Note: It's my hope that any time in the future when I can't post a new SoS post, that I'll post something like this, instead. I'll do my best to post something interesting and worthwhile every Monday and Thursday. Hopefully it'll be a Song of Solomon post, but if not, it should still be worth your time!
[7] And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” [8] But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. [9] He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” [10] And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
(Genesis 39:7-10 ESV)
In Song of Solomon, the bride constantly tells her single friends not to awaken love until it so desires. In other words, she tells them not to be sexually active, not to engage in sexual thoughts, fantasies, or actions until they're married. Joseph here provides an exemplary demonstration of this.
Sadly, most of us aren't Joseph; most of us have already awaken sexual desires of some kind, because our culture thrives on them. For some, this comes through romantic movies or novels; for others, it comes through pornography; for others, it comes through daydreams.
So the question for us is simply: how do you turn this off once it has been turned on?
The only way I know of to turn it off once it's began, the only way to go back to where you need to be for holy dating and courting, is the fear of the Lord, treasuring and loving and fearing God so much that your heart desires Him above all else. You need a new heart for this. You need the Holy Spirit for this.
Joseph's response exemplifies where we need to be to be able to put this to sleep until its time. We need to see and know God as good and faithful to us, see and know Him as hearing and answering our prayers, and seeing and knowing that He is keeping His promises to us. Remember that Joseph's story begins with God promising him power and authority, and here Joseph speaks of how God is already fulfilling that promise, as Joseph is second-in-command of Potiphar's house. Joseph wants God's promises; he's not going to throw them away for one night of pleasure.
Joseph also knows that God is holy, that this God hates sin. Joseph has heard the stories of how God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin. So we also must see and know that this God is holy; His power is absolute, His wrath is severe, and our sin is real. This is a God who is fully powerful to either punish sin or to redeem us, forgive us, make impossible promises to us, and then to keep His promises in full. Joseph saw that there comes a point at which you can't repent anymore; your sin is punished, and you can only suffer, because you haven't turned away from your sin. Joseph won't risk that. He avoids sin instead of relying on repentance to make things right, because he knows that sin can't always be made right. Joseph sees the immense goodness of trusting God and enjoying His promises, compared with the immense horror of rebelling against God and cherishing sin over Him. This is what inspires his heart to purity. If we truly see God as Joseph saw Him, then we will not do this great wickedness against Him.
In other words, the solution is treasuring Christ above all. But treasuring a false Christ doesn't work. Worshiping a God who is only love, who is devoid of fear, leads to callousness to sin, a willingness to give in because God forgives and it's not that big of a deal if we slip up.
Worshiping a God who is only fear leads to depression, legalism, and eventually, rebellion and rejection, because a God devoid of love does not draw our hearts.
Worshiping a God who is love and fear leads to holiness, the skyrocketing of joy as you draw near to the true God of the universe. Only the true God can free us from sin, especially from the sins we cherish so much. Indeed, it is precisely the fear of God, realizing that God hates sin and punishes it, that can inspire us to leave the sins we cherish. Perhaps this is a sign for all of us. If we're being freed from the sins we love, or if we are starting to hate the sins we love because they separate us from God (instead of hating them because of their earthly consequences), then we're with the true God. If our beloved sins are still alive and well, if we're still enslaved, then we probably don't know the real God, or there is some large piece we're missing.
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