Of Looks and Destruction

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. (Proverbs 6: 23 - 26)

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. (Proverbs 23:31)

Whose idea is it that women dress immodestly? Whose is it that products that lead to hell are sold in very desirable packages? Why is it that dens of death are so flashy? Whose idea is it that paths to death contain so much gaiety? Why is it that the road to destruction is so wide?

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6: 22, 23)

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and that seeing is believing. The eye is such a vital organ of the body that it defines the world to most of us. The eye has such a great command that to most people things that cannot be verified by sight simply do not exist. It takes revelation to move beyond eye sight to some inner vision that originates from a higher plane.

It is therefore plain that the devil makes use of this vital organ to lead us to the way of death.

What does that have to do with dressing? Dressing is our PR to the world. What we appear is what the world interprets to be us.

Let us also remember that sight was a key ingredient of the first temptation

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:6) 

People are thinking that poor dressing simply leads to sexual sin. They forget that the devil has a future to plan, a future in which he seeks to have as many as possible join him in hell. A future that he wants as many as possible not on his team derail their pursuit for the heavenly call. A future in which those preaching about heaven start doubting of its existence. A future that has even those who know they are going to heaven live lives as if it is so far away as to be irrelevant to their living on this earth.

For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. (Proverbs 6:26)

Eve ate the fruit and messed up everybody else’s life. It was her single action that brought death, suffering and all the evil we see today. And that is what the devil is doing using flimsy and almost naked dressing of the women in our generation and especially making it appear normal that it is being accepted for official wear, even to the extent of being worn to church. Unless you want to tell me you have never seen a woman with her breasts almost falling off in church or a woman whose panties can be seen yet she is seated at the front pew. (I remember once we had a very tough time editing a church service because of such an eventuality as we had to literally cut her off the video which was difficult because it interfered with the sound (sermon) flow. And she was middle aged. The cameraman noticed it at the editing point).

Why is it that alcoholic poisons are packaged in very desirable bottles, bottles that are so attractive that some display them to improve beauty of their sitting rooms? Why is it that tobacco products are in packets that look as if they can neutralize the poisons they contain? Why is it that gambling dens are surrounded by so many flashing lights that seem to draw one inside these dens of destruction? Why is it that haunts of immorality don’t repel someone who detests the vice?

Since we know that a journey, however long starts with the first step, I want to state that all this is the initial point of a long journey of disobedience. That peep into the forbidden being carelessly flashed before your eyes has the capacity of getting you into the long journey of sin. David saw and his life was never the same again. The eye is the contact point for covetousness and many other sins.

I’m convinced that all drug addicts start the habit just for fun. That puff or sniff opens you into drug dependency and related vices. That first swig of liquor starts you into alcoholism before you realize what is happening. Is it not interesting that even the most expensive drugs are normally offered free to initiates? And why is that? Nobody would be willing to acquire such an expensive addiction or any addiction at all. It is after you are addicted that the cost is passed to you because then the drug defines you more or less. You can kill to get high. I have seen the same even with tobacco products and alcohol. The pusher knows that once you are hooked you will be a customer for life. Investing a portion of the drug is therefore a worthy investment in that direction. For me that is the real explanation of planting a seed.

Flimsy dressing is therefore the devil’s way of planting a seed of wickedness in the hearts of men. He wants people to look at abnormality normally. He seeks to make lust appear normal. Then he will take us the way of addiction as far as God’s values are concerned.

Ever looked at how a neat estate becomes a shanty? It starts very gently, almost imperceptively. It may start with a person throwing a used packet of something along the road. Then another and another until a corner becomes the dumpsite. Eventually trash becomes normal until it is all over. Then questionable characters start loitering along those dirty streets because they more or less don’t look much different from them. Then street lights stop being replaced and disappear one by one and darkness becomes a terror. People who had lived there for generations find it impossible to stay and move out one by one, being replaced with people who don’t mind the new estate as they found it that way. Eventually what shocks people is not crime but the gruesomeness in it.

In the book ‘America’s Last Call’ by David Wilkerson, he reports how pastors in the early 20^th century started preaching against short dresses saying that they will lead to lust and immorality. Interesting to note is that the dresses had gone higher than the ankles then. Incidentally that is what happened.

Look at America a short century later and you will see what I am saying. The dresses went on going up and up until there is no more up they can go. Even women preachers and singers now think a dress that covers the knees may be unchristian. On the flip side look at the morals and you will see an even worse scenario. Divorce, a key indicator of immorality, is so rampant that a stable marriage is more of a shock than divorce. Pastors and other ministers are treating divorce as normal by divorcing and remarrying at will.

But it has gone farther than that. Homosexuality has been accepted in church that we have even bishops who are openly homosexual being given churches to shepherd. Recently, the highest court legalized gay marriage and the president came to Africa to advocate the same. That is the end game for the devil. This is because he knows that homosexuality is an abomination to God and its presence MUST attract God’s wrath.

You can be sure that it is a matter of time before America is destroyed, not just judged. This is because God does not call homosexuality an abomination for fun. Before the American society and especially the courts defined marriage to include same sex unions, it was called an unnatural act, the way it is called in more progressive states. I say progressive because homosexuality sinks a person below the level of an animal, however progressive they may think they are. And that is the reason any civilization that sunk that low had to be wiped from the surface of the earth. Animals become more moral than people God created in His image.

In my book ‘The Road to Sodom’ I have given the progression using comfort as the catalyst. Comfort pursued for its own end leads to destruction as that is what happened to the city of Sodom, from where we get the word Sodomy.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (Ezekiel 16:49)

A body that is not very active and a spirit that is not engaged to God form a very destructive team. You see it is in the spirit that morals are defined.

