Devotional: Don't Play the Harlot

Don't Play the Harlot

I was compelled this morning to read from the Book of Lamentations:

"Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Faithfulness. The opposite of faithfulness is infidility or adultery. Great is God's faithfulness. "God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good" (Numbers 23:19)? Great is God's faithfulness. But how about ours?

In a marriage, unfaithfulness is called adultery. Matthew, chapter 22, describes our relationship with God as a marriage: "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his Son (verse 2). Revelation 19:9 says there will be a marriage supper prepared for believers and His Son, Jesus. So our relationship with God is a marriage. Have we been faithful? Unfortunately, no. Yet, "...through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed..."

The Old Testament is a type and shadow (prophetic image) of the New Testament. We live in the New Testament, but glimpses of our condition can be found in the old. Listen to the Prophet Ezekiel: "You also played the harlot... because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied... Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite" (Ezekiel 16:28, 31b-34).

The Holy Spirit revealed to me that this description accurately describes our current generation. "In that YOU GAVE PAYMENT..." is a picture of the movies we line up for, cable and satellite television we pay for (including pay-per-view events we can't wait to see), the magazines we subscribe to or pick up while waiting in line at the store, the internet that takes us to questionable sites, etc. We lay our money down for bloodshed, lust, evil, profanity and the like. And think nothing of it.

As the scriptures said, we have been like an adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband. Yet, "...through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed..." When are we going to wise up and see the deceptive ways the devil has crept into our lives? What separates us from the world as the "Bride of Christ" if we line up with the world to see the latest and greatest? Why have our consciences fallen so far from the truth? Do we read the scriptures and think it is talking about someone else? "Surely, not I..!!?" Yet the Word has not changed. His covenant has not weakened. "Righteousness lifts up a nation, but sin is a disgrace in any society" (Proverbs 14:34). God's Bride for His Son has stumbled and fallen, "...because what they say and what they do is against the Lord; They are defiant in His honored presence" (Isaiah 3:8).

God is preparing a wedding for "...a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Ephesians 5:27). This passage of scripture is referring to the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins. "Then He could present it to Himself as a glorious church, without any kind of stain or wrinkle—holy and without faults" (God's Word Translation). His Bride was in pitiful form before Jesus became our substitute. "But now Christ has brought you back to God by dying in His physical body. He did this so that you could come into God's presence without sin, fault, or blame" (Colossians 1:22). Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because "The blood of Christ, who had no defect, does even more. Through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself to God and cleansed our consciences from the useless things we had done. Now we can serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:14). And His faithfulness "can guard you so that you don't fall and so that you can be full of joy as you stand in His glorious presence without fault (Jude 1:24). When you separate yourself from playing the harlot, "Then you will be blameless and innocent. You will be God's children without any faults among people who are crooked and corrupt. You will shine like stars among them in the world" (Philippians 2:15) as the Righteousness of God in Christ.

Hear the Word of the Lord today: Do not play the role of the harlot. Repent from being the adulterous bride. Abstain from those things that defile. Church attendance, serving, prayer, and scripture memorization mean nothing if we still give payment to our lovers.