DEEPER THAN SEX (1)

Proverbs 5:20 
Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

Dear Believer,

Human sexuality is very powerful. A field of psychology bases the foundation of human behavior on sexuality. We see how sex drives people to the extremes of depravity. Who hasn’t heard of different kinds of sexual perversion?

For example, when an adult man forces himself on a little two year old girl, everyone is angry. It’s unnatural. People leave their dutiful spouse and go out for dalliances with other people’s husbands or wives.

On the surface, we see sex as the problem. But God wants us to look deeper than sex. An act of perversion is the product of a heart with perversion.

Sex is the way many people express their inner struggles. An example is a man called Reuben.

He was the first born of Jacob. He was the very epitome of the heritage of excellence and strength. But he lost it all.

How?

One day, his sexual urge got the better him. He looked at his father’s beautiful concubine and got her to have sex with him. Jacob his father heard it and didn’t say a word about it.

Gen 35:22 NET
While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it…

Decades later, Jacob, now very old, prepared to die. He called together his children to prophesy to them about their future.

Here’s what he said about Reuben, his first born.

Gen 49:3-4 KJ2000
Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it: he went up to my couch.

Note what Jacob said. Rueben wasn’t going to excel, even though he’d been marked for excellence. That was because he was unstable as water.

You see, Reuben’s sexual sin wasn’t the cause of his instability; his instability was the cause of his sexual sin.

Reuben was a volatile, insecure and fickle fellow. He was the kind of man who wouldn’t act when he was supposed to, or act when it was too late. Example was the time his other brothers decided to throw Joseph their dreamer brother into a well. Reuben, the first born among them, didn’t do anything to stop it. He only went back to the well to try to rescue the boy after it was too late. He was the poster boy for irresponsible familial leadership.

On the surface, it seems sex was Reuben’s problem and the reason he lost his blessing, but Jacob’s prophecy revealed that Reuben’s problem had a root that went deeper than sex. Sexual weakness was just the way Reuben expressed the deeper issues he had.

Believer, I’d love you to ask the Holy Spirit to beam His light into you. If you are struggling with some sin, you may need to look deeper than that sin. It does no sick man any lasting good when only the symptoms of his disease are treated while the root of his sickness is left untouched.

People do a lot of evil because they are insecure, or fearful, or sick inside in some way.

When Jesus invited those burdened with all sorts of pressure to Himself, He promised to give them rest in their soul. (Matthew 11:28-30).

You can take a burden off a man’s shoulder, but if he is still burdened in his soul, he will still be as weighed down as ever.

Likewise, you can help a man exhibiting deviant behavior in any way, but if the cause of his deviancy is still present in him, his tendency towards evil will still be there.

Pray to God to help you reach within to deal with the roots of the weaknesses you may be exhibiting now. What ruined Reuben was an evil seed in him that he allowed to grow.

Apply this to every aspect of your life. Evil must be uprooted so that your destiny in God may be fulfilled unhindered.

I will share more tomorrow about this topic.

Talk to God about this.

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