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Healed from “The Sickness unto Death”
(Proverbs 6:20-35)
Andy Nagahara
Today in our Proverbs series, we are reading the second half of chapter 6. Let’s read the whole thing.
20 My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck.
22 When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.
23 For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,
24 keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.
25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes,
26 for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?
28 Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?
29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
32 But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.
33 Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away;
1. Adultery is a sin punishable by death
This passage strongly warns against adultery. And as we have seen, this is not the only passage. The book of Proverbs, written as a commandment from a father to his son, repeatedly warns against sexual temptation precisely because we are susceptible to this temptation. And Proverbs repeatedly warns in various ways that the price will be very high.
Why do we sink into the depths knowing the cost is so great? This is because not only is the act of adultery itself destructive, but it is also a typical manifestation of the troublesome nature that we all have, without exception. The Bible calls it “sin.” The apostle Paul said, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and today’s text contains several words that indicate that adultery brings death. Verse 26 says that a man’s wife (or someone who commits adultery with her) devours precious life; verse 32 says that it brings ruin upon the person; and verse 34 says that it brings merciless vengeance upon the person. On the contrary, verse 23 says that the way of life is to keep the commandments of one’s parents and not commit adultery.
But does adultery really bring death? There are some passages in the Bible that don’t seem so. A typical example is King David. Although he was the greatest king in the history of Israel, from the perspective of today’s Proverbs, David was a man who used his power to steal wife from his subordinate. The second most popular king of Israel, Solomon, was the son of David’s adulterous affair, and in his later years he himself chose to live a life that was dishonest to God.
As in today’s passage, there are many passages in Proverbs that describe women as seductresses, using negative adjectives such as wicked or immoral, but this is not an essential view. Adultery often occurs due to a male-biased social structure and the lusts of physically superior men. This is also why most sexual crimes are committed by men. This does not mean that men are inherently more sinful, but rather that there are greater social factors that make it easier for men to sin.
And there are disparities even among men. If it had been Uriah who had committed adultery, he would have been immediately killed by David.
The reason discrimination does not disappear in human society, where everyone is supposed to be created in the image of God, is because there are those who covet the benefits of discrimination. However, it would be premature to conclude from this that even if one commits adultery or other sins, they may suffer some pain later on, but it is not a big deal. Sin brings about real death, which is far more serious than physical death.
In 1849, the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard published his book “The Sickness unto Death”, a title inspired by the account of Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus (John 11). The “death sickness” he refers to is “despair.” The word “despair” does not refer to the “sense of hopelessness” that one feels. Rather, it is a term that refers to the objective state of a person’s soul.
According to Kierkegaard, the state of separation from God due to our sinful nature, known in theological terms as original sin, is the “despair” that does not end even with physical death. And, idolatry is the unrepentant, rebellious defiance of humans who cannot approach God ethically or physically. It’s the act of inventing our own God. The actual worship of trees and stones is not the essence of idolatry. Following one’s desires as if they were God is the essence of idolatry. The trees and stones are merely props used for camouflage.
Neither the most popular king in Israel nor his second most popular son could resist this temptation. They may have lived out their physical lives, but their royal lineage was wiped out completely within a few generations.
We are all desperate beings, whether we feel hopeless or not. We live in a relationship of trust, and sin destroys this relationship. When we destroy our relationship with others, we destroy our relationship with God. We are hopeless because we have no ability to repair the broken relationships.
Kierkegaard seems to have lived his short life dominated by a sense of despair more than most of us. However, he discovered the existence of a more fundamental despair than the one he had felt himself before. He also realized that his despair could be transformed into hope by following Jesus. He wrote “The Sickness unto Death” to tell us that there is only one hope for healing from this “deadly sickness” which is to follow Jesus Christ.
2. From Hearers to Communicators (20–23)
Now, although it’s in reverse order, let’s go back and consider verses 20-23. Up until now, we have been reading this series of Proverbs from the perspective of a son being admonished, but now I would like to encourage you to read it from the perspective of a father rather than a son. Whether we actually have children or not, we have passed on God’s wisdom from generation to generation.
Although the Apostle Paul remained single and had no children, he served as a religious father to all the people in the church of his time. He could be considered the ancestor of our faith. In that sense, we have a responsibility to admonish, teach, and correct the next generation based on God’s wisdom, whether they are our own children or not.
Do you have words that are so firm that you can say, like this father, “Bind my commands in your heart and fasten them around your neck, and they will protect you throughout your life, enabling you to walk in a life that leads to life”? To put it in an exaggerated way, do you have an educational philosophy when it comes to raising people?
Kierkegaard, whom I mentioned earlier, never married or had any children and died at the age of 42. From an outsider’s perspective, some might see his life as one of disappointment. However, that is a complete misunderstanding. Through his writings, he fulfilled the role of a religious father by correctly explaining to everyone the true nature of the “sickness unto death,” or in other words, “despair,” and showing them the way to escape it. And despair was destroyed by his surrender of his life to God, and he was taken to heaven in hope.
Nothing but Jesus can heal our despair. Hope is in Jesus. I hope that you will not just realize this for yourself, but will also walk the path of passing it on to the next generation.
(Prayer) God, thank you for giving us the blessing of knowing that in you there is hope, no matter what our visible circumstances may be.
You know very well that we are vulnerable to temptation and prone to sin.
Please keep us from falling into sin.
Teach us to follow you at all times.
May we be those who have been saved from despair and who share the hope that is in you.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
Summary
Adultery not only destroys human relationships, but it also destroys our relationship with God, who does not want it. While the destruction of human relationships is costly, the destruction of our relationship with God is the true death that is more serious than physical death. God came to this world as Jesus and invited us to “follow him” in order to restore us from this hopeless state to our original state at the time of creation.
For Discussion
1. Why are we prone to adultery?
2. Why should we avoid adultery?