“Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.”
1 Corinthians 10:6
What would you think if God took your sexual immorality, wrote about it in a book, and had hundreds of millions of people read about you over the centuries? What would you do if God made your sexual sin an object lesson about how not to live the Christian life?
The children of Israel wandered for 40 years in the wilderness because of their sin of unbelief. And during their wanderings, they strayed from God. “With most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness,” says Paul. What was their sin? Sexual immorality, among other things.
The children of Israel, that generation that escaped slavery in Egypt and was delivered from the hands of their oppressors through mighty signs and wonders from heaven, turned their backs on God and committed sexual immorality in the desert. So wicked was their sexual sin, and so common was it among the people, that 24,000 of them perished in one day (Numbers 25:1-9). God brought divine punishment down upon His people for their sexual immorality. Then wrote about it.
God didn’t just punish the Israelites for their sexual sin all those centuries ago. He uses their punishment as an example for you and me today. And what is the truth that we are to learn from this sordid object lesson? “That we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” What kinds of evil things? Well, pornography, for one.
The evil of sexual immorality was common among the idolators in the time of Moses. So God warned His people against it. It was common among the people of Corinth. So Paul warned the church in Corinth against it. And it is common today. That’s why I am glad for this warning. I am glad that God wrote about the sexual immorality of the children of Israel and their punishment—and not mine. Twenty-four thousand bad examples is probably enough, don’t you think?
Need a daily kick in the pants to quit porn biblically? Buy the book, or subscribe to my daily kick.
Was this post helpful? Share it now:
