For The Proverbial Palate- 10.04.2008

As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion. Proverbs 11:22

I was reading just the other day of God’s Leading through His Holy Spirit in the task set forth by Abraham for his servant to go an select a bride for Isaac from his own country, the land of his kindred.

Genesis 24

In the account we are told that when Rebekah came to the well that…

“she was fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her…”

In today’s economy, this seems to be a strange word, ‘a virgin’, especially in light of the study done by Lawrence B. Finer.

Trends in Premarital Sex in the
United States, 1954­–2003

Lawrence B. Finer, PhD

Data from the 2002 survey indicate that by age 20, 77% of respondents
had had sex, 75% had had premarital sex, and 12% had married; by age 44, 95% of respondents (94% of women, 96% of men, and 97% of those who had ever had sex) had had premarital sex. Even among those who abstained until at least age 20, 81% had had premarital sex by age 44. Among cohorts of women turning 15 between 1964 and 1993, at least 91% had had premarital sex by age 30. Among those turning 15 between 1954 and 1963, 82% had had premarital sex by age 30, and 88% had done so by age 44.

The question that we must consider, is abstinence from sex before marriage important from God’s perspective? Must be for Him to have made such an intimate and personal point.

Along with all other kinds of sexual immorality, sex before marriage / premarital sex is repeatedly condemned in Scripture-

• Acts 15:20
• Romans 1:29
• 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13,18; 7:2; 10:8
• 2 Corinthians 12:21
• Galatians 5:19
• Ephesians 5:3
• Colossians 3:5
• 1 Thessalonians 4:3
• Jude 7

One other very important point to consider, is that when God chose to become a man, He set His Holy Spirit upon the womb of a virgin. How difficult would this task be €today if God were looking for the same standard?

The thing that is just as alarming today, is that with the absence of virginity, both from the male and female perspective, is that we have cultivated a society where this attribute, for the vast majority, is not important to those contemplating marriage. It is the fruit of a society that has been bombarded with an emphasis on the external beauty, not the internal. With the emphasis upon the external beauty and flesh, it leaves one with thoughts of nothing more than the pleasures that sex has to offer. We not only saturate the minds and thought process of an adult society but it is taught very early in life to our children. I am so afraid we are reaping in our children the seed that has been sewn many years ago.

From the text in Genesis 24, it is pretty apparent that the Holy Spirit was looking for much more than a jewel in a swine’s snout when Abraham sent forth his servant to chose a bride for Isaac. Needless to say he found by divine decree a woman that possessed  both the external (fair to look upon) and internal beauty (a virgin). It is the same that He desires today my friend.

As I get older and hopefully wiser, I have found that external beauty can mask a very corrupt and vile cess pool that brings forth a stinking savor down the road. But the internal beauty that brings forth a chaste virgin has not only the benefit in this life, but also the one to come…

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

For my female readers, prayerfully consider the precious gift that God has given you in your virginity and that it is this same precious gift that you shall give to your husband, if the Lord so leads you in the direction of marriage.

God Bless

malachi

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