THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF LUST

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it.

"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it."

Genesis 35:21-22, 49:3-4

The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (he was the firstborn, but when he defiled his father’s marriage bed, his rights as firstborn were given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel; so he could not be listed in the genealogical record in accordance with his birthright, and though Judah was the strongest of his brothers and a ruler came from him, the rights of the firstborn belonged to Joseph).

1 Chronicles 5:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Reuben was Israel’s (formerly Jacob) first born of twelve sons, delivered by his mother Leah. You may recall that she became Jacob’s first wife after an act of trickery by Laban, Jacob’s uncle.

Now, in Jewish culture, the firstborn son held a position of great significance within the family.

We’ve already seen this in the story of Esau and Jacob where you’ll remember there was a matter of birthright and blessing. This included the firstborn gaining twice as much of the inheritance than his brothers.

This is what the eldest son Esau was entitled to but he ended up with neither, handing his birthright to his younger brother for a mere bowl of stew and later losing his blessing through an act of deception carried out by his mother Rebekah and Jacob.

Everything that could have been Esau’s ended up going to Jacob, fulfilling the following promise God made to his mother before the twins were born:

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23

Moving ahead in the Old Testament, we read the following words from God in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus:

"The Lord said to Moses, "Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal." Vv.1-2

Here, we see God setting aside the firstborn for Himself, a special blessing from the Creator to the first son He would create in ever Israelite family.

So Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, had everything going for him. He held special favor in God’s eyes and was in line to receive his father’s inheritance at his passing.

But there was only one problem.

Reuben had some big time sin problems.

For as we see in our scriptures for today, he willingly "went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah." In other words, he committed adultery against his own father because you’ll recall that Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, bore two sons with Jacob: Dan and Naphtali. Through his actions, we find Reuben allowing himself to fall victim to sexual sin and through this transgression, we see the destructive nature of sexual immorality revealed.

Consider these consequences of what he did:

First, he ruined Bilhah.

Although Reuben could move on unscathed (or at least he thought he would), Bilhah was finished. After her act with Reuben, she was an adulteress and would be condemned to living in widowhood. She would never be able to marry again nor have sexual relations with another man lest she become a prostitute.

Although we could see both parties as responsible, Reuben, in selfishly satisfying his own lust, did so at the expense of his father’s concubine and brother’s mother.

Second, Reuben ruined his father.

Israel, fresh off the loss of his beloved wife Rachel, now had to deal with knowing that Reuben had slept with the mother of his two brothers, therefore denying Israel the opportunity to ever have intimacy with Bilhah again. In fact, by law, Jacob was required to excommunicate and abandon Bilhah, an act that had to carry with it incredible pain and anguish.

Indeed, Israel had a good portion of his life taken away by the son he was to give everything to. But he wouldn’t let Reuben get away with it for as we see in today’s second passage from the 49th chapter of Genesis, Israel would hold Reuben accountable for his despicable actions. Look again at those words here:

"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it." Vv.3-4

Here, before he was about to die, we find Israel condemn his oldest son, taking away his birthright and passing it on to the sons of Joseph. When it was all said and done with, Reuben had foolishly thrown everything away for one night of selfish pleasure.

Friends, we can learn a lot from these verses and the mistakes made by Reuben. Here are some takeaways:

1. Rejoice in what the Lord has blessed you with and do so with humility.

Like Reuben, we can all easily fall into the trap of thinking we can do anything we want while expecting that God will still grant us His blessings. This is especially true in matters of indulgence, whether it be greed or lust or any type of excessive lifestyle.

Reuben thought his future was set and no one could ever take it away from him but he learned a hard lesson that a person can indeed lose it all with just one poor use of judgment.

We would be well suited to remember that today.

2. Our sinful actions often carry with them far-reaching destructive effects.

Reuben’s adulterous action ruined two people, Bilhah and his father Israel. After gaining his sexual pleasure, he left the two others depressed and forlorn.

Unfortunately, I have been the victim of infidelity in my first marriage and I can tell you that it destroyed the relationship and left me devastated, driven into the depths of emotional pain and darkness. Maybe you have gone through the same thing in your life and have experienced the aftermath of another’s selfishly, sinful choices.

3. There are consequences that arise from our sinfulness.

In this instance, when someone allows lust to rule their life, they lose perspective on the sanctity and beauty of love, love the way God intended it to be. The blessing of love He grants becomes cheapened and degraded and the men or women (whatever the case) who are victimized by lust get devalued. They only become an instrument used to fulfill desire, not a person who is respected and loved with dignity.

Further, too often, lust leads to violence for ever day, people are killed because they took lustful liberties with someone else and paid the ultimate cost for it, a cost far greater than losing a birthright. I’m sure that if these people could come back from the grave and talk to us, they would say that it wasn’t worth it.

As for Reuben, I feel he might also tell us that his act of lust wasn’t worth it either, definitely not worth throwing away your entire inheritance for a one night stand.

Brother and sisters, the story of Reuben opens our eyes up to the dangers of sexual sinfulness and it can (and does) happen to anyone for Satan is always working to lure people into temptation. For sure, no one is immune to his attacks and so we need to always be on guard, drawing ever nearer to Jesus for when we are in His presence, we know Satan has to flee.

Before I close, one final exhortation:

Please hold love sacred in your heart and keep in mind that the Lord didn’t bless us with the ability to have sexual relations within the context of a marital relationship between one man and one woman just for us to completely abuse and corrupt the gift. Let us keep sex true to the Lord’s design and cherish our marital relationships as if they are incredible blessings ordained by our Lord because that’s just what they are.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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