Today’s Devotion
Topic: Woe To The Adulterer: You Are As Good As Dead!
Text: Gen 20: 3
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “YOU ARE AS GOOD AS DEAD because of the woman you have taken; SHE IS A MARRIED WOMAN.” Amen
Abraham one day moved into the region of Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar, and said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” Then Abimelek king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
This action displeased the Lord and He appeared to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”
Fortuanately, Abimelek had not gone near Sarah, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? Did Abraham not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.” (Gen 20: 1- 7)
Beloved, you may read all the above again. This was the warning God gave Abimelech for ignorantly taken Sarah to his house as a woman he admires. He did not go to bed with her and yet the Lord said “YOU ARE AS GOOD AS DEAD”.
Then woe to the adulterer and adulteress who is defiling his/ her marital bed by sleeping with people they are not married to. Talking about those who cannot be satisfied by their own spouses anymore. Their actions may just incur the wrath of God, perhaps stronger than Abimelech experienced.
You see, beloved, it is we (humans) who take marriage for granted; not God! To Him marriage is still a very sacred union between a man and a woman. Once the man decides to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, the two become one flesh and the union is legally recognised both in heaven and on earth as something that THE LORD HIMSELF HAS PUT TOGETHER.
For this reason “Marriage must be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Heb 13: 4).
Be careful therefore not to let the many challenges hitting your life push you to bed with anyone whom you are not yet married to. It has been said, and it is true, that the family that prays together, stick together. Why don’t you pray your way through the storm and seek godly Christian counseling where necessary?
For now, simply repent of adultery and seek the Lord’s forgiveness for defiling your marital bed. Also ask Him for the strength to resist every temptation to “take another person’s wife in”.
Ignorance of the person’s marital status is not an excuse. Just be sure to go through the legal procedure to make her your wife or do not “take her in” for once she’s not your wife, she belongs to another man.
Now here is an advice from a wise king who lived but acted foolishly at times, Solomon. He himself suffered many misfortunes for being adulterous and would rather no one followed after him. He writes to all married men, “May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer– may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love” (Proverbs 5: 18).
Beloved to do otherwise and take “another man’s wife in” is to be as good as dead, think about it.
