A Call to Moral Sanity, part 6 - Bondage is Coming - Proverbs 5:22

His own iniquities will capture the wicked, And he will be held with the cords of his sin.
Proverbs 5:22

Part of the reason that a father needs to teach his son about moral and sexual sanity is that without it - his son will be trapped and enslaved by his own lusts and by the sexual sin that runs rampant in our world.  That is what today's proverb wants to teach us - that sexual sin by its very nature is something that will capture and enslave us if we allow it in our lives. 

The father tells his son about the one who allows his sexual sin to run loose in his life.  He says that "his own iniquities will capture the wicked."  Let's look at that phrase piece by piece to see what is teaches us.  First we see that we are pointed toward personal responsibility for our actions.  It is not the sin of the harlot that captures the sexually insane.  It is HIS OWN INIQUITIES that will capture and enslave him.  Too often guys want to blame women for their sins.  If the ladies would dress more modestly . . . if the ladies would be more discreet . . . if women wouldn't flirt.  There are so many different things we can try to do to shift the blame away from ourselves - but the fact still remains - that our own iniquities are what are going to capture us.  We cannot blame anyone else for the state of our heart or the choices that we make in life.  The fact is that we will have to give an account for every one of our own actions.  Sexual sin begins with a choice in our hearts and minds - not in the actions of anyone else.  So what if women dress immodestly - don't look!  So what if women are not discreet and flirt with us - ignore them and pay them no attention.  At the root of ANY SIN is a choice by the one who committed it to act in that way.  So the teaching here is simple - DON'T CHOOSE TO SIN.

The second thing we see here is that these iniquities are a trap.  We read that these sins will capture the wicked.  The word for "capture" here is the Hebrew word, "lakad" which means to capture or catch something.  It speaks of seizing something - like a city or an individual.  The nature of sexual sin is the nature of the snare or the trap.  The bait is the woman and her looks or her flattery.  The trap is the sex or the lust itself.  When we choose to look in a sinful way - or to act on lusts within us - the trap snaps shut and we are captured.  In a way the father is trying to get his son to see the trap in sexual sin.  The last thing we see here is that the trap and the bondage is for the wicked.  There is a very clear moral choice that we make when we choose to commit sexual sin.  That is a choice to depart from righteousness and instead walk in the way of the wicked.  The father is emphasizing this so that his son will have a very clear sense of warning to stay away from situations and from acting according to his lusts.

The father closes this verse with a very scary picture.  The wicked man will be held with the cords of his sin.  The picture painted by the dad here is of a man whose hands and feet are tied fast with ropes or cords.  He cannot move.  But the picture here is speaking of sin as the cords and the ropes.  Every time he sins - he simply adds another rope - another cord that ties him down.  They are tightened with each new instance and with each new foray into the kind of sexual behavior that is outside the bounds of Scripture.  The more the young man yields to temptation and sexual immorality, the more he is held fast by new cords and new ropes that bind him ever tighter.  Were it not for the Lord's ability to deliver us from our sin and our choices - we would have no hope at all.  That is why the father employs such graphic pictures which which to warn his son against such immoral behavior.  Such choices have very serious consequences.  And it is these very consequences which the father desires to deliver his son from - delivering him from bondage and from shame.