Numbers 24:1-25:18
Luke 2:1-35
Psalm 59:1-17
Proverbs 11:14
When the Israelites who "indulged in sexual immorality with Moabite women" embarked on such behavior, do you think they said to themselves "I'm going to do this even if it is disobedient to God"? Perhaps they did - but I suspect that, at some point, there chose to justify this actions in their minds. After all, shouldn't we be able to love whomever we choose? And to express that "love" in whatever manner we choose? In language from today that might be unfamiliar in word but familiar in sentiment to the Israelites of that time..."It's all good...".
But it isn't all good. And the choices we make, whatever the justifications, will yoke us - either to God, or to someone other than God - in this case, the Baal of Peor.
When I think about the persistent sin in my life, I find this delusion at the root of it - the delusion that Godly obedience is less important than secular intentions, noble or otherwise; that Godly submission is secondary to personal gratification; that the goodness of an action is determined by how good it makes me feel.
For the opposite of this thinking, for the correct way of thinking, we can turn back to the reading a week ago, when I wrote about being overwhelmed, when we read about our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was overwhelmed and afraid, to the point He sweat blood. Gratification would have made him abandon His path; the right thing to do was what His Father asked of Him - however painful that course of action might be.
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