ANOTHER MAN’S WIFE
When employees at the Bureau of Vital Records were in the process of digitizing and archiving Certificates of Death from past decades, they came across the following unusual entries on the line which asked for the cause of death:
“Went to bed feeling well, but woke up dead.”
“Died suddenly. Nothing serious.”
“Don’t know. Died without the aid of a physician.”
“Had never been fatally ill previously. “
Those are puzzling postmortems, to say the least, but the explanation for one death was instantly understandable. On one old Certificate of Death the line read: “Blow on the head with an axe. Contributory cause, another man’s wife.”
That paints a vivid picture, doesn’t it? The phrase “another man’s wife” reminds me of an entry from an even older document – the Bible! In Proverbs 6:27-34, Solomon paints an equally vivid picture:
Can a man scoop fire into his lap
without his clothes being burned?
Can a man walk on hot coals
without his feet being scorched?
So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
. though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
But a man who commits adultery has no sense;
whoever does so destroys himself.
Blows and disgrace are his lot,
and his shame will never be wiped away.
For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
To fully comprehend the meaning of this message, it is important to place it in context by noting three things. First, understand the unique nature of the book: some proverbs are descriptive (i.e., “This is how the world is”), and thus are not necessarily prescriptive (i.e., “This is how the world ought to be”). That is the case with this passage. Solomon is not recommending or even justifying vengeance or violence: he is simply acknowledging that the discovery of a partner’s adultery can trigger an explosive reaction in the person who has been betrayed.
Second, note that the passage is only one in an extended series of urgent warnings in the Proverbs against the temptation of adultery. The wise man cautions against it in the second chapter of Proverbs (2:16-19), and again in all of the fifth chapter, then here in the last half of the sixth (6:15-35), and again in all of the seventh chapter, and again in 22:14, and yet again in 23:26-28, and one final time in 30:20! Countless movies, television shows, and novels romanticize and glamorize what the world blithely calls an “affair,” but God’s Word bluntly calls it sin. In fact, adultery is so antithetical to the will of God that it appears twice in the Ten Commandments: directly in the Seventh (“You shall not commit adultery”) and indirectly in the Tenth (“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife”).
Finally, in keeping with the ever-practical perspective of Proverbs, Solomon warns that adultery is not just damning, it is dangerous! After all, if a man catches you in bed with his wife, don’t be surprised if you, too, end up with an axe in your head! So, if you wish to avoid becoming yet one more sad statistic, take to heart the lesson of Proverbs 6:27-34 (and of that old death certificate) and never, ever become entangled with another man’s wife.
Dan Williams