SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/20/2020 8:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The
Desire”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:28
Message of the verse: “28 but I say to
you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.”
We
begin this SD the way that we begin many of my Spiritual Diaries by quoting
from John MacArthur as he talks about different words and there meanings. “T he pronoun ‘I’ (ego) is emphatic, indicating that Jesus puts His own word above the
authority of revered rabbinic tradition.
‘Look’ (from blepo) is a
present participle and refers to the continuous process of looking. In this usage, the idea is not that of an
incidental or involuntary glance but of intentional and repeated gazing. Pros to
(‘to’) used with the infinitive (epithumesai,
‘lust for’) indicates a goal or an action that follows in time the action of
the looking. Jesus is therefore speaking
of intentional looking with the purpose of lusting. He is speaking of the man who looks so that
he may satisfy his evil desire. He is
speaking of the man who goes to an x-rated movie, who selects a television
program known for its sexual orientation, who goes to a beach known for its
scanty swimsuits, or who does any such thing with the expectation and desire of
being sexually and sinfully titillated.”
I
would suppose that as you read over this quotation from John MacArthur that the
idea of lusting may have a different meaning.
If one looks at a woman lustfully it does not cause a man to commit
adultery in his thoughts, because he already “has committed adultery in his
heart.” So it is not the lustful looking
that causes the sin in the heart, but the sin in the heart is what causes
lustful looking. So the lustful looking
is but the expression of a heart that is already immoral and adulterous. I have mentioned a few times a quotation from
the late Warren Wiersbe who said “the heart of the problem is the problem with
the heart,” and so we can see that the heart is the soil where the seeds of sin
are imbedded and begin to grow.
Jesus
is not talking about when a man runs in to a woman who is provocatively
dressed, kind of an “accident” perhaps set up by Satan, but when the man takes
a second look and begins to have lustful thoughts going on in his heart that is
when this problem that Jesus is talking about happens. Don’t take the second or third look, but like
Joseph run from the temptation. This
problem that I am talking about happened to King David when he looked at
Bathsheba taking a bath on the rooftop close to his palace. I want to say that this was a common thing to
do and I do not believe that she was trying to seduce David at all. If David would have been with his army where
he should have been then what happened would not have occurred. If David would not taken the second or third
look then it would not have happened either.
MacArthur adds “The fact that he had her brought to his chambers and
committed adultery with her expressed the immoral desire that already existed
in his heart.” “1 Then it happened in
the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent
Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of
Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. 2 Now when evening
came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s
house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very
beautiful in appearance. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one
said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?" 4 David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him,
he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she
returned to her house” (2 Sam. 11:1-4).
Arthur
Pink is quoted in MacArthur’s commentary and the subject of this quote is that
it is not only the problems with men to lust but women do the same thing and
women at times even incite men to lust.
Pink writes: “If lustful looking
is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with the
desire to be looked at and lusted after…are not less but perhaps more
guilty. In this matter it is not only
too often the case that men sin but women tempt them to do so. How great then must be the guilt of the great
majority of modern misses who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions
of you men. And how much greater still
is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing them to become lascivious
temptresses.” (This quotation comes from
a commentary Pink wrote on The Sermon on the Mount.)
I
want to quote the same verse that I did in our last SD from the book of Job and
add two more verses to it as we look at Job 31:1, 7-8). “1 "I have made a covenant with my eyes;
How then could I gaze at a virgin?” “7 “If
my step has turned from the way, Or my heart followed my eyes, Or if any spot has
stuck to my hands, 8 Let me sow and another eat, And let my crops be uprooted.” We can see from these verses that Job knew
that sin beings in the heart as we have been stressing for some time now. Job also knew that he was just as deserving
of God’s punishment for looking at a woman lustfully as for committing adultery
with her. Therefore he had determined in
advance to guard himself by making a pact with his eyes not to gaze at a woman
who might tempt him.
All
men should be like Job in these kinds of situations, or like Joseph as he ran
from the temptations that came upon him from a married woman. The key is that both of them had a plan and
they followed their plans so that they would not suffer the pain of sinful
situations. They both also loved the
Lord and did not want to disappoint Him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look at Joseph, Job, and David I can see
that two of the three had plans and one of the suffered the consequence of not
having a plan.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Have a plan and use it.
8/20/2020 9:27 AM
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