Under Gods Command
Proverbs 9:17 Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
Sin lies. Sexual sins lie more than most. Fools buy the lie that sexual sins are specially sweet and pleasant. The prohibition of sin adds to its luster, and the efforts to hide it enhance the act. Wicked women and modern society present sexual sins as very pleasant things with few consequences. But death and hell are the horrible results (Pr 9:18).
Reader! You have a choice – a sober choice with consequences. You can run to Lady Wisdom and enjoy her truly satisfying feast of meat, wine, and bread (Pr 9:1-5), or you can fall for lies of a foolish whore, who offers stolen waters and risky bread (Pr 9:13-18).
Satan lied about sin in Eden. He told Eve she would not die and the forbidden fruit would make her as God. As she fatally looked at the tree, forgetting the most precious tree of life, she saw the forbidden fruit as good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and likely to make one wise. She bought the lie! Her choice was horrible! The taste was bitter in seconds!
Sin is so perverse that if God had forbidden sex with wives, marriages would be precious relationships of romantic love and intimacy! If something is put off-limits to the natural man, a sinful craving for that thing becomes a cruel monster that demands satisfaction. Test this by leaving cookies on a counter and telling your children they cannot have one!
The context of this proverb is the strange woman and her seduction and destruction of men (Pr 9:13-18). It is a simple and foolish man that believes her brazen lie or deceitful insinuations (Pr 9:16; 30:20), so it is your privilege and duty to learn wisdom, to save you from the certain death and hell of sexual sins. Solomon used personification to save you.
He taught his son to drink sexual waters from his own cistern – his own wife (Pr 5:1-23). See the comments on 5:15. He used waters and bread as metaphors for sexual pleasure. He also described deceit as bread, which turns to gravel in one’s mouth (Pr 20:17).
Strange women, or whores, generally do not say these words directly, but they imply them through seductive wiles; the lusts of the flesh and eyes say them as well to foolish men. In America, there is a proverb, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” These words describe the discontentment of human nature and the fascination with forbidden things. This proverb says the same. The adulteress wickedly lies by offering tempting sexual pleasures that will exceed any marital reality (Pr 7:10-21).
Sin has a thrill – especially for youth – that seduces them. But the aftertaste is never considered. The bitterness of the morsel in their belly is not measured. The folly of their inexperience blinds them to the future. Obsession with wine finds it pleasant initially, but its aftertaste is horrible (Pr 23:31-32)! So this proverb warns you against sin’s lie.
Hollywood never glamorizes marital sex. Never! That would be totally contrary to its master, its mission, the lusts of the flesh, and public appetite. Satan has Hollywood and America committed to the lie of this proverb – fornication, adultery, and sodomy are pleasures to be enjoyed without fear. Stolen waters are sweet! Secret bread is pleasant!
Because of this lie, the adulteress has the advantage over the faithful wife. The sinful fantasy of the forbidden and mysterious creates a curious craving that wrecks the souls and lives of men. The strange woman looks better, speaks better, kisses better, and makes love better – until it is too late (Pr 7:10-27)! It is an illusion. It is the creation of Satan and a depraved heart. If you have any thought like this about a woman, stay far away!
Reader, see the lie! The grass only looks greener from this side of the fence. Once you enter a forbidden field, you find it inferior to what you had, but now you have committed a horrible crime that cannot be undone (Pr 6:20-35). Sin lies! Hell and death are waiting. Any pleasure in sin is momentary (Heb 11:25). And it never equals the coming pain. The sweet waters and pleasant bread become bitter and painful in your belly!
What does wisdom teach? It teaches a man to be content with his own cistern and well – your wife and her love and breasts (Pr 5:15-20). Wise men choose and learn to be content (Phil 4:11), and they promote marriages as a protective blessing (I Cor 7:1-5; Col 3:19).
Wisdom avoids fences and other grass – any unnecessary exposure to other women, for it knows God placed the fence well (Ex 20:17; Matt 5:27-30; Rom 13:14). With television and other media always singing the lie of this proverb, they must be strictly guarded.
Wisdom knows these things: sin lies about its goodness (Ps 36:2), sexual sin has fatal consequences (Pr 2:18-19; 5:3-14; 7:27; 9:18), no sin is truly secret (II Sam 11:27; Luke 12:2; Heb 4:14), and men should fear the God who enforces all sexual fences (Pr 5:21).
Do not ever think sin might be pleasant or better than God’s holy word. Amnon craved his sweet sister, but the aftertaste of rape was horrible and deadly. Eli thought family dinners with his sons were pleasant, but his lack of discipline wiped out his family tree. Gehazi relished his money and garments for only a few moments (II Kings 5:20-27).
Satan told Judas that thirty pieces of silver was nice compensation and Jesus could deliver Himself from the Jews, but the aftertaste of his crime was so bitter that he returned the money and committed suicide in morbid guilt. Satan never told him this part of the deal! And he never tells young people the horrible consequences of sexual sin!
Christian woman, do not think you escape the proverb. It applies both ways in sexual sins, and a young man seeking to seduce you may appear to be an excitingly dangerous thrill, but the consequences are horrible and permanent. You have reduced your value to him or any other man. Do not listen to him tell you about his love for you. He lies. Do not allow any man to have sexual pleasure with you through your words, your clothing, your looks, or your actions, or you are guilty of saying the words above. Wait until marriage.
Godliness with contentment is great gain (I Tim 6:6), and it certainly applies to marriage. Let the Lord Jesus Christ be the sweet and pleasant object for your soul more than anyone, or anything, else in heaven or earth (Ps 73:25-26; Heb 13:5). Love your wife!
Under Gods command 