Yesterday you learned of the influence of God’s
word for informing and shaping wise choices and the outcome of those choices,
which is worship in your daily life. You also learned from Proverbs 2 that you
are constantly bombarded and surrounded by ungodly opportunities and messages
in the world. One of those advertisements is to respond to situations with
anger, Proverbs 2:12. The perverted speech of anger is an invitation to power
and to manipulate with intimidation and fear. The problem is the outcome, which
is destructive violence and death, none of which are from God.
Another destructive influence that Proverbs
warns against is the seductive power of unbridled sexual lust, 2:16 – 19. This
is described as the adulteress who lures men away from God by her seduction and
with lies that deceive sexual appetites, “So you will be delivered from the forbidden
woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the covenant of
her God; for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed, none
who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.” Never
underestimate the power of sexual lust.
When the book of Proverbs speaks of the angry
man and the adulteress woman it is not warning against particular men or women,
but rather the seductive and influential power and destruction of life without
God and the life-giving influence of God’s word. The phrase “…who
forsakes the covenant of her God…” is key in understanding what happens
when a person receives identity from their appetites rather than from their
relationship with God.
God created you with many desires, appetites,
and lusts. The word “lust” is not a bad word. It sounds bad but the word itself
simply identifies an earnest desire. In Luke 22:15, Jesus said, “I
have earnestly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer.”
The Greek word for “earnestly desired” is epithumia. The English word
“thermometer” comes from thumia, which means to boil. The
word epithumia
means to deeply long for something, to desire something with a passion. It is
translated in other passages with the word “lust,” but in Luke 22:15 it
describes the deep longing, the lust, that Jesus had to institute the Lord’s
Supper with His disciples. The word is not necessarily bad.
Lust is not a bad thing until the thing longed
for leads you away from and outside the boundaries of God’s word. When it does,
idolatry is the result, because at that point the person is deceived into
seeing their identity in the desire rather than in relationship with God. You
are not your desires. You have desires, (no brainer) but you are more than your
appetites. You are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, with passions
that glorify the Father when placed under His authority, not your authority.
The first Psalm describes the blessed man as the
one “…who
walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor
sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on
his law he meditates day and night.” The progress is subtle and yet
very real of first choosing to follow appetites rather than God’s word, then to
embrace the desire as your identity, followed by a lifestyle of activities seeking
to satisfy the lust. Of course, the lust is never satisfied, which underlines
the lie and deception of it, until placed under the authority of God’s word.
Likewise, when you follow the direction and
calling of God’s word, choosing to trust the truth and the direction of it, and
begin to see and embrace your identity in relationship with God through faith
in Christ, followed by the activities and lifestyle of a child of God, your
passions find their deepest longing and you are satisfied in Christ. John Piper
likes to say it this way; “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied
in Him.” Today as you pray and read God’s word, experience Him in it and you
will find rest and peace for the deepest longings of your soul. AMEN!
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