Illicit Sex as idol worship

REFERENCE: 1 Kings 11:1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign  women. Besides Pharaohs daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon and from among the Hittites. 2 The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, "You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods." Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. 4 In Solomons old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the as Lord David, his father had been.

Observation: As Christian men we need to know that Satan uses our sexuality to destroy us.

Here is a man who knew better. He was warned that foreign wives would be his downfall and yet he went after them and married them none the less. Who needs 1000 wives and concubines? Solomon was obviously sexually addicted. Look at his family line. His father killed a man to cover up the seduction of his wife. His brother raped his sister. Sexual dysfunction was all through his family.

What can we learn from this? That sexual sin will turn our hearts away from God. It is not just the illicit sexuality that is a problem, but the way it takes our eyes off of God and causes our relationship with Him to grow cold.

Further we learn that giving in to this sin will cause us to worship another god. We don't realize it but when we look at pornography or get involved with extra-marital sex, what we are really doing is giving ourselves over idol worship. Worship is nothing more, or less, that giving value and worth to someone or something. When we enter into this kind of sin we are saying that sex or masturbation will meet our needs. We begin to make it an idol; something, besides the true God, that we look to meet our needs.

Finally, we learn that the family we come from can have great effect on our temptation level in this area. If we come from a family where sexual sin in normal and rampant, be aware that this is a possible weakness that Satan can exploit. We need to pray that God will close the door to the effects of the sins of our ancestors on our lives.

Application/Confession: I wish I could say that I am never tempted by lust. I wish that were true. Reality is that, like most men, this is something I must stay vigilant about every day. My heart wants to stray and I need to remember that giving into lustful desires is a form of idol worship. I do not want that in my life.

PRAYER: Lord help me. Keep me clean. Help me to resist the temptations that come my way. Help me to put a watch over my eyes so that I do not allow into them anything that will stir up my lower nature. I want to be wholly devoted to You.