Hello and welcome back to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge! I’m Lisa Ann Spencer. In today’s lesson we will continue with our study of Thy Kinswoman which we began last week.
Review: Last week we did a word study on AUNT, which we found in Leviticus chapter 18. We established the context of the book of Leviticus first, and we discovered that it is a book of priestly laws spoken by God and given to the children of Israel through Moses.
We know today that we are not under the law (Romans 6:14).
Q: If we are not under the law today, why do we need to read or study the law if it’s not written to us?
A: The answer to that comes from Jesus in John 5:39
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
All the scriptures will point us to Jesus. The scriptures that Jesus was referring to is Genesis to Malachi, which was available at the time of His earthly ministry. More revelation was given by God after that time, and it has all been preserved for us to read and study.
Our goal in reading and studying the Bible should be to know God, and the way we do that is through His word.
I hope to show you how something as simple as doing a word study on the word “Aunt”, which led us to the word “Kinswoman”, will lead us directly to Jesus Christ!
Last week’s lesson ended with mentioning the two ways found in all of the Bible:
- God’s way
- Satan’s way
Man has a tendency to follow Satan’s way. These two ways are represented in the book of Proverbs by two women:
- Wisdom
- The Strange Woman
The book of Proverbs gives several warnings to “my son”. We have shown from scripture that "my son" is Israel (Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1). Israel is warned against the way of the strange woman. God warned them about her:
- Subtilty
- Flattery
- Sweet, smooth words
- Fair speech
We saw in Proverbs chapter 7 that when Israel calls Wisdom and Understanding “thy Sister and thy Kinswoman”, she will keep them, or guard them, from the strange woman. In Proverbs chapter 5, we saw that Israel must choose either to be ravished by the wife of his youth, or to be ravished by the stranger.
Last week, I challenged you to find in your concordance the term “my sister my spouse”. If you took the challenge, you found 4 references in Song of Solomon.
Let’s take a look at Song of Solomon 4:9-5:1
4:9 Thou has RAVISHED my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast RAVISHED my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 10 How fair is thy LOVE, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy LOVE than wine! And the smell of thine ointments than all spices! 11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a FOUNTAIN sealed. 13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, 14 spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: 15 a FOUNTAIN of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. 16 Awake O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
Now let’s compare scripture with scripture to get understanding.
Song of Solomon 4:9 compares with Proverbs 5:19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou RAVISHED always with her LOVE. 20 And why wilt thou, my son, be RAVISHED with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Commentary: The wife of thy youth in Proverbs 5 is the same as "my sister, my spouse" in Song of Solomon. Both are to be RAVISHED.
SOS 4:10 compares with Proverbs 16:16 How MUCH BETTER is it to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
Commentary: The love of "my sister, my spouse" is compared to wisdom; both being “much better” than either wine or silver.
SOS 4:12 compares with Proverbs 5:18 Let thy FOUNTAINS be dispersed abroad, and rivers of WATERS in the streets.
Commentary: The wife of thy youth and "my sister, my spouse" are both described as a FOUNTAIN and rivers of water.
SOS 5:1 contrasts with Proverbs 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an HONEYCOMB, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
and contrasted with
7:17 I have perfumed my bed with MYRHH, ALOES, and CINNAMON. 18 Come, let us take our fill of LOVE until the morning: let us solace ourselves with LOVES.
Commentary: Whereas "my sister, my spouse" is the authentic LOVE and the authentic WORD (honeycomb) of the LORD, the strange woman offers an imitation. She perfumes her bed of deception with similar spices to cover detection of her true motive, which is death.
Take note that the strange woman is always seducing Israel and usurping Wisdom. She is a counterfeit. She uses words that sound pleasing and look right, just as a counterfeit $100 bill must look as close to the real thing as possible in order for the deception to work.
Proverbs chapter 7 describes the strange woman as wearing the attire of an harlot. It is likely that you have been trained to think that means she is scantily dressed. But when we compare scripture to scripture, we see just the opposite.
Genesis 38:15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.
But not only was her face covered, her whole body was covered.
Genesis 38:14 And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an OPEN PLACE, …
We see that same idea, of being out in an open place, in Proverbs 7:12
now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.
