Proverbs 31:1–3: “The words of King Lemuel, an oracle that his mother taught him: ‘O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows, do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which ruins kings.’”
When you look at the book of Proverbs, you see a lot of warnings against adultery, against fornication, against being driven by sexual proclivities. We are coming to the latter part of Proverbs, and it is coming up again: “Do not give your strength to women. Don’t let that be what preoccupies you.”
Look at the warning that God gave the kings of Israel. He told them while they were still in the wilderness that the king should not accumulate wives for himself (Deuteronomy 17:17). That just seems to be “the way things are supposed to be,” where the thinking is, “Since I am in this position of authority, what else am I going to do with this position except to accumulate women to myself? That is what I am supposed to do with it. There is nobody who is going to caution me. There is nobody who is going to put a limit on me. I can do it into infinity.”
Look at what happened with Solomon. God allowed Solomon to do it “into infinity” (1 Kings 11:1–4). You want one? Okay. Three? A thousand? And beyond just accumulating wives, He had already told them, “Do not intermarry with the pagan nations… for they will surely turn your heart after their gods” (Deuteronomy 7:3–4; 1 Kings 11:2). What did Solomon do? Thinking, “I can control it.”
You might think, “I can control it. It is just this one time.” Solomon probably gave himself reasons: “This will help me have peace in my kingdom; if I marry the daughter of this king and that king, I will have alliances.”
So God allowed that. You want to go in the wrong direction; you now have “grace” to go speedily in the wrong direction. You will see what happens. It is better to nip it in the bud. That is what this verse is telling us: “Do not give your strength to women.” Do not give in to sexual proclivities—not even once—because once you do it once, look at what the Bible says in Romans: “They did not see fit to acknowledge God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done” (Romans 1:28). He “gave them over.”
You are talking about an entrapment now. God is saying, “Okay, you want to go your way. You want to pursue your emotional pleasure. You want life to be about how you can meet your sexual needs.” He can give you over to that.
That is what we can say happened with Solomon. One, two… no. Three… no. Forty… no. Five hundred… no. To the observer it becomes ridiculous. But be warned: you are not different from Solomon. You are only one wrong decision away from landing where Solomon landed.
Of course, God wanted to use that as an eternal example of how things can go once you take a misstep and do not line up with God’s word, thinking you can “give in just this one time.” It is a risky journey. Look at where it landed Solomon: “His wives turned his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4). God had already said, “They will turn your heart away from Me,” and that is what happened.
Can you imagine the son of David—David, who was the number one example—look at how low Solomon fell. What was he looking for? He had the word from God. What was he looking for? He had all the wealth. He had all the fame.
Once you think, “This is just a little thing; I am just using it for entertainment, to satisfy myself,” you are at risk of God allowing you to go in that direction, and it is going to be a damning path, just as we saw with Solomon.
God bless you. See you later.