Let’s talk about soil, or “the land,” as the Bible refers to nations. I believe God is crying out for a clean nation to rise up and reclaim our unclean culture.
In Jeremiah 3:1, we read, “If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, shall he return to her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to Me, says the Lord.”
And in verse 9 we read, “Through the lightness of her harlotry she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with trees.” These verses allude to the fact that the immorality of the people affects God’s perspective of the land. I want to take you even further through this principle, and explore how our sexuality affects God’s view of a land or a nation.
Leviticus probably isn’t a book you spend a lot of time in, but there are some real jewels in its pages. In chapter 18 you will find listed all the sex acts God disapproves of. In short, God says His people must only have sex with their wives. Verses 24 and 25 say, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for in these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves. And the land has become defiled; therefore I have punished its iniquity, and the land has vomited out her inhabitants.”
God commands them not to be sexually immoral, because this is how the land became defiled or unclean. Then he says something really interesting. As the people are immoral, “the land” will vomit them out.
To reiterate his point to the Israelites that their sexuality determines whether or not a land is defiled or unclean, he says in verse 28, “lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” The consequences of making a land unclean is that they would get kicked out of the land God wanted to give them.
Most men or pastors I share this with have never heard that God looks at a land as clean or unclean based upon sexuality. This truth was verified several times as Israel was forced to leave the physical land that they defiled in this manner.
Sometimes, I feel we Christians are being kicked out of our American culture. Our God has been taken out of our schools, and His commandments have been taken out of our courthouses. Even His nativity scenes have been removed from some public places. I don’t know about you, but it feels as though we are being kicked out of our own land.
Consider each of these questions for a moment.
- If God were to look at America based upon its sexual immorality, especially its leadership in sexual immorality, what would God say? Unclean or clean?
- If God were to look at your state or your city based on its sexual morality, would He say unclean or clean?
- What if God were to look at your local church—remember, He sees all—what would He have to conclude? Unclean or clean?
- If He were to look at your life based upon your sexuality alone, what would He conclude? Unclean or clean? You already know the answer.
I thank God for the blood of Jesus, who paid for all my sins. Because of Jesus, God considers all of us as blood-bought men. I want God to be able to look at every man, church, city, state, and nation and declare us clean, smiling upon us all. {eoa}
Doug Weiss, Ph.D., is a nationally known author, speaker and licensed psychologist. He is the executive director of Heart to Heart Counseling Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the author of several books including, Clean. You may contact Dr. Weiss via his website, drdougweiss.com or on his Facebook, by phone at 719-278-3708 or through email at [email protected].