The Gravity of Judgment Text: Proverbs 22:14
Introduction: The Moral Law of Gravity
We live in a time that prides itself on its liberation from old constraints. Our culture has declared its independence from God, from His Word, and from the very notion of fixed moral laws. We have been told that we are the authors of our own identities, the captains of our own souls, and the arbiters of our own truth. And a central theater for this rebellion has been in the realm of sexual ethics. The world has thrown off the biblical constraints on sexuality as though they were iron shackles, and now celebrates what God condemns as though it were the highest form of human expression.
But in doing this, we have not discovered a new and enlightened freedom. We have simply discovered a new and more sophisticated way to fall. We have forgotten that there is a moral law of gravity. You can deny the law of physical gravity all you want. You can stand on the edge of a tall building, flap your arms, and declare with all sincerity that you identify as a bird. But your feelings, however sincere, will have no purchase on reality. The law of gravity will have the last word. In the same way, God has woven a moral fabric into the universe, and when we defy it, we do not break God's laws. We break ourselves against them.
The book of Proverbs is a book of applied wisdom. It is intensely practical. It does not float in the realm of abstract ideals; it gets its hands dirty with the grit of real life, dealing with money, work, speech, family, and, as we see in our text today, the profound danger of sexual sin. This is not prudish, outdated advice. This is divine realism. It is a father's urgent warning to his son about a particular kind of danger that is as ancient as the fall and as current as your smartphone screen.
This verse is a stark and sober warning. It is not complicated, but it is deeply offensive to the modern mind. It tells us that certain actions have certain consequences, and that behind those consequences is the active judgment of a holy God. It connects the dots between a particular sin, the adulterous woman, and a particular state of being, that of being under the curse of God. This is not a popular message, but it is a necessary one. For if we do not understand the nature of the pit, we will not appreciate the glory of the rescue.
The Text
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit;
He who is cursed of Yahweh will fall into it.
(Proverbs 22:14 LSB)
The Bait and the Trap (v. 14a)
The first clause sets the scene and identifies the danger:
"The mouth of strange women is a deep pit;" (Proverbs 22:14a)
First, let's be clear about who this "strange woman" is. The word "strange" here does not mean peculiar or odd. It means foreign, alien, another man's wife. She is the forbidden woman, the adulteress. She stands outside the covenant of marriage. In the broader biblical context, this figure is not just a warning against adultery, but also against idolatry, which the prophets consistently describe as spiritual adultery. The strange woman tempts the son away from his covenant faithfulness to his wife, just as foreign gods tempt Israel away from their covenant faithfulness to Yahweh.
And notice what the specific instrument of danger is. It is her "mouth." This is not primarily about her physical beauty, though that is certainly a factor elsewhere (Prov. 6:25). The focus here is on her words. Her speech is the bait. Proverbs tells us elsewhere that her lips drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil (Prov. 5:3). She flatters, she entices, she seduces with her words. She speaks of excitement, of stolen pleasures, of a life free from the mundane responsibilities of covenant faithfulness. Her mouth creates a world of fantasy, a world where actions have no consequences.
But this mouth, this source of sweet words, is a "deep pit." This is the language of a trap. A hunter would dig a deep pit, cover it with a thin layer of branches and leaves, and lure an unsuspecting animal to its doom. Once the animal falls in, the pit is too deep and the sides are too steep for it to escape. It is a place of death. This is what the wisdom of God tells us about adultery. It is not a playground; it is a grave. The path to her house goes down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol (Prov. 5:5). The sweet words are a flimsy covering over a fatal drop.
Our culture wants to frame this differently. It speaks of affairs, flings, and finding oneself. It uses the language of romance and liberation. But God uses the language of a trap, a pit, and death. Her words promise freedom but deliver bondage. They promise life but deliver ruin. This is because all sin follows this pattern. The bait is always a lie, and the trap is always deadly.
The Divine Judgment (v. 14b)
The second clause of the verse is the most sobering part, for it explains who is susceptible to this trap. It is not a matter of bad luck or simple weakness.
"He who is cursed of Yahweh will fall into it." (Proverbs 22:14b LSB)
This is a terrifying statement. The man who falls into the pit of adultery does not fall there by accident. He falls there because he is under the curse, the abhorrence, the wrath of the Lord. This turns our modern therapeutic understanding of sin on its head. We want to see the adulterer as a victim of his circumstances, his upbringing, or his uncontrollable desires. We want to medicalize his sin. But Scripture here diagnoses it theologically. He falls into this particular sin as a form of divine judgment for prior sins.
One sin is often the punishment for another. When a man begins to drift from God, when he harbors bitterness in his heart, when he cultivates pride, when he neglects the worship of God and the reading of His Word, he is placing himself in a precarious position. He is provoking the Lord. And one of the ways God judges a man who has turned his heart away is by giving him over to the desires he has chosen. The apostle Paul describes this very principle in Romans 1. Because men "did not see fit to acknowledge God," God "gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done" (Romans 1:28). This is the moral law of gravity in action. God does not just punish sin from the outside; He often punishes it by letting the sinner have what he wants, and letting him reap the full, bitter harvest of his choices.
So the man who finds himself enticed by the strange woman is not some innocent bystander. He is a man who is already at odds with his Maker. His heart has already wandered from the path of wisdom. He is already displeasing to the Lord, and this temptation is, in a very real sense, a judgment that fits the crime. He has been unfaithful to God in his heart, and so God hands him over to a temptation that will make his unfaithfulness manifest in the flesh.
This means that the battle against sexual temptation does not begin in the moment of temptation. It begins with the whole posture of your life before God. A man who is walking in the fear of the Lord, delighting in God's law, and cherishing his covenant wife is not the man who is under Yahweh's curse. He is under Yahweh's blessing. And that blessing is his protection. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be taken by her (Eccl. 7:26). The ultimate defense against the deep pit is a heart that is right with God.
Conclusion: The Way of Escape
This proverb presents us with a stark reality. The allure of sexual sin is a deep pit, and falling into it is a sign of God's judgment. This is not meant to drive us to despair, but to drive us to sobriety, and ultimately, to Christ.
For those who are toying with this sin, who are listening to the sweet words from the mouth of the strange woman, whether on a screen or in a workplace, this is a wake up call. You are standing on the flimsy covering of a deep pit. To proceed is not an act of freedom, but an act of profound folly. It is to walk willingly into your own destruction. The warning is clear: flee. Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace (2 Tim. 2:22). Repent of the hardness of your heart that has made you vulnerable to this trap in the first place.
For those who have already fallen into this pit, the news is not that you must now learn to climb. The pit is too deep. The news is that there is a Rescuer who has gone down into the deepest pit of all, the pit of death and judgment, in order to pull us out. Jesus Christ, on the cross, became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). He took upon Himself the full wrath and abhorrence of God that our sin deserved. He went into the pit so that we could be lifted out.
Therefore, the way out of the pit is not by scrambling up the sides, but by looking up to Him in faith and repentance. He is the one who can forgive the sin, cleanse the stain, and begin to heal the devastation. He is the one who can break the curse. And He is the one who offers a greater pleasure, a more profound joy, than any stolen water could ever provide. He offers Himself, the fountain of living waters.
The choice before every man is the choice between two women, Wisdom and Folly, the covenant wife and the strange woman. One leads to life, blessing, and honor. The other's mouth is a deep pit. And the determining factor is not your willpower, but your relationship to God. Are you under His curse, or are you, by grace through faith in Christ, under His blessing? Your answer to that question will determine which path you take.