Last month, we looked at eight male characters – specifically, four chauvinists and four cowards – from the Marriage & Men sermon. Today, we’ll look at the female complement: six negative women, as described in the book of Proverbs. The following is excerpted from the 2002 sermon from the original sermon series on that book of the Bible.
Ladies, here are some women in Proverbs – some really negative women in Proverbs.
The Foolish Woman
“The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.”
Proverbs 9:13
Loud and foolish. You put those things together, that is a bad résumé. This is a woman who thinks she knows what she’s talking about. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but, she’s so loud that it almost is convincing. Some women think, “If I yell and scream and chuck stuff and declare war –” Proverbs says that is just foolish.
She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Proverbs 9:14-18
This woman has a home where she opens it up and she welcomes everyone over to listen to her ranting and raving. She invites all the dumb people to come to her house for Bible study and says, “Let’s just sin.” And if you open the door to her basement, it’s Hell. And that’s where she takes you.
And some of you women care too much about the opinions of other women and when the woman folly shows up and says, “Hey, don’t get married. Hey, sleep with him. Hey, it’s not good to be a mother. Hey, you don’t need to depend on any income other than your own.” The woman folly is so loud that some of you give her more credence than she is due.
The Promiscuous Woman
The funny thing with this woman is sometimes she thinks that if she has sex with a man that he will love her, which is insane. If he loved her, he wouldn’t have sex with her until he had covenanted with her. And these are women who give themselves to men, hoping that one of them will stick.
“My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my ways, for a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Like a bandit, she lies in wait and she multiplies the unfaithful among men.”
Proverbs 23:26-28
Some women are like prostitutes. They are cheap. They are easy. They are quick. And for some reason, these women think that men appreciate them and like them. And you should be in on the conversations with these men when they are not in the presence of those women. They do not say nice things about those women. They do not esteem them and affirm them. They talk about how easy they were.
There are also women who are very expensive.
“A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.”
Proverbs 29:3
Some women love to play men for money. They’re gold diggers. These are women who, they don’t care how old he is, what he looks like. He could look like Chewbacca. He could be illiterate. He could be 175 years old. But if he has a lot of money, she loves him, or rather, she loves his credit card. These are women who play men for money. If they’re really beautiful, they’ll get a car, or a house, lots of nights out, new clothes, fun vacations, and they’ll play men.
The Quarrelsome Woman
“Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.”
Proverbs 25:24
We call this the Pitch-a-Tent club. Those are guys who go to REI looking for camping gear, not ‘cause they’re going in the woods, but because they’re going up on the roof. They’ve given up. They’re gonna put a ladder on the side of the house, climb up to the top, and then pull the ladder up.
She’s not really quarrelsome, right? She just has strong opinions, they say.
“A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.”
Proverbs 19:13
Drip, drip, drip. Going nuts yet? Fifty years of that, you will be. These women say, “Well, he just needs to know how I feel.” By looking at you, he can tell what you’re thinking. You don’t need to say it. He knows. He fully knows. The handgun gave it away.
Meet the embarrassing, moody, and flirtatious women after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
