‘“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.’ Job 31:1(NLT)
Joseph in Potiphar’s House
‘When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat! Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded. But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.” She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.” She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!”
Joseph Put in Prison
Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.’ Genesis 39:1-23(NLT)
Scripture: Job 31:1; Genesis 39
How old were you when you first saw porn? I’ve asked that question to kids in high school, D1 football players, and men around the country. I have yet to hear someone say, “Man, I can’t remember.”
We remember the date, time, and circumstances.
There’s a reason why one of the oldest books in the Bible has a guy saying the line, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1) God created sex. He created men to be visually stimulated. God created sex as “Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flames of the Lord.” (Song of Solomon 8:6)
For men, stimulating images are the first spark. The more fuel we put to that fire, the more it consumes us until we either extinguish the flames or it burns out naturally. For Job, he made a pact with his eyes – don’t feed the fire.
And let’s just be real, while pornography has been gracing mediums ever since we started drawing on caves and clay pots, I’d like to see Job make that statement in a world with HD phone screens and virtual reality. A hundred years ago, our great grandfathers spent most of the day walking behind the south end of a northbound ox. He never saw one billboard, one TV commercial, or one titillating YouTube link.
Nothing’s new under the sun. Lust has impacted every person throughout history, but cultural moves and technology have affected us in two significant ways:
The unlimited amount of images that bombard us without choice. I can’t tell companies not to put up certain billboards, or what commercials come on tv, or for women to cover up when wearing dental floss at the beach.
The unlimited access to images with total anonymity.
Henry Cloud has a book titled: Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality. We can’t change our cultural reality – all we can do is have the courage to make a pact with our eyes – don’t fuel the fire. Steve Arterburn called it the act of “bouncing the eyes.” You have the ability to train your eyes to linger or look away. What will you do today?
from UNCOMMEN: The Delusion Of Porn