What Do Wildfires and Pride Month have in Common?
As I’m writing (June 2023) the U.S. is dealing with two major irritants: smoke has made a journey from wildfires in Canada down into eastern sections of our country and Pride events are ramping up, hot and heavy, throughout the land. Their tentacles have reached into public schools and flags displayed at the White House.
Wildfires have earned their name – we can’t stop them; we can only hope to limit their scope and damage. Theories abound as to how the fires a fueled and / or the ignition cause of a particular fire. (From climate change to poor forest management. “Sparks” range from lightning to negligence with campfires, to arson.)
The “wildfire” that concerns me most and effects the most people is not burning trees and brush, but the sexual wildfire burning out of control in the American culture. This specific fire destroys lives, rather than acreage, and families, instead of houses. It has swept to every corner of our land and is raging out of control; and once more this June we see how “out of control” it really is.
Sex is God’s idea. He designed it to be a dynamic means for pleasure, bonding, and blessing a relationship between one man and one woman. Jesus referred to creation when he was asked a question about divorce (a hot topic in his day – Matthew 19). “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let men not separate.”
The fifth chapter of Proverbs and the Song of Songs (or Solomon) describe the joys of this special gift from God for a married couple. The Bible is by no means prudish, puritanical, nor naïve about human sexuality nor the perversions that arise from the misuse of this powerful drive.
We’re discussing wildfire, so go with me to consider Balaam – yes, the guy who had an actual conversation with his donkey. You can read about him in Numbers 22 (the first of a four-chapter account); and there are echoes of his venture all the way to Revelation 2:14.
The nation of Israel, enroute to the Promised Land, was cutting through opposition like a hot knife through butter. The king of Moab knew that he needed something greater than his army to fortify defenses, thus he determined to hire someone to curse Israel.
Balaam was an “independent agent” – he had spiritual leverage with many different gods. He also had connections with YHWH – known to be the God of Israel. That’s what makes this saga very interesting. The king’s strategy was simple, he would hire a prophet who could influence YHWH to curse his own people. (Perhaps this sounds strange to you. In that day, it was a commonly known “fact” that gods could be bribed into turning on their own people. Today, the animistic worldview holds similar concepts.)
Balaam swung and missed three times. The Lord forced him to bless Israel! End of the story? Sadly, no it wasn’t. The prophet designed a different ploy; if the God of Israel couldn’t be convinced to turn on his people, let’s deceive the people into rebelling against the Lord.
He used the most powerful bait available. Party time! An idol-sponsored orgy, equipped with plenty of wine and women. Many men joined in, and God’s people paid a great price – a Divine plague took the lives of 24,000 (Numbers 25; Numbers 31:16; Revelation 2:14)
The two most powerful temptations known to man are sexual immorality and idolatry. I know this because they are the two from which we are instructed, “Run away.” (1 Corinthians 6:18 & 10:14) We run from danger. Balaam combined the two into one devilish party.
The Christians of the first century faced a similar one-two punch. Temple worship for those who honored false gods often included a visit to the temple prostitute (Both females and males were available.) 1 Corinthians 6:9-20 mentions this topic.
Now I’m ready to talk about wildfires again. Fire has many good uses: it cooks our food, it warms our homes, it makes our engines function powerfully. Fire offers quality service when it is properly contained; but when it jumps its boundaries – fire destroys.
Human sexuality is a wonderful gift from our Creator. It is builds the relationship of a man and wife and holds the potential of building a family. However, sex outside of its boundaries destroys: families, individuals, and societies. We are squarely facing the downhill slide that many warned about during the “Sexual Revolution” of the 1960’s.
The confluences of many streams of deviation from God’s perfect design have brought about of flood of immorality that is destroying families across our land. I’m mixing metaphors, I know, but the smoke of these combined fires is choking the spiritual life out of people.
The African American family has been devastated by out-of-wedlock births (70% of births among blacks) and abortion – 37% of abortions annually among a group of people that comprises around 12% of the population.
Divorce rates in the last 50 plus years have caused younger generations to despair of marriage, so they choose to cohabit instead. Fidelity, and faithfulness to God are sacrificed due to fear and an unwillingness to commit.
Homosexuality has become “gay;” a word that once meant happy. “Love is love,” is the current phrase to empower anyone to do anything sexually. Not satisfied to keep it within the group, grooming children is on the rise.
“Hooking up” is the byword for having an adult (or nearly adult) good time. College campuses are rife with the hook up scene. Websites exist to facilitate searches. It’s kept quiet, still STDs continue to be on the rise despite our best attempts to medicate.
Pornography is the financial cash cow of the internet. This fantasy world ruins hearts, dampens the opportunity or desire for marriage and equally destroys marriages while abusing severely the “stars” of the show.
Our language has become thoroughly corrupted. The “F” word, in its literal meaning relates to the sex act; yet it is used in countless ways to demean what our Creator devised for good. One of the favorite ploys of Satan is to insert within our lexicon of “cuss words” terms that will desensitize us to the things that matter to God and our eternity. Have you stopped to listen to “what or who you are listening to?”
Our entertainment industry thrives on sexual immortality. It sells! And it lies! We are given air-brushed, highly edited versions of stories, devoid of reality and real consequences. The are scripted and acted to satisfy the minds of their authors, not to consider God’s will. White hot lust trumps fidelity every time. And “It’s sad to belong to someone else when the right one comes along.”
Now we’re throwing gas on the fire with the trans movement. Hormone treatment and plastic surgery turn dress-up into irreversible choices. The confusion of teen years and isolation has been leveraged by social media and some of the medical community into a trend entirely out of proportion to what has been in the past. The powers-that-be are demanding, insisting with the force of law behind them, that we participate in the fantasies of others. Our society is on the verge of burning out of control.
We are facing wildfires of sexual immorality and some faith leaders stride to the front to guide us into being tolerant and making exceptions. After all, those who choose such things are victims. Amidst all this smoke, it’s hard to find the right path.
I invite you to look to Jesus, the Author, and Perfector of our Faith. Listen to his words for a moment:
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6 – in verses 10-12 he states that we have two choices: marriage, or chastity.)
He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” (Mark 7:20-23… adultery is being unfaithful to marriage vows and sexual immorality – Greek ‘pornea’ – refers to each deviation from God’s design for sexuality.)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” (Matthew 5:27-30 – Sexual immorality begins in the mind. This is no small matter, Jesus doesn’t prescribe anti-biotics, rather that this type of sin is so severe that amputation might be considered. Our Lord wants our attention.)
You may consider my tone to be harsh, my views to be void of nuance, merely black and white, and my presentation abrupt. Let me assure you that I’m a nice guy in person. My question is, how do we deal with something that is so destructive? Our society, years ago, saw the extremely negative effects of smoking and tobacco products and responded with campaigns to change minds. Equally, the war on drugs had the noble goal (perhaps the tactics and strategies have been lacking) of stopping people from harming themselves and others with something that is pleasurable.
Fentanyl laced candy may taste good, but … similarly, THE MISUSE of God’s blessing of human sexuality is filled with good feelings, craved by bodies and minds, and carries the seeds of destruction.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Jesus holds the answers to purity – Jesus changes lives – and he can change yours, too. He offers supernatural help to all who belong to him, the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. You received this advantage when you were baptized, learn cooperate well.
The smoke is billowing all around us. Jesus knows the path to safety and life that is worth living. Follow Jesus, lock your eyes and your heart firmly on him and stay close. This article merely opens the door for more discussion. Let’s talk.
