II. The bitter waters which flow from this wrong relation. (Verse 4.) 1. The loss of honour. (Verse 7.) To some men this is dearer than life. The captain would rather go to the bottom of the sea with his ship than live with a shadow upon his good name and reputation. The man who has lost his honour in the eyes of others has lost his honour in his own eyes, and the loss of self-honour or self-respect is a calamity that is very bitter to the soul. The man who will indulge in unlawful intercourse, will find that he not only loses the respect of others, but he will be unable to respect himself, and this loss is the greatest that a man can sustain on this side of hell. It is a draught which, although there might be pleasure in the drawing, will be very bitter in the drinking. 2. The loss of manhood’s vigour and opportunities. He will “give his years to the cruel, his strength to the stranger.” The loss of youthful strength and energy is the loss of years, the youth becomes old before he is a man. The vessel or the mansion that is charred by fire before it is completed presents a strange contrast. The newness and freshness of the walls or the timbers that have escaped make the destruction of the rest more lamentable. The building has been marred just upon the verge of completion, the ship has been spoiled when she was all but ready for the voyage. It is sad to see an old tree blasted by the lightning, but it is a greater misfortune when the tree is in its prime, when it is laden with fruit about to come to perfection. But these are faint shadows of the sad spectacle which is presented by a youth who has become prematurely old by unlawful indulgence before he has reached his prime. He is unfit to battle with the sea of life at the very time when he ought to be setting out on his voyage. He falls short of fulfilling the demands of God and man at the moment when he ought to be bringing forth abundant fruit. Surely such a consciousness must be as bitter waters to the spirit. 3. The action of conscience and memory in a dying day. “And thou mourn at the last,” etc. (Verse 11.) The lamp that hangs from the stern of the vessel throws a light upon the wake of the ship and reveals the path that she has travelled. Memory is such a lamp to the human soul. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we find memory throwing such a light upon the past, and enabling him to look back upon the path which had brought him to his present abode. Conscience sat in judgment upon it and united with memory to make his present cup a bitter one. The bitterness that is always mingled with the life of the profligate becomes doubly bitter at the end. Memory throws her light upon his past, and shows him the strength, and honour, and opportunities of life squandered in licentiousness, and conscience anticipates future retribution and makes him feel the truth of the word of warning. “Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. xiii. 4). The bitterness is increased by the reflection that the sin was committed in defiance of counsel to act differently. And thou say, “How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof” (verse 12). Those who sin against the light of nature only, find a recompense which is terrible, yet which an inspired Apostle declares to be “meet” (Rom. i. 27). The sins here mentioned are sins against nature, and nature asserts her right to punish her broken law and leave her mark upon the fornicator. But when revelation, and instruction, and good example are added to the light of nature, the cup contains ingredients of tenfold bitterness. “Whoso breaketh one hedge, a serpent shall bite him” (Eccles. x. 8). How much sharper will be the sting if a double—a threefold—hedge is broken through.
III. Sweet waters flowing from a right relationship. The waters are sweet or living—1. From a consciousness that a chaste wife belongs to him alone (ver. 15). The profligate can lay no such claim for the woman of his choice; she is, by her own consent, common to all. The husbandman has a very different feeling concerning his own field, which he alone has a right to till, and the common land which is open to all comers. So the true husband has a feeling towards his wife to which the licentious man is an entire stranger. 2. Because such a life is in harmony with the rights of society. The brooks and rivers of the land cannot be pure if the springs are defiled. The social life of a nation can only be healthy while the purity of the marriage relation is maintained. God has written his doom whenever and wherever this sacred bond has been violated. The consciousness of being a blessing to the world swells the stream of satisfaction which arises from a faithful observance of this relationship. 3. Because a true marriage is man’s completion. The sinless man in Eden felt a want until Eve was given to him, even though God had created him in His own image. How much more does man now feel the need of a “helpmeet for him,” such as he finds only in a faithful wife. 4. The waters are further sweetened by the reflection that this relationship is used to symbolise that existing between Christ and His Church. Christ is the Head of His Church for her good. The true husband feels that he is the head of the wife for the same end. The relationship becomes doubly blessed when looked at from this point of view.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verses 1 and 2. When the Word of God enters the heart, it will banish all pollution from the tongue.—Lawson.
Perhaps painful experience (1 Kings xi. 1–8, Eccles. vii. 26) had given the wise man wisdom and understanding. Therefore let us attend to it with fear and trembling.—Bridges.
God allows us to call that knowledge ours which originally is His. 1. Because God give it us, and that he gives a man land allows him to call it his. 2. Because it is given for our good as well as other men’s. We are not like the builders of Noah’s ark, that could not be preserved in it.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 3. The “strange woman” occurs so often in this book, that it is not probably she is introduced simply to denounce licentiousness. Indeed, she so stands twin picture to wisdom, that we come to a firm belief that she is introduced as the picture of impenitence.—Miller.
To hear her one would suppose that she was possessed of the most generous and disinterested spirit. Her tongue is taught by him who betrayed Eve to paint the vilest sin with the most beautiful colours.—Lawson.
Verse 4. The wise counsel of the father puts those things together, in his words which the folly of sinners putteth far asunder in their thoughts, the beginning and end of lustful wantonness. He that by foresight shall taste the bitter end will never lick the honeycomb. He that by a wise consideration shall feel the sharp edges of the issues of it, will never delight to smooth himself with the flat sides of the sword.—Jermin.
Verse 5. Possession of hell is taken by the wicked before they come into it; the devil giveth them that when he by wickedness possesseth their hearts. There is no more to be done than to set up their abode in it.—Jermin.