Lust Does

If you are a human being than you have probably lusted over something in your life. If you're a guy, you might lust all the time...sorry guys but it's true. A simple definition of lust would be attempting to gain satisfaction from somebody else. I am guilty of that, and you are most likely guilty as well.

For most, lust is an ongoing battle. While watching a sermon today, there was a biblical story that was told and it was one that I have never heard before. After hearing the sermon and the story everything made sense so I wanted to share the story and the message the best that I could.
(Try reading through the story twice if it doesn't make sense the first time.)

Amnon and Tamar 

Now Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar. And after a time Amnon, David's son, loved her. And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother. And Jonadab was a very craft man. And he said to him, "O son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell me?" Amnon said to him, "I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister." Jonadab said to him, 'Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. And when your father comes to see you, say to him, 'Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and prepare the food in my right, that I may see it and eat it from her hand." So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. And when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand." Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, "Go to your brother Amnon's ouse and prepare food for him." So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, where he was lying down. And she took dough and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and baked the cakes. And she took the pan and emptied it out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, "Send out everyone from me." So everyone went out from him. Then Amnon said to Tamar, "bring the good into the chamber, that I may eat from your hand." And Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, like with me, my sister." She answered him, "No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this outrageous thing. As for me, where could I carry my same? And as for you, you would be as one of the outrageous fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king, for he will not without me from you." But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he hd loved her. And Amnon said to her, "Get up! Go!" But she said to him, "No, my brother, for this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you did to me."  (2 Samuel 13:1-16) 

Quite the story right?!

Basically, Amnon was so in love with his sister that he became ill. He then asked a crafty man, named Jonadab what he should do. Jonadab told him to get into bed as if he was ill and ask for Tamar to take care of him. Amnon got into bed, pretended to be ill, and when his father came to take care of him, he asked for his sister. Once his sister was in the room, she had baked some bread for him and then he asked her to come to bed with him. She denied it, and since he was bigger and stronger than she was, he took advantage of her and raped her. Because of his actions, he now felt more hate for her than the love that he had. He tried to tell his sister to go, but she denied it because if he made her leave, it was going to be worse than the acts that he had just committed.

There are a few things that I want to point out to you:

- Amnon was so lustful of his sister that he became ill
- Amnon didn't know what to do and where to get advice from so he asked a man named Jonadab
- Amnon did what Jonadab told him to do and pretended to be even more ill than what he was
- When Tamar denied her brother, she tried to get him to do it the right way by asking the king and he denied it
- When Amnon violated his sister he now hated her more than he loved her

Lust is simply, one big lie. When we lust over things, we think that if we could just fulfill that thought we have, everything would be okay! Satan really tries to get us with this one. Lust ruins relationships because lust is taking away something rather than giving it. Love is when you give and lust is when you take. Amnon had been around his sister his entire life and wanted absolutely everything to do with her! This was his sister...which is crazy to me. He wanted her so bad that he physically became ill. Sometimes in this life, we lust over somebody or something so hard that it destroys us. It eats us up, on the inside and out. It's a vicious cycle. We hold our ground and then we give up. We are strong and then throw everything away for short-term, worldly pleasure. It's interesting to me that Tamar would've been okay with things if her brother would've went through the king. She told her brother that he was going to be just like all of the outrageous fools if he did this thing. The desire he had to get satisfaction from Tamar was so great that he was going to do whatever he could to be satisfied by her. When the awful act was finished, he had now hated his sister more than he had originally loved her. That's what lust does. It ruins love.

I also want to add, before I forget...that this is very difficult post for me to write. There are so many things I want to say and want to encourage you with that I hope it all made sense! I also probably forgot a lot of the things that I wanted to say as well. I am confident that however this turns out is the way that the Holy Spirit wanted it to.

There is one more thing I want to touch on. Did you catch where Amnon got his advice to pretend to be ill and then ask for his sister to bake him loaves of bread? That idea came from Jonadab. The crafty guy who is the son of his Dad's brother. Who the heck is this guy and why did he think it was okay for Amnon to be rape his sister? Where do you get advice from? Amnon took the ideas from Jonadab and now he hated his sister more than he loved her. You can't get relationship advice from certain people, you cannot get advice from the magazines you read or the silly things you see on social media. When you need advice the first thing you should do is get your bible out. If you are unfamiliar with your bible, ask the person in your life who you know has it all together...that person who is on fire for the Lord and exemplifies Him in every way. Find that person who you know, in your heart is the right person to talk to about these sorts of things.

Lastly, if you struggle with lust, seek help from some friends and people that you look up too. Lust kills love, and if love is dead than you're missing out on this amazing life that we are so blessed to live every single day.

Agan, I hope and pray this all made sense!