This week Tyler Jones continues the Proverbs series by talking about Biblical sex.

Somewhere along the way, the church tried to reign in the burning fire that is sexuality, and in trying to do that they’ve made God to be this cosmic killjoy. And all of us who are Christians are sexually repressed prudes who have so much pent up angst inside of us that we must channel it toward the condemnation of the world.

It would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Proverbs 30:18-19 Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas,_and the way of a man with a virgin.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Rayah: Love - companionship

Ahabah: Love –staying here with you

Song of Solomon 8:6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love (ahabah) is as strong as death.

Dowd: Love –Mingling of souls

5 Intentions of Sex

1. Procreation
2. Fun
3. Communication
4. Yada
5. Signpost of the glory of God

1. Procreation

Genesis 1:28 Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.

2. Fun

Proverbs 5:18-19 May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.

3. Communication

4. Yada

Genesis 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain…

5. Signpost of the glory of God

1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Reflection Questions:

1. What is the meaning of Rayah and do you see it in your relationships? What is the meaning of Ahabah and do you see it in your relationships? What is the meaning of Dowd and do you see it in your relationship?
   

2. God intended sex for procreation, for fun, for communication, for Yada, and to be a signpost of the glory of Himself. If God wired sex as such a powerful deal in our lives, how does that influence our thinking about causal sex and what does that mean for the importance of sex in marriage?
   

3. What does it mean to “flee sexual immorality.” Are you?

4. How might God bring healing to your life, even to your sexuality?