The Two Women Text: Proverbs 7:1-5
Introduction: A Tale of Two Cities
The book of Proverbs, and especially this seventh chapter, presents us with a stark and unavoidable choice. It is a choice between two women, two ways, two destinies. This is not a quaint collection of folksy wisdom for clean living. This is spiritual warfare, and the battlefield is the heart of a young man. The stakes are life and death. We live in a culture that desperately wants to pretend this choice does not exist. Our generation wants to blur every line, erase every distinction, and call it progress. They want to tell you that the seductive adulteress and the wise sister are just two different expressions of authentic womanhood, and that you should "follow your heart" to whichever one feels right.
But the Word of God is not so accommodating. It does not offer a buffet of options. It presents two paths, and only two. One is the way of the strange woman, the adulteress, whose house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. The other is the way of Lady Wisdom, whose ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. You will give your heart to one or the other. There is no third way. You will either love wisdom or you will love folly. You will serve God or you will serve your lusts. You cannot do both.
This passage is a father's urgent plea to his son. But it is more than that. It is the voice of our Heavenly Father, pleading with us, His sons and daughters, to arm ourselves for the battle. The world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly conspiring to lure you down the path to the strange woman's house. They use flattery, promises of pleasure, and the lie of secrecy. And the only defense, the only preventative medicine, is a heart saturated with the Word of God. This is not about behavior modification or trying harder. This is about a radical heart transplant, where the law of God is not just a rulebook to be followed, but the very desire and delight of your soul.
The Text
My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you.
Keep my commandments and live, And my law as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister," And call understanding your intimate friend;
In order to keep you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who flatters with her words.
(Proverbs 7:1-5 LSB)
Internalize the Word (v. 1-2)
The instruction begins with an urgent command to internalize and value God's law.
"My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live, And my law as the apple of your eye." (Proverbs 7:1-2)
Notice the intensity of the language. This is not a suggestion for casual reading. The words are to be "kept" and "treasured." To treasure something is to recognize its immense value and to store it in a safe place. The safe place here is "within you." This is not about having a large Bible on your coffee table. It is about having the Word of God hidden in your heart. This is your war chest, your spiritual treasury. When temptation comes knocking, you do not have time to run to the library. The weapon must already be in your hand, which means the Word must already be in your heart.
The stakes are stated with blunt simplicity: "Keep my commandments and live." The alternative is implied: neglect them and die. This is the fundamental choice of the covenant. God set before Israel life and death, blessing and cursing, and commanded them to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). The commandments are not arbitrary restrictions designed to ruin your fun. They are the manufacturer's instructions for how life works. To disregard them is to disregard reality, which is a form of spiritual suicide.
The law is to be guarded "as the apple of your eye." The pupil of the eye is one of the most sensitive and vital parts of the body. We guard it instinctively. A speck of dust causes immediate and intense reaction. We blink, we tear up, we do whatever it takes to protect it. This is the attitude we are to have toward the law of God. We are to be exquisitely sensitive to any threat against it. Any compromise, any hint of disobedience, any flattering word that contradicts it, should set off alarm bells in our soul. We are to protect our doctrinal and moral purity with the same fierce, reflexive instinct that we use to protect our eyesight.
Integrate the Word (v. 3)
The father continues with metaphors of total integration. The Word is not to be a visitor, but a permanent resident.
"Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart." (Proverbs 7:3 LSB)
To "bind them on your fingers" is a picture of practical application. Our fingers are what we use to work, to interact with the world. The Word of God is not meant to be a set of abstract theories; it is meant to govern everything you do. It should be so intertwined with your actions that it is as natural to you as the movement of your own hands. This is a direct echo of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, where Israel was commanded to bind the law on their hands. It means that all your work, all your craft, all your business, is to be done according to the Word of God.
But external action is not enough. It must flow from internal reality. Therefore, you must "write them on the tablet of your heart." This goes deeper than memorization. This is about desire. The heart, in biblical terms, is the seat of your affections, your will, your core identity. The New Covenant promise in Jeremiah is that God Himself will do this work: "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it" (Jeremiah 31:33). When God's law is written on your heart, obedience is no longer a grim duty but a joyful delight. You obey not because you have to, but because you want to. Your desires are being re-calibrated to align with God's desires. This is the essence of regeneration. And it is this internal love for God's law that is the only true defense against the allure of the strange woman.
