Rev'd Ebenezer Diyaolu shared the story of a guy whom God opened his eyes after a round of sex with a lady. The moment he tried to dress himself up after sleeping with the lady, he saw an image jumped out of him walking away. As the image got to the door, it turned to him and he saw on it written, "Excellent spirit". That was what he lost.
In the Jewish culture, the first born son holds a key position in the family even If he is the last born. If he has numerous sisters ahead of him, culture recognises him more than the girls. It is a patriarchal culture like most African cultures.
According to the Jewish culture, he is entitled to most of his father's properties. He'll get much more than anyone else in the family. That was the right of the first born(son) or birthright. Esau and Reuben lost it.
For Reuben, he lost that right because he slept with one of his father's concubines. He had sex with her. I know some of you may ask, "Is concubinage that serious among the Jews that warranted Reuben losing his inheritance"?
Yes, in the Jewish culture, a concubine is not a mistress kept outside like people do in our culture. Today, we call concubines "Side Chic". In the Jewish culture, a concubine is a woman though not married legally but lives in the house of a wealthy man as an "assisting wife".
That society accept her as one of the wives of a man but of lower status because her marriage was not formalized but she is recognized by all as belonging to a particular man. In fact, legal wives gave their husbands concubines those days as we see in the case of Sarah and Hagar( Gen 16:1-4).
That kind of woman was the person Reuben slept with and lost the dignity and right of first born. His father cursed him instead of receiving a blessing. For a long time, much was not heard about the tribe of Reuben, no exploit nothing because their progenitor, a sexually immoral man did what attracted a curse (Genesis 49:3-4).
You lose virtues and greatness you can never imagine on the bed of sexual immorality. Most times, it is hard to recover from the loss.
There are many "empty" men and women today walking around. The virtues they need for a life of ease and comfort had been lost on the bed of sexual immorality. Some know something is missing in their lives but don't know where and when it got lost. A number of them flood prayer houses, crying and asking God for restoration.
Some wonder why the emphasis on sexual immorality. Truly, all sin is sin but they all don't have the same effect. Sexual immorality is a fast-action destiny destroyer. Even worldly people know it. That's why they use it as a tool to smear the image of great men and bring them down.
Dear reader, do not play with sexual immorality. The enjoyment of five minutes is not worth the loss that comes with it. Recovery is not always an easy process.