And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. (2Kings 9:30)

Jezebel knew that looks have the capacity to distract any purpose. We know she was the adulterous and idolatrous wife of King Ahab. She was a witch who knew about the operations of the demonic side and thus knew the efficacy of looks.  She knew that any man can be diverted from noble purposes by seeing a woman who has just the right packaging. And we can be sure she was sure of succeeding as she knew Jehu as well as Jehu knew her. I think her message to him was simply to let him know that she was all his especially now that he was the undisputed ruler.

I am sure that were it not for the fact that Jehu was in a fury, and of course God’s whole purpose, he could not have been able to get through her as I think that is the reason Ahab’s dynasty was able to stay long as she may have played the same game.

When a woman offers herself to a man like she did, the man becomes mixed up. It takes a resolve that comes from beyond the present to overcome the temptation. It takes a vision that has great focus on the future and especially from God to see the futility of that enticement.

I think that may also be the reason he ordered her death as her wiles were irresistible and he suspected that he may not have the strength to resist her for long. I am sure that she was irresistible attractive and had the power to get men to do anything she wanted. She could, by offering ‘all’ of herself to you turn you to jelly that could be melted at will to meet her purposes. And I think that is why the princes were kept away from the palace so that she could get time to melt any resistance to her dynasty. What did she do to men to kill the innocent Naboth? No wonder Elijah ran for his life! Nobody could resist this hot mama.

Reading the history of Israel I am convinced that many tried to overthrow her dynasty. But none was able to get past her. There are very few places we see God judging a woman but we see God doing it to Jezebel in the severest form.

I believe she really knew how to use a look to achieve what she wanted. We see the same with her daughter who killed all the potential threats when her son died. How was she able to kill all the princes of Judah? I am sure she did not do it personally. She simply knew what men wanted and offered it in exchange for the death of the potential kings. Even ruling a kingdom for six years was no simple task as we know she was the only woman to reign in Judah through all her history. Yet she was able to do so. Her wiles were strong enough to keep men subservient to her.

What I want us to realize is that the devil never does something for the present consumption only.  Though he intends it to look like that, he has a wider view of things and plans accordingly.

Let me break down what I think the devil’s plan is for careless dressing.

The first thing is lust which more or less leads to sex, sex that is not appropriate. Such sex is of course painful in all ways as fulfilling the craving for the physical act of sex leaves other aspects of the same hanging. Many times (and the devil will want that) someone feeling dissatisfied will think it was the partner’s problem thereby seeking multiple partners to take them to the summit of the sexual experience, a summit that can never be reached as it is only in a marriage that sex finds its fulfillment. Overexposure to such sex, apart from the health risks associated with it has severe consequences for the sinner as it ends up corroding the other departments of their personhood, leading them lower and lower from humanity. They will then start behaving like animals.

Eventually they find it even more frustrating having so much sex. They will then think of having kicks out of having inappropriate sex. And that is where homosexuality and bestiality come in. By then they have sunk far below the animals and of course attracted God’s wrath. And that is the end result of bad dressing.

Another road that poor dressing leads to is the marriage route. Many people after having sex will gauge the suitability of their spouse by the experience, a purely physiological assessment. They will then make a decision that is of course not wise as the criteria they used was faulty. By using sex as the gauge of marriage, they will discover that only a very small amount of time is used in that activity. This brings frustration very early in the marriage as they will realize that they did not make any reasonable decision to get married. They deceived themselves into get married so as to get unlimited sex. Such a marriage cannot be sustained, however hard they worked.

Due to that, they will look for excuses to get out of the prison they put themselves in. they could decide to divorce if they got married properly or as is most common decide to dissolve their ‘trial’ marriage. Since they still may attach a lot of importance to sex and its compatibility, they may seek to get another spouse who is more compatible but using the same yardstick. Marriage ends up being a circus and a lot of pain and frustration being experienced. As usual the marriages will have children who will compound the problems a milliard times because the couple will transfer their frustrations to them.

One big problem with man is that he will always have excuses for what they do. Only a fool admits wrongdoing when they can cook up an excuse. You see that with Adam and Eve at the first fall. What happens is that we will look for justification for our sins and rebellion that we know is against nature. We even create laws that make our diversions acceptable.

And that is what we are able to see in nations that have sunk lowest morally. They have made divorce so easy because they do not want to take God’s prescription for their mess. They have even legalized homosexuality so that God has a free hand to judge them. I will not talk about abortion (which is murder), crime, drugs and many other vises associated with sexual sin. The point I wanted to pass across is that the devil looks farther than us when he brings temptation our way. Agreeing with him leads you the way of certain death, and that in many ways.

Only the grace of God is able to get us out of the mess we are creating for ourselves. Only the grace of God makes us acknowledge that we are sinners in need of saving. Only the grace of God allows us accept God’s say on our lives. Only God’s grace has a capacity to get us out of the prison we have bravely locked ourselves in. only the grace of God offers any hope for those who have walked in the devil’s lie. Only the grace of God can give you a new lease of life. Only the grace of God will free you from the guilt that you are trying to cover up by creating a very brave face to conceal your torturous life.

Will you accept it?

Just cry to God to give you eyes to see sin the way He sees it. Then acknowledge your sins and tell Him to forgive your sins and transgressions against Him. Then ask Him to start leading your life in ways that please Him. Appropriate Christ’s death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins and cleansing from all the dirt you have been accumulating as you have been walking contrary to His revelation.

It would then be imperative if you looked for the Bible and started reading it to know what it is He wants of you.