Throughout the Bible, there are references to a marriage, with Jesus as the bridegroom and the faithful church as the bride. The Word also mentions another woman who is a stranger in this marriage. In some places, it states that this strange woman did not wait for the bridegroom and gave herself to another. This other woman represents the church that, in the third century AD, united with the state in a perverted marriage that displeased the Lord, so He calls her a harlot (Revelation 2:12-17 shows the error, and Revelation 17:1, 15-16, and 19:2 shows the condemnation). This woman is prophetically the unfaithful church. The faithful church is the one that has been waiting many days for the bridegroom and knows that He also waits for her. This is the agreement of the betrothed (Hosea 3:3). The text of Proverbs 5:3-6 is a warning to men not to be deceived by this strange woman but to live an experience with God by being part of the Faithful Church. The text contains prophetic information from Solomon (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) about the blessings for the Faithful Church and the judgments on the unfaithful church.
I) Lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb: The unfaithful church has sweet words like honey (God heals! God prospers! God restores! God opens doors in this life, etc.). But she does not speak of Jesus. She does not speak of salvation. She does not talk about the rapture. She does not speak of the prophetic times. She does not talk of the new birth. She does not know the time of the soon-coming.
II) Mouth is smoother than oil: She does not have oil; she does not have the Holy Spirit because she thinks she does not need Him. For the things she seeks and offers, she does not need the Holy Spirit, as her concern is with this life.
III) But her end is bitter: It is an end without the sweetness of Jesus. The end is perdition and not salvation. Absinthe means bitter.
IV) Sharp as a twoedged sword: The Word of truth will judge this church and reveal what she is.
V) Her feet go down to death: She does not walk towards eternal life with God but towards eternal life without God.
VI) Her steps take hold on hell: The foundation of the faithful church is the Blood of Jesus (Hebrews 11:1), and it is established in heaven, but the foundation of the unfaithful church does not have this blood, so it is established in hell.
VII) Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life: She does not have revelation. She does not know the truth. She does not experience the new and living way (Hebrews 10:20). She does not know the path of righteousness (Psalm 23:3). She does not know the good paths (Proverbs 2:9). She does not know the paths of judgment (Proverbs 8:20). She does not know the way of peace (Isaiah 59:8a). Her paths are crooked, in them there is no justice and they do not know peace (Isaiah 59:8b and c).
The Lord Jesus' Counsel for the Faithful Church: Proverbs 5:7-9 "Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:"
I) Hear me: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. It is the Lord's counsel in the book of Revelation from the beginning of the faithful church to our days.
II) Depart not from the words of my mouth: The living Word (Joshua 1:7-8). To be successful in the journey and reach the end of the path that was started.
III ) Remove thy way far from her: Do not walk in the teachings of the unfaithful church; “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly" (Psalm 1:1a).
IV) Come not nigh the door of her house: Another door that is not Jesus. "I am the door" (John 10:7); "and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me" (Hosea 13:4).
The Glory of the Lord upon His Servants
Some men recorded in the Word understood the glory of the Lord. Among them is David, who said: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle…" (Psalm 24:7-10). Others, however, saw the glory of the Lord. Here, we highlight three men:
I) Moses: When he spent forty days on the mountain of God, and the Lord showed him His plan of salvation;
II) John: When he was exiled to the island of Patmos and the Lord revealed the Apocalypse to him;
III) Isaiah: At the moment of his call to be the prophet of the Lord.
The difference in their visions was in the moment each saw:
Isaiah saw the moment he was being instructed about who would come to redeem mankind and bring them to the glory of God: "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" was the Father's question. And Jesus responds: "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8).
John saw the moment of the opening of the seven seals. The moment that precedes the end. The consummation of the Father's plan is near. "And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:2 and 8). The Lamb who was sent, according to Isaiah 6:8, overcame death and now will open the seals: "...behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." What an extraordinary chapter Revelation 5 is!
Moses saw the end. Moses saw the consummation of the salvation plan, with the glorified church, dressed in holiness, before the throne of the Almighty God. He saw the seraphim, as Isaiah did, and the Lamb of God, the world's Savior. Moses led the people of Israel for forty years, contending with God for these people because he knew what the Lord had prepared for the saved in eternity and interceded for the Lord not to destroy these people (Numbers 16:44-50). We know that Moses saw these things because that is what the tabernacle he built in the desert represented by the Lord's order.