Solomon told his son: ‘Pay attention to my wisdom…the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But in the end she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword…Stay away from her! Don’t go near the door of her house! If you do, you will lose your honour and will lose to merciless people all you have achieved. Strangers will consume your wealth, and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labour…You will say…“If only I had not ignored all the warnings…now I must face public disgrace”’ (vv. 1, 3-4, 8-10, 12, 14 NLT).

It’s always easier to dispense good advice than to follow it. Solomon’s life proves it. He tells us repeatedly and with great conviction that only fools fall into adultery. Yet he failed to heed his own advice and God’s explicit warning about taking too ‘many wives, or his heart will be led astray’ (Deuteronomy 17:17 NIV). Solomon married seven hundred women. And what was the result? ‘His wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord’ (1 Kings 11:4 NKJV).

Here is an interesting question: was the reason Solomon had so much to say about this particular subject because it represented an area of struggle and vulnerability in his own life? Sometimes leaders do that; they speak out against areas of weakness they see in their own lives. One thing is certain; if Solomon had taken the advice he gave his son, his life story would have been very different. So, the word for today is – heed your own advice.