The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 13 August 2021 – Abhorring Immoral Life
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TOPIC: Abhorring Immoral Life
Read: Deuteronomy 22:13-30 (NKJV)
- ” If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and detests her,
- “and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she [was] not a virgin,’
- “then the father and mother of the young woman shall take and bring out [the evidence of] the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.
- “And the young woman’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as wife, and he detests her.
- ‘Now he has charged her with shameful conduct, saying, “I found your daughter [was] not a virgin,” and yet these [are the evidences of] my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
- “Then the elders of that city shall take that man and punish him;
- “and they shall fine him one hundred [shekels] of silver and give [them] to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days.
- “But if the thing is true, [and evidences of] virginity are not found for the young woman,
- “then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. So you shall put away the evil from among you.
- ” If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die — the man that lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel.
- ” If a young woman [who is] a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,
- “then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor’s wife; so you shall put away the evil from among you.
- ” But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
- “But you shall do nothing to the young woman; [there is] in the young woman no sin [deserving] of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so [is] this matter.
- “For he found her in the countryside, [and] the betrothed young woman cried out, but [there was] no one to save her.
- ” If a man finds a young woman [who is] a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out,
- “then the man who lay with her shall give to the young woman’s father fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.
- ” A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s bed
THE MESSAGE:
Chastity is the principle or state of not having sex with anyone, or not having sex with anyone except one’s husband or wife (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). In the Old Testament, God had His temple for His people, but in the New Testament, God has His people for His temple. God does not want anything to defile His temple which is our body: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? (I Corinthians 6:19). The Bible condemns any sexual act outside marriage. In our text today, it was important that an Israelite remained pure and chaste and be a virgin at marriage. Much of the responsibility for this fell upon the parents (verse 15).
In the same vein, Christian parents have the same the responsibility to make every effort to protect their daughters, and their sons as well, against premarital sexual activities. They must teach them God’s principle of purity and guide them into godly and chaste convictions with regard to sexual matters. Dressing is part of it. Christians, especially ladies, should dress modestly; not to attract the opposite sex. Christian ladies should endeavour to maintain Christian ATM: Abstain Till Marriage!
PRAYER: Dear Father, may I ignore the desires of the flesh, and follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ Name. Amen!
