brace a way­ward woman?

²¹ For a man’s ways are be­fore the Lord’s eyes,

and he con­sid­ers all his paths.

²² A wicked man’s in­iq­ui­ties will trap him;

he will be­come tan­gled in the ropes of his own sin.

²³ He will die be­cause there is no dis­ci­pline,

and be lost be­cause of his great stu­pid­ity.

Q1: From what you have read, what is God against, and what is he for?

Q2: Remember that the enemy wants to get in our mind, the command post of wisdom for our lives. How might the quote from Martin Luther, “You can’t keep crows from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” help us to maintain a well-kept heart? How is it similar to Paul’s encouragement to “take every thought captive?”

Q3: CS Lewis, in his Book the Screwtape Letters, Wrote about the “Horror of the Same Old Thing.” In what ways is it used by the enemy to tear a believer down? Have you ever fallen prey to it? How do we defeat it, and maintain a well-kept heart?