The Devotional – 1419 – Myrrh, aloes and cinnamon

The Devotional – 1419 – Myrrh, aloes and cinnamon

Proverbs 7:14-15 – I have peace offerings with me; today I have paid my vows. So I came out to meet you, diligently to seek your face, and I have found you.

 

 Comments and challenges

When is the last time you traveled into a dead end street? If you are in an unfamiliar area of town, in another state or not paying attention to where you are going; dead end streets seem to be at every minor intersection. Yet I would like to say that when a person takes a street that leads to nowhere, that it is truly somewhere for someone. Recently a family made the national news for entering a neighborhood where they were not welcome and the outcome was sad. Life has not changed. Here in Proverbs 7 we can learn a stern warning from Solomon.

However, we are not prone to hear warnings, especially ones that cause us to say in our inner most being; I DON’T DO THAT! But just look at Solomon’s life, he did those things and now he is just seeking to appease God with good advice to his children and others who read the Bible, well I’ve not said this in a while, “BAH HUMBUG”! There is not a day in your life when the opportunity for a trip down a street is nearby. Danger knows it’s victims as it is written all over the victims face. “Diligently to seek your face and I have found you”!

Evil which is not sin is always prepared; evil is a comfortable place to be: “I have spread my bed with tapestry, colored coverings of Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. (We could spend most of our time just explaining the intoxicating drugs associated in mixing these ingredients together). Yes a dead end street is a moment of delay for those who recognize the street for what it is, but it is a street of opportunity for those who are expecting you to arrive.

From the pulpits across this great land we do not hear such warnings; many church leaders are fearful of these warnings of Solomon about adultery and enticing words of the adulterer. (The words of the Preacher as he sometimes refers to himself as can turn people off). The adulterer need not be a woman; men are as prone to entice women as well. Evil is enticement and sin is choosing to be enticed. Once sin is conceived it brings forth death. Notice James 1:12 -18 – Blessed is the man (or woman) who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own (dead end street) desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

Now one reason we may cringe when challenged to think about the evil that lurks around us all the day long can be found in 1 Corinthians 6. If you study 1 Corinthians you might note that there are at least sixty-four sins recorded by the Apostle Paul that this church is involved in. several of those sins are recorded here in this chapter and each of them are on the corner of a thoroughfare and a dead end street. I will not take the time to list each sin or record the verses for you to read; but if you have your Bible, take the moment and count the sins.

There are at least thirteen sins listed from verse one through verse ten; the apostle goes on to say that those caught up in these sins will lose their inheritance. A chilling thought that travels my mind at times is that I came from unbelieving to believing and like many of you; my testimony of an unbeliever is found in these verses. Praise God I now have another testimony given to me personally by God and that one is found in 1 Corinthians 6:11 – And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified (set apart) but you were justified in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.

So the bottom line is – yes you may find yourself near or on a dead end street; but if you take the moment and look at the LORD Jesus and the Holy Spirit who is a partial down payment of your future inheritance you will see that; myrrh, aloes and cinnamon is a temporal moment in time that destroys not only your physical life but also the inheritance of a full eternal life. You will not lose salvation, but you will lose the fullness that is presently waiting for you.