Topic: The Eye Covenant [January 9, 2017]
Text: Job 31:1-12
Key Verse: “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1).
Samson had many things going for him. He had the privilege of godly parentage. He had a unique birth and was a Nazarite. He was a well-built man and eventually occupied the highest position in Israel as a Judge. But he had a major character flaw – lust. That tendency became glaring when he saw a woman in Timnath and at once requested his parents to get her for him for wife.
The problem was not his desire to have a wife, but the fact that he was governed by his eyes rather than by his heart. It was lust that eventually plucked out his eyes, reduced him to a grinder in a Philistine dungeon and led him to an early grave. Had Samson, like Job, made the eye covenant, he would have lived a more fulfilling life and ended more gloriously. Job’s friends had been under the impression that his suffering sprang from his sin and did their best to persuade him to accept his supposed fault(s). Meanwhile, Job struggled to convince them about his innocence. Here, he denied being involved in any shade of immorality, fraud, injustice and other sins.
He revealed the secret of his victory over lusts – he made a covenant with his eyes not to focus on anything that could stir up impure desire in his heart. This resolve cannot be more relevant at that time than it is now. In a world that is awash with lust, a world where books, the media, Internet and streets abound with portrayal of immorality and other forms of wickedness, the godly man needs to be extra-careful. The connection between the eyes and the heart is well known. If you feed your eyes on impure things, your heart will be polluted. Often, lust of the eyes precedes lust of the flesh.
To keep yourself from lusts therefore, stop making provision for the flesh by ceasing to look at or meditate on objects of temptation. This is only possible for those who have been saved through repentance and faith in Christ. If you are not sure of your salvation, why not take steps now?
Thought for the day: Lust unrestrained opens the door ajar for sin.
Bible Reading in one Year: Matthew 20-21
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
