Proverbs 7:16

A beautiful bed is part of seducing a man. Good wives will pay attention. Wise men will take warning. The adulteress of Solomon’s parable about the seduction of a young man described the efforts she made to give him the ultimate in sensual pleasure (Pr 7:6-23). But no matter how beautiful the bed, it is a deceitful lie for the death and hell hiding in it.

Solomon knew men. He understood their temptations. He had seen the trouble caused by his father’s polygamy and adultery. He knew the wiles of women. He himself had 700 wives and 300 concubines (I Kgs 11:1-3). He concluded about all of them that a wise man would stay away from them (Eccl 7:26-29). He never found the virtuous woman!

As the caring father of a son and the Preacher of Israel, he repeatedly warned young men against the danger of whorish women and fornication (Pr 2:16-19; 5:1-23; 6:20-35; 7:1-27; 9:13-18; 22:14; 23:26-28; 30:20; 31:3). Here he wrote a lengthy parable describing the destruction of a young man by the wiles of a seducing adulteress (Pr 7:6-23).

A skilful seductress knows that men are easily moved by sight. Solomon warned about the danger of her beauty and looks of her eyes (Pr 6:25). It was the sight of a woman that had cost his father dearly (II Sam 11:1-5). This adulteress prepared her bed to attract her victim by its appearance (Pr 7:16) and by its scent (Pr 7:17). He was helpless before her.

The only protection against such a woman is to stay far away, where you cannot see or hear her (Pr 2:16; 4:14-15; 5:8; 7:8). If you get near her, most cannot resist her. It is folly for men to allow visual stimulus of women, no matter how innocent or practical. Jesus said to pluck out your right eye or cut off your right hand in such matters (Matt 5:27-30).

Her bed is covered with tapestries – quite the bedspread, skirts, and canopy! The headboard, footboard, and posts have beautiful carvings. The sheets – the cursed sheets – are fine linen imported from Egypt. The mere mention of the place of sexual intimacy captured the fool’s heart, and the elaborate beauty further weakened him. He went as an ox to the slaughter, or as a bird to the snare, not knowing it was for his life (Pr 7:22-23).

Godly and noble wives can learn here – they can learn to beautify their beds for the pleasure of their husbands. Why should adulteresses be the only ones that know how to exalt lovemaking and enhance their appeal to a man? The virtuous woman knew these arts (Pr 31:22). Can you build a simple canopy? Replace your flannel sheets with satin? Buy a new bedspread? You should be a sensual and erotic woman for your husband. Learn the cheap, simple, and dramatic difference there is in sheets by mere thread count.

If this instruction to be a lover is news to you, then read the Bible. Among the 66 books is the Song of Solomon – a detailed love song about a husband and wife and their great desire for each other’s bodies. You can read there about their obsession and preparation for each other. Can you be a sporting wife like Rebekah was to Isaac (Gen 26:8)? God invented love, marriage, and sex, and the Bible is the inspired manual to perfect all three.

Do you understand due benevolence in I Corinthians 7:1-5 to be sex when, where, how, and how often your husband wants it? Paul’s lovemaking rule runs both directions – the husband owes the same to his wife. While the proverb here warns about fornication and adultery and condemns both, Paul taught that marriage sanctifies the bed for sex (Heb 13:4). Anything goes that is not contrary to nature and should be done passionately.

There is a worse whore that decorates a more dangerous bed – one for spiritual adultery. She is the great whore – the Roman Catholic Church – the mother of harlot churches – which decorates her churches with carved works, tapestries, and fine linen to seduce fools into spiritual fornication with her abominable doctrines and traditions (Rev 17:1-6). She is easy to identify – she was the city reigning over kings in John’s day (Rev 17:18).

She decorates her gaudy cathedrals with gold, purple, and scarlet – the metal and colors of prostitutes. Her churches rise above impoverished villages, built by the sweat and tears of deluded workers, and paid for from grieving widows’ purses. Take a look at the high altar and bishop’s throne of St. Peter’s Basilica, if you doubt a word. What is imported from Egypt? The phallic obelisk between the curved colonnades of St. Peter’s Square!

A wise man will reject a deceitful bed for spiritual fornication. He will find the bride of Christ, a simple church of apostolic faith and order, adorned with His righteousness and living in total humility and subjection to scripture. He will join sincere saints there, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17).