Scripture teaches us that the attire of an harlot keeps her covered up so that you cannot see who she really is. More deception. BEWARE! ⚠
God uses the same phrases in Song of Solomon and Proverbs to help us understand His word. It is not a coincidence; it is a connection! The King James Bible has its own built in cross-reference system. If you believe the words, you will grow in understanding.
Regarding, “my sister, my spouse”, consider that a sister who is a spouse is not very unusual in Scripture.
Before the law was given to Moses, all of Adam’s sons married their sisters, or a near kinswoman. We see Abram marrying his half-sister Sarai.
Isaac married Rebekah, his father’s great niece; she was a near kinswoman, and Isaac even called her his sister in Genesis 26:7.
Jacob married Leah and Rachel, who were the daughters of his mother’s brother; they were his near kinswomen.
I propose that Eve was Adam’s sister, a twin clone. I mention those just for your consideration because I believe that will help us understand why God calls Wisdom a woman. But we’ll get to that later.
Q: WHO are the two women in the book of Proverbs?
A: They are called Wisdom and the Strange Woman.
How else may we know them?
Perhaps you have noticed it is the WORDS they speak that define who they are.
Let’s learn more about the STRANGE WOMAN by using our concordance to do a search:
The first use of “strange woman” is found in Judges 11:1
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jephthah. 2 And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.
That helps us define the term. A harlot is not a wife; a strange woman is an harlot.
We find the strange woman 8 times in Proverbs; 5 of those are in chapters 1-9, which pertain to Wisdom. Let’s look at those 5 and see what they have in common.
#1 Proverbs 2:16 to deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
(See also, Ps. 5:1-12; Ps. 78:1-36; Dan. 11:21)
#2 Proverbs 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
#3 Proverbs 5:20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
(Pro 4:8; Ecc. 3:5; SOS 2:6, 8:3)
Let’s pause to define RAVISHED.
Do you know what ravished means? Usually we think we know what a word means, until we look it up in a dictionary, then we find out that we do not really have a grasp on the word. This is a great place to mention another tool for Bible study; the Webster’s 1828 online dictionary. www.webstersdictionary1828.com
Ravished, Snatched away by violence; forced to submit to carnal embrace; delighted to ecstasy.
We see both meanings of ‘ravished’ in Proverbs 5:19-20, and we also see the use of force in Proverbs 7:21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, With the flattering of her lips she forced him.
#4 Proverbs 6:24 to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
#5 Proverbs 7:5 that they may keep thee from the strange woman, for the stranger which flattereth with her words.
You can see that this strange woman is defined by the WORDS that she speaks.
Q: Can you figure out who the strange woman is?
A: We saw her in our study from the last series on Women Teaching. In the book of Revelation, she is that woman Jezebel who teaches Israel to disobey God’s law. She is also known in Revelation as the city of Babylon, the mother of harlots. We can also see her in a parable that Jesus taught:
Matthew 13:33 Another parable spake He unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
She is mentioned in Luke as well.
Luke 13:20 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Leaven is doctrine.
Matthew 16:12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the DOCTRINE of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Before the prophesied kingdom of God comes to earth to fulfill the promises made to Israel, it will be infiltrated by this woman and her DOCTRINE -- her words, her teaching. It will be very deceptive and fool many into worshipping Satan as God.
The word DOCTRINE is found in Proverbs only once.
Proverbs 4:1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. 2 For I give you good DOCTRINE, forsake ye not my law.
You should read the entire chapter, but notice in verse 5 that WISDOM is equal to the words of God’s mouth.
Proverbs 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH.
Here I will end Part 2 of this study. I hope that you can clearly see that the two women of the book of Proverbs are WORDS. One is the Word of Truth and the other is LIES and deception.
Next week we will take a close look at this woman, WISDOM, by comparing her speeches in the book of Proverbs with other scriptures, to show that she is the word of God that is hidden inside of Jesus Christ.
We will eventually answer the question: WHY would the words dwelling inside of Christ be referred to as female? I hope you will come back for the conclusion of this study. See you next time!
The material covered in this blog can also be found in this YouTube video which is private. Contact me by email or leave a comment on this post for the link to the video:
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