Audio Links

Awesome Hands – part 74

“The judgments” Part E

February 11th, 2015

Last study we covered the implications of seducing a woman, borrowing from your neighbor and not suffering a witch to live. This study, we are going to look at the next few judgments in Exodus 22 to continue to see what spiritual admonitions we can glean from the judgments given to God’s people at the time of their Exodus from Egypt.

“Laying with a beast”

Exo 22:19  Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.

This is a fairly obvious statement from or Lord on the result of having sexual relations with a beast. It has the penalty of death associated with it just like murdering someone or being a witch, enchanter or diviner, for example.

These are “high crimes” and abominations to the Lord, but what else can we learn about “laying with a beast”?

Deu 27:21  Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Deuteronomy adds that a person who lieth with a beast is cursed. The spiritual admonition we are to take from this is that we do not have relations with the beast in us all, the old man in us all, expecting that we will not have sin come about from it …. And, “the wages of sin is death”.

Rom 6:19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Rom 6:21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We want to be producing fruit in our lives knowing that it can only happen when we have the Holy Spirit working within us.

At this point, I am going to take the liberty to address an important topic that may not seem to be addressed a lot, but which is also the spiritual application of what we should be doing in proper biblical relationships with our spouses … and this isn’t going to be “PG” if you have children listening in.

Last week, we covered what sexual relations outside of marriage were, which should then lead to marriage, but with the current verse being discussed, I want to discuss relations within a marriage.

Obviously, sexual relations produce the fruit of children for us, but that is not the only fruit we bear.

1Co 7:1  Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

1Co 7:2  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

1Co 7:3  Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.

1Co 7:4  The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

1Co 7:5  Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

The ISV says it a little clearer and in modern English as:

1Co 7:1  Now about what you asked: “Is it advisable for a man not to marry?”

1Co 7:2  Because sexual immorality is so rampant, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband.

1Co 7:3  A husband should fulfill his obligation to his wife, and a wife should do the same for her husband.

1Co 7:4  A wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but his wife does.

1Co 7:5  Do not withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so just for a set time, in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Then you should come together again so that Satan does not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

(CEV) 1Co 7:4  A wife belongs to her husband instead of to herself, and a husband belongs to his wife instead of to himself.

We also bear the fruit of having a sound relationship and closeness with one another, neither of which can happen when having relations with “any manner of beast”.

As husband and wife, we have been given one another to represent the physical representation of what is the spiritual Truth of the relationship of Jesus to His church, and God the Father using Jesus to make all of creation.

A lot of times marriages crumble neither at the dinner table nor sitting around on the porch but in the bedroom. I read a similar line of this in an article my wife sent to me and I cannot agree more with that statement.

This is true because you should be the most intimate and close while being completely vulnerable to your spouse. In other words, we have a unique understanding of one another while we are naked, and being naked is a VERY vulnerable position to be in.

However, the most missing ingredient in most bedrooms across the world over is Jesus Christ.

How can Jesus Christ be a missing ingredient in the bedroom? When we see that the Lord has caused us to be in marriage with a person for hopefully the rest of our lives, then we will also see that the Lord has caused this union to meet the needs of the other person involved in the marriage.

I do not need to go into specifics because every marriage is so different, but women want to be loved and men want to be respected and this is what we are commanded to do as spouses to one another.

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

(CEV) Eph 5:21  Honor Christ and put others first.

Eph 5:22  A wife should put her husband first, as she does the Lord.

Eph 5:23  A husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the head and the Savior of the church, which is his own body.

Eph 5:24  Wives should always put their husbands first, as the church puts Christ first.

Eph 5:25  A husband should love his wife as much as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.

As we all know, these are very hard things to do when we have our naturally carnal minded beast to deal with. Men want to speed things up and woman want to slow things down a tad, but we should be looking out for the middle ground and needs of our spouses.

If we keep Jesus Christ at the forefront of our hearts and minds in all things, then this too applies to our relations with our spouses. Put each other first, and I promise you will reap the fruit of that sacrifice for one another.

I spoke about this contrast to show that there is a proper and biblical way to deal with sexual relations compared to given into impure and lustful sexual actions that lead into “lying with a beast”.  Doing so gives into our own beast and all beasts will pay the penalty of death, returning to the dust from which they came.

“Sacrificing unto gods”

Exo 22:20  He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.

Today, we do not make sacrifices to our Lord or to other Gods in the physical as Christians. Yet, we do make plenty of spiritual sacrifices unto gods and hopefully only to our Lord.

Don’t you know that you are gods?

Joh 10:34  Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

Joh 10:35  If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

That of course comes from:

Psa 82:6  I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

Psa 82:7  But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

Psa 82:8  Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

Isa 42:17  They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

Isa 42:18  Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

Isa 42:19  Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?

Anything that we think or do should be to the glory of God the Father and NOT to our own glory. Like was mentioned with spouses just now, when we look out for the benefits of others, we will be focused on them and not on ourselves.

Likewise, when we are doing all that we do as a “sacrifice” to God, then we will be doing what we are commanded to do and that really just involves us loving God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind.

Notice that Isaiah says that “they” trust in graven images and say to molten images “ye are gods”. If you just think of the “they” as being you, then you will know what it means that the Lord answers us according to the idols of our own hearts.

Most Christians today do not think this is talking about them because they haven’t made physical graven images with their hands nor molten.

But I say unto you, that you have taken the Word of God and put your hands to it to make it an image of your own god, yourself. I say to you that you have taken God’s word, His Fire, and created images that represent what you want the Word of God to say versus what it actually says.

As an example, how many read and heard what I said above about the wives body not being her own and the husbands body not being his own, and then thought, “yeah right”?

Maybe, you didn’t think that specifically, but then you read or heard “do not defraud one another,” and the husbands thought, “woo hoo I got her now, this is gonna be fun on my time table, play time every day of the week,” and the wives thought, “woo hoo, I am gonna be praying and fasting a whole lot more, new reason and excuse to add to the menu”.

Is that really what we just read, or is it easy to mold that to say what we WANTit to say instead of also noticing what bridges the gap and brings both parties together, “Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time” or said in the CEV version, “Do not withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so just for a set time”

As anyone in marriage knows, the daily ins and outs of living with another human can often times cause us to not want or desire to “AGREE to do so”, and that is why involving Jesus Christ is so important to that process of coming to agreement.

Jesus Christ is after all the Word of God, and we must look toward scriptures to know how to handle situations like these.

Again, I say as an example:

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Eph 5:21  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

(CEV) Eph 5:21  Honor Christ and put others first.

This chapter of Ephesians starts off by saying:

Eph 5:1  Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

Eph 5:2  And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

(CEV) Eph 5:1  Do as God does. After all, you are his dear children.

Eph 5:2  Let love be your guide. Christ loved us and offered his life for us as a sacrifice that pleases God.

As it concerns sacrificing to other gods instead of to the Lord Himself, if we are putting others first like our spouses, then we are NOT doing things for ourselves primarily.

Do these things, and the Lord will bless you. Go against them, and God will utterly destroy that old man that is in you… which at the end of the day is a good thing.

Exo 22:20  He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.

I hope this has been a blessing to you on how to listen diligently to the Word of God found in Exodus 22:19-20, and how to apply those spiritual types and shadows to your lives today.