Pro 2:16-20 | KingComments | STEP | In we encounter the second class of evil persons from whom wisdom delivers or saves, and that is the “strange woman”. The evil man of whom the father speaks in brings perversion; the evil woman, by sneaky seduction, causes life to become a ruin. First is described what kind of woman the lawless woman is ( ). Then, as a warning, her ruin is shown as well as the ruin of those who submit to her ( ). In the following chapters we will encounter the strange woman more often. The word “strange” here means what is forbidden, what should be strange to us. The strange woman is a woman who is forbidden to us. She lives outside the covenant of God, not according to the thoughts of God. It is about an adulterous woman, who is “strange” to the person with whom she commits adultery. That the father speaks about this with his son, may mean that this son is no longer a child, but someone of about seventeen or eighteen years of age. The temptation to and committing of adultery has always been and remains a great danger to every man. Any woman other than one’s own must be ‘strange’ in sexual terms. If we think of ‘our’ Christian youth, the danger is not primarily that of committing violent crimes such as murder and robbery. But the other danger, that of fornication and adultery, is enormous. It is becoming increasingly exceptional in Christian circles for a young couple to enter marriage clean, that is, they have not yet had sex with each other (or with anyone else). And what about looking at pornography on the Internet? That too is a form of harlotry. The wisdom that has entered the heart and the knowledge in which the soul rejoices ( ) also saves from the temptation of the strange woman ( ). Like the wrong man, she begins with words. The evil man uses pernicious words, the evil woman uses flattering words which, of course, are also pernicious. Flattery is not communicating but manipulating. She offers pleasure and that is the pleasure of easy sex. The woman is unfaithful to “the covenant of her God” with her husband. Her husband is “the companion of her youth” to whom she is married ( ; ). Marriage is a covenant before God, it is His covenant. He instituted the covenant of marriage. Whoever tramples that covenant despises “what God has joined together” ( ). Whoever despises the covenant of marriage despises its Giver. The adulterous woman forsakes both God and her husband and sins against both God and her husband by blatantly breaking her marriage vow. The father holds up to his son why he should not let himself be carried away by her flattering words. This is because then he will enter her house, “for” that house is a house that sinks down to death ( ). Her house is a house that facing death; it is an entrance gate to death. Therefore he plays with his life when he gets involved with her. He gets the opposite of the happy life she portrays to him. The traces of the life she leads lead to the place where “the dead” are. Whoever enters her house and comes to her is completely in her power ( ). She plays her dark, demonic game with him and does not let him go. Anyone who enters her house, will never get out of it. Perhaps he may literally go out the door again, but there is a snare wrapped around his soul that links him to death. The paths of the living, that is, the paths that lead to life and on which life is enjoyed, are cut off for him and can no longer be reached by him. This gruesome end can only be avoided when the son lets himself be guided on his path of life by the two sentinels of who are named ‘discretion’ and ‘understanding’. The sin of adultery and fornication is presented here in its ultimate consequence. It is the law of reaping what you sow ( ). Whoever goes this way must count on it. The grace of God is not spoken of here. It is good to point this out too. God can intervene in His grace when someone confesses and forsakes his sins. God is a God of grace and able to deliver from the deepest darkness. Any person who goes to God with sincere repentance for his or her sins may surely count on that. However, it must be kept in mind that God does not always remove all consequences. If there is ‘consequential damage’ from a wrong path, He does help to bear it.