Saturday, December 12, 2009

Jacob - Chapter 2


Personally, I cannot imagine wanting more than one wife.  Not that marriage is unpleasant but, rather because it is so pleasant.  Who in their right mind would wish to interfere with the intimacy, companionship, joy and love an exclusive, close companionship can enjoy.  Not I.  I suspect that men who would seek more, haven't invested fully in the relationship they have.  Surely, looking beyond one's current marriage would be labor indeed.  When Jacob calls it "laboring in sin" as opposed to yesterday's chapter in which he invites us to enter into His rest, he isn't kidding.

Imagine the labor it must be to try to sufficiently maintain more than one intimate relationship, especially in the case of one who is trying to conceal subsequent trysts.  It must be exhausting, worrisome and overwhelming.  How do people get so confused that they think such thing might be an improvement in some way.

So it is with all sin.  Thieves often work harder, at greater risk and smaller reward than if they simply went out and got a job.  Drug addicts literally expend Herculean effort to maintain their habits and destroy all around them in the process.  Liars have to keep track of their tales in order to keep from being found out.  Honest people can just relax.  Living righteous lives is so much easier, so much more pleasant, having so much less risk, fear and distress.  How do we let Satan fool us into thinking otherwise.

1 comment:

di said...

You are right -- it is challenging enough to keep one relationship a good relationship!

my thoughts on this chapter...

21 Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever

One being is as precious in his sight as the other. That must mean me. I am as precious to Him as anyone. I sense His capacity to love. In this twinkling moment, I feel my worth a tiny bit. It is the same as yours.