Personalize the Word (v. 4)
The relationship with God's truth is to be deeply personal and affectionate.
"Say to wisdom, 'You are my sister,' And call understanding your intimate friend;" (Proverbs 7:4 LSB)
Here, wisdom is personified as a woman. And this sets up the central conflict of the chapter. You are going to have a relationship with a woman. The question is, which one? Will it be the harlot of folly, or the sister of wisdom? You cannot have both. You must choose your companion.
The father tells his son to cultivate a familial, affectionate, and loyal relationship with wisdom. "You are my sister." In that culture, a sister was a trusted, lifelong companion, a source of counsel and comfort, someone with whom you shared a bond of blood and loyalty. There is a purity and a propriety to this relationship. It is a safe love, a holy affection.
You are also to call understanding your "intimate friend." This is a relationship of deep conversation, shared secrets, and mutual delight. The point is this: your relationship with the truth of God must be warm, living, and personal. It cannot be a cold, academic affair. You must love the truth. You must delight in the truth. You must enjoy spending time with the truth. If wisdom is not your beloved sister, you will inevitably find yourself in the arms of the strange woman.
The Purpose of the Word (v. 5)
Finally, the practical, protective purpose of all this is made explicit.
"In order to keep you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who flatters with her words." (Proverbs 7:5 LSB)
All this treasuring, guarding, binding, writing, and loving of God's Word has a very specific, defensive purpose. It is your spiritual immune system. It is designed "to keep you from the strange woman." The word "strange" or "foreign" here does not primarily mean she is from another country, though that could be part of it. It means she is outside the covenant. She does not belong to your God, your family, your wife. She is an outsider to the covenant of marriage. She represents all that is illicit, forbidden, and destructive.
And what is her primary weapon? Her words. She "flatters with her words." Her words are smooth, seductive, and deceptive. She tells you what your flesh wants to hear. She promises pleasure without consequences. She offers intimacy without commitment. She is the embodiment of the serpent's lie in the garden: "You will not surely die."
And here is the central contest. You will either be captivated by the words of the strange woman or you will be captivated by the Word of God. You will listen to one or the other. This is why you must fill your heart and mind with the Scriptures. A heart that is in love with the sister of wisdom will be able to detect the cheap flattery of the harlot. A man who delights in the law of the Lord will find the smooth talk of the adulteress to be repulsive and bitter. The Word of God acts as a spiritual filter, discerning the lie and exposing the trap.
Christ, Our Wisdom
As with all of Proverbs, we must ultimately read this through a New Covenant lens. The personification of wisdom finds its ultimate fulfillment in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul tells us that Christ "became to us wisdom from God" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Jesus is the eternal Word, the Logos, made flesh (John 1:14).
Therefore, to treasure the commandments is to treasure Christ. To write the law on your heart is to have Christ dwelling in your heart by faith. To call wisdom your sister is to be brought into the family of God, to become a brother of Christ Himself (Hebrews 2:11). Our defense against temptation is not, ultimately, our own white-knuckled effort to keep the rules. Our defense is a love affair with Jesus Christ.
The strange woman, Folly, is a type of the world system, the anti-church. She is the great harlot of Revelation, Mystery Babylon, who makes the nations drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality (Revelation 17:2). She offers the fleeting pleasures of sin, the allure of autonomy, and the flattery of self-worship. She is a rival bride, seeking to lure men away from their true husband.
But we belong to another. The Church is the bride of Christ. When we are united to Him by faith, we are kept by Him. He is the one who keeps us from the strange woman. The love we have for Him, cultivated by feasting on His Word and fellowshipping with His people, is what exposes the emptiness of the harlot's promises. When you have tasted the fine wine of the wedding feast of the Lamb, the ditch water offered by the world loses its appeal. The ultimate strategy for sexual purity, and for all holiness, is not to focus on the temptation, but to be utterly captivated by the beauty, glory, and surpassing worth of Jesus Christ, who is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption.