A Price Being Paid

I try to read three chapters a day as I go through the Bible and this week I found myself in Revelation Chapter 2. In this chapter the Lord is speaking to the churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, and Thyatira.

This week was also the 47^th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. Since that time over 61 million unborn children have lost their lives to abortion. That’s a lot of dead children.

And before I go any further here, let me remind the post abortive men and women who are within the sound of my voice. There is no sin that Jesus did not pay for on the cross. Jesus forgives….He heals, and you need not carry that burden of guilt around any longer. In Him there is no condemnation, that’s the devil’s game, not His.

So what has this got to do with Revelation 2?

Well in verses 18-29, the Lord speaks specifically to the church at Thyatira. After commending them for their works of love, service, and faith, He severely chastises them for their sins of sexual immorality and idol worship.

We pick it up in  Re 2:20 "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

 21 "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

 22 "Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

 23 "I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

OK, in a nutshell a woman named Jezebel had falsely taught people that it was all right to engage in sexual immorality. God gave her ample time to repent, but she didn’t and He said unless she repents, He will punish her with an unspecified illness and with the untimely death of her children. This seems harsh to us, but God wants to get our attention to the seriousness of the sins of sexual immorality, and He uses the unrepentant Jezebel to make His point.

The lesson here is, the loosening of sexual restrictions inevitably results in dead babies. It happened in the Old Testament when babies were sacrificed to Molech and it has happened in our nation on the heels of the sexual revolution in the 1960’s.

61 million children sacrificed on the altar of convenience and so-called sexual freedom. Maybe we should go back to square one here. Repent of our sins, and revisit what God has to say about sexual behavior.

Father, forgive us, we have done wickedly and rebelled against you in this matter.  We come to you solely on the basis of Your great mercy and pray that You would forgive us, heal us, and restore us, in the Name of Jesus Amen.