Read Proverbs 6 at Bible Gateway.
There is a chiastic structure in Pro 6:
Pro 6:20-7:27
1A: Pro 6:20-29, Keep the commandments + seductress + deceitful destruction;
1B: Pro 6:30-31, He who steals makes restitution;
CENTRAL AXIS: Pro 6:32-33, Whoever commits adultery destroys his own soul;
2B: Pro 6:34-35, He who commits adultery can never make restitution;
2A: Pro 7:1-27, Keep the commandments + seductress + deceitful destruction.
The commandments together, when we keep them, preserve us, however, the Scripture makes a special case of Do not commit adultery. That there is so much space devoted to it, not only in Deuteronomy, but also here in Proverbs, reveals that we must be on special guard against it.
Even though Solomon knew all of this about adultery, in a way, this sin was his downfall also, just as it had been David’s before him. He did not transgress with his neighbor’s wife, but he merely married woman after woman after woman (700 wives of royal birth, and 300 concubines), so that he did not learn faithfulness to the one woman YHVH provided for him (as His provision for Adam in the Garden is the pattern upon which biblical marriage is founded).
I know why this is a temptation for men. Wives “cool off” in their passion for their husband after a time, and in order to meet their needs, men are tempted with adultery (or in our internet age, as is very prevalent among Christian men, p-rnography). But often, the wives cool off because their husbands have hurt their wives’ hearts. And God made women in such a way, that heart, mind, and body are all involved in intimacy, and a woman cannot divorce her heart and mind from her body in order to maintain passion and intimacy purely for physical reasons.
When a woman cannot resolve her heart hurts with her husband, because perhaps he defends himself instead of listening to her, or he becomes angry that she has an issue with him, or in many of the other unbiblical ways that a husband can respond to his fellow believer’s (his wife’s) attempt to address sin and reconcile with him (Mat 18), then her body follows her heart and withdraws.
When this happens, this is a sign from God to the husband that he needs to humble himself and resolve matters with his wife’s heart, so that her passion can be restored. Unfortunately, most men, even believing men, do not go that route, and instead harden their hearts against their wives, which just continues the downward spiral.
Now I am not saying the husband is the cause of the wife’s cooling off in every instance. Sometimes the wife is in sin. However, in the majority of the cases, I do believe this is the dynamic, just as in the majority of the cases, the children rebel because of the father provoking to wrath (but not in every case).
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