Skip to main content

Spiritual Adultery - Isaiah 57

Isaiah 57:8

“Also behind the doors and their posts you have set up your remembrance; for you have uncovered yourself to those other than Me, and have gone up to them; you have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them; you have loved their bed, where you saw their nudity.”

In comparing Israel’s worship of false gods and allegiance to worldly practices to adultery, God is saying that worship—of God or of the world—is as intimate an act as sexual intercourse. Indeed, more so, because worship deals with the soul and not the body only. Worship is a submission of self—soul and body—to a greater force, real or perceived. Mere existence requires the submission of your soul to an external force. In the simplest interactions of life with life, there are concessions to be made, choices of one thing over another, forces of will and thought behind every action. If the driving force behind these things is the law of God, we are in submission to God. If it is the law of the world, we are in submission to the world and are already spiritual adulterers (“If you are not for me, you are against me”). There is no in-between. God’s existence is preeminent—the benchmark for all existence. There is God, and there is not God. There is truth and there is untruth. There is good and there is evil. To be in submission to neither is to not exist, and to be in submission to an existence that is not God is condemnation. We are God’s, or we are condemned.

See also Is. 62:4-5, in which God promises to fully cleanse Israel of her spiritual adultery and make her pure and chaste, a virgin entering into the holy covenant of marriage. God redeems completely, not in half measures.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Abortion

The essential question regarding the issue of abortion is this: can the unborn be properly considered human and are we therefore under an obligation to protect them? If this can be answered, we can begin to consider the social and political issues surrounding abortion. The Nature and Rights of the Unborn Human rights are contingent on being human—something that has always been implicit, but never fully defined except in the sphere of philosophy or in a strictly biological sense. In the past, a clear definition wasn’t necessary, because no one was thinking about existence before birth or what makes us different from machines and so forth. As science has progressed, however, we’ve been forced to consider our own humanity because of how deeply we understand our biology, including our development from a fertilized egg, and of how frequently in science the lines between material and abstract existence are blurred. Ethics in science aside, abortion is probably the most notable scenario
4 comments
Read more

The Family - A Sestina

All together and laughing, the family Fills the long, low house on the farm; They gather naturally to drink coffee, To rein in the years and make them stand still. In his armchair, an old man smiles And shakes his white head at the children.   Squirming with impatience, the children Play on the floor while the family Stands with hands in pockets and smiles And discusses a new tractor for the farm, While someone asks if the old one works still And someone starts a fresh pot of coffee.   The sound of beans grinding and the coffee Dripping, drowns the sound of the children Who must take loud games outside, or be still. One sister starts dinner for the family and listens to the talk of the farm. They ask how school’s going and she smiles.   Mom watches from a corner and smiles; She laughs at the jokes and makes more coffee And watches the sun set over the farm, Her kind eyes falling on the playing children. Dad kisses her cheek, while the f
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Market in Chowchilla - Book Signing and Sale!

I will be selling and signing copies of my book,  Sketches of a Small Life , at the summer market in Chowchilla, California, on Friday evenings, 6-8:30pm, June 16, 23, and 30. Stick around for Music in the Park (starting at 8pm)! All events are free and open to the public. Location: Veteran's Memorial Park, 600 W. Robertson Boulevard, Chowchilla, CA 93610 Link to City of Chowchilla event page:  https://www.cityofchowchilla.org/339/Summer-Event-Series    
Post a Comment
Read more