We live in an era where people do not want to be told about the Word of God. We are a generation without faith and fear of God. Humanists say science is the way to go because God and His commandments, statutes and precepts are fiction, make-believe and fabrication. O, how common it is to be educated in school and yet be ignorant and perverted in thought!
Many today seem to have no problem with the evils in society. What was considered sin and sacrilegious yesterday is deemed reverent today. The Word of God which is intended to put our conducts, deeds and actions in check is now regarded as thrash and irrelevant by many today. And those who decide to respond to the call of God, walk with Him and obey Him, are labeled as being superstitious.
What has happened to our world is obvious; many do not want to be bound by any moral restrictions and constraints. There are things God’s Word, the Bible, cautions men to desist from. One such thing is sexual immorality which may comprise adultery, fornication, rape, bestiality, incest, sodomy, homosexuality and others. God warms humans to avoid committing these acts because they are evil.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly warned you” (1 Thessalonians 4: 3- 6).
God considers every sexual relationship outside marriage a sin, and He punishes those who commit it. No evil deed men commit escape His eyes. Though we do not see Him, He sees whatever we decide to do in our closet even what we think about in our heart. Abraham was a man who responded to a divine call to walk with God. One day, he sojourned in a place called Gerar with his beautiful wife, Sarah. And Abimelech, king of Gerar saw Sarah, lusted after her and sent for her. We are not old what Abraham did or said when his wife was taken to the king, but God was not unaware and silent.
“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, YOU ARE A DEAD MAN because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife…Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours” (Genesis 20: 3- 7).
Is God not just? He pays everyone according to their works. He punishes sin. Looking lustfully at a woman you are not married to, and doing everything humanly possible to sleep with her is an evil thing in the sight of God. God cautions us not to covet our neighbours’ wives. We must be content and pleased with our own wives. Men who snatch their neighbours’ wives do not go unnoticed and unpunished.
God’s words to king Abimelech are words to all men who lure married women and potential wives to bed. He judges them as dead men as He says elsewhere that “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is deadly; it subjects people to physical, spiritual and eternal deaths. The one who commits sexual sins destroys his own body. Consider the number of diseases and deaths adultery or fornication causes.
God appeared to Abimelech and warned him not because He hated but loved him. God is love; He does not want anyone to suffer death for sin. God knew the integrity of the king’s heart. He was aware that the king had taken Sarah not knowing she was a married woman as Abraham had said she was his sister. Nevertheless the Almighty would not want adultery to be committed. He kept Abimelech from sinning against Him. A sin against a neighbour is a sin against God.
Abimelech was not like many of us who have no regard for the warnings of God. He heard God’s voice, obeyed Him, and consequently returned Sarah to her husband. That he did because he revered God, feared for his life and the lives of his household. He did not doubt God’s justice and the severity of His punishment. Yes, we know God punishes sin, yet the fool always goes ahead to sin and gets punished for it.
When king David saw soldier Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, bathing one hot afternoon, he could not resist the temptation of snatching her. He had carnal knowledge of her and eventually got her husband, Uriah killed in battle. But David never escaped punishment. Though he did not die, he was greatly rebuked, suffered disgrace, the son who Bathsheba bore to him died and another man who was his own son slept with his wife.
Now, the best thing to do when tempted with sexual immorality is to learn from Joseph and Job. Joseph fled when he realised that he could be pushed into sinning with another man’s wife. And Job made a covenant with his eyes not to look at women lustfully. Jesus Christ taught that he who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It is clear that society often blames for sexual sins, but God’s anger is often against men. He declares men who snatch other men’s wives dead. Does it mean husband snatchers are free?
FROM James Quansah, Kumasi
jamesquansah@yahoo.com