15 Drink water from your own cistern
And [e]fresh water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be dispersed abroad,
Streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be yours alone
And not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be [f]exhilarated always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an [g]adulteress
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord,
And He watches all his paths.
22 His own iniquities will capture the wicked,
And he will be held with the cords of his sin.
23 He will die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.
Solomon begins this section with an analogy of water, cisterns and wells. And then, in vv. 18-19, he just comes right out and says what he means. Before we get all self-righteous and declare, “I would never do that!” we need to remember that Jesus said if we even look at a woman with adultery in our heart, we’ve already sinned.
It’s an easy trap to fall into, and Paul spoke of sin which so easily entangles us. In the same vein, Solomon continues, our own sin will hold us captive, and we will be bound with the cords of sin. The end is bitter, but it is not the only ending. Rather, there is One who can break the bonds of sin, though we may not. He has set the captive free, and can set you free.
Though you fall a hundred times (God forbid, but it happens), Jesus sacrifice is enough to cover your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness–not just a little bit, but from big huge messes of our own making. If you’ve found yourself in a mess recently, or maybe even for a long while, take a lesson from the story of the prodigal.
God is always watching, “the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord…” We have not gone so far that He cannot see, and that He is not waiting for our return. Turn back and let him scrub you clean. It might hurt, there could be pain, but the alternative is far worse. It reminds me of Eustace from the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (go read it if you haven’t). He was captured by his greed and turned into a dragon.
He had to wear his sin right in plain sight for all to see, but no one condemned him, least of all his former “adversary” Reepicheep. But none could save Eustace or rescue him from his folly until he met Aslan. Eustace tore the dragon skin layer by layer, but could not complete the job. So Aslan did what no mortal could, it was painful but worth every bit of agony, for in the end he was restored to life again.
Be restored today, let the scales of your heart be peeled away and be made new, beautiful and clean.