Beauty is Dangerous 🌹

Heeeey good people and the rest of y'all 😆. Let me stop. Heyyyy others. How y'all doing? I hope you're doing fabulous 💅🏿. Me, I'm chilling, doing and feeling stupendous. (Had to give y'all a different word since it seems like y'all enjoyed “amazing” 😁.) Anywho, what's goodie? I wanted to come and talk about beauty today.

Not vanity. Just beauty. Simply looking good.

In the Bible when you read about the people God favors they are typically described as being beautiful. Attractive. Appealing to the eye. Yet, in Proverbs 16 the word also talks about how God hates those who are conceited. The most interesting stories about beauty that I find in the Bible deal with the wives of the prophets. The story of Abram and Sarai or Isaac and Rebekah.

In both relationships the men were faced with situations where they had to brace themselves when entering into new territory to be possibly killed because of how the Kings would view or desire their wife. In Genesis 12:12-13 & 26:6, both men feared for their life because of how beautiful they were. They both went into new territory portraying themselves as the brother instead of the husband of their wife. All of this was to avoid death behind the beauty of a woman.

Talk about being a prize 🏆.

Beauty is dangerous. There are many different stories in history where beautiful women were the catalyst for some type of destruction. The Bible also reiterating this. There are consequences that follow when you touch those that God favors. Destruction of some sort is usually the cost a person pays. In the story of Abram and Sarai the Egyptians were struck with horrible diseases because of Sarai (Gen 12:17). In the story of Isaac and Rebekah, when Abimelech discovered who Rebekah truly was to Isaac, he warned everyone not to touch either of them or face death. Abimelech knew the consequences he could've suffered had anyone slept with Rebekah (Gen 26:8-11).

There are many different variations of beauty in the world. Yet, there are some people you can't touch because of who they are connected to. Had Sarai and Rebekah been the wives of any other person outside of the prophets that God was using the consequences would've still been there just on a different level. God seems to appreciate beauty in his creations. He just doesn't want us to become conceited in our ways.

Both examples of beauty in the Bible also remind us that covenant is everything.

Stability in Truth

Heeeeyyyy Good People and Others! How are y'all doing? I hope well of course. I mean fall is almost officially here and I'm kinda excited about it. Not the cold part 😩 just the fall part 🍁🍂. (I'm just being honest.)

I was reading thru the word and ran across something I wanted to share my little two cents on. Don't worry I'ma share some Bible so you can look into it yourself if you'd like. Matter of fact some of you might not even need your word ; pretty sure most people know this scripture. Which scripture came to mind immediately for you 👀? Drop it down below in the comments.

If you guessed Psalms 91 you would be correct.

In Psalms 91:4 it states “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust : his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”

When I read this verse I paused and began to ask myself how God's truth is our shield? I also wondered on what a buckler was 😅. I definitely did not know. So I pulled out my handy dandy Strongs Concordance and began to dig. I was pleasantly surprised at what I discovered.

The word “truth” in Strongs is Emeth which actually means “stability, certainty, truth, trustworthiness”. God's truth provides us stability. Gives us certainty and trustworthiness when we apply it to our lives. The word “shield” is tsinnah which is “a hook or large prickly shield”. Which means not only does God's truth give us “stability” it also “shields us” with a sharp defense system (the prickliness of the hook). The word “buckler” is cochereth which is also “a shield or something that surrounds a person”. Meaning God's truth gives us stability that sharply shields us and surrounds us completely. 🤯

I love the details. God is so intentional with his design for us.

When we think about “truth” in the world today and how so many people have seen or are seeing their lives being torn upside down because of the lies they have lived. It makes you appreciate living boldly in your truth. Whatever that may be for you. Truth gives us freedom; living in God's truth gives us stability & protection. When we are outside of God's truth we have the appearance of stability we can't fully trust and a faulty protection system.

Ruth 2:12 tells us “The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.” When we take refuge under God's wings we are greatly rewarded for the work we do. There are benefits to staying close to God. Many have become accustomed to getting microwaved benefits. Having no patience. Some things God gives us requires us to have patience to receive them much like some of the “fathers or mothers” that came before us. Like Abraham, Sara, Noah, Moses, and etc.

Takeaway : Let God's truth provide you with the stability we all so desperately desire in these times and throughout life.

Love ya. Later.

Shya