Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
- Genesis 16:1-2
Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
- Genesis 19:30-35
Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”
…
But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”
“Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
- Genesis 30:3, 15-16
When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.
Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.
- Genesis 34:2-8
When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
- Genesis 39:13-15
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
- Hebrews 10:1-2
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
- Hebrews 10:19-25
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
- Matthew 26:28
Boilerplate
I’m Harold Dykstra. I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story. My time is well spent. A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel. I did not know she was an angel at the time. The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone. And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy. She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others. She changed my life.
In her leaving, she said someone would come. I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived. While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.
This Week’s Question
Last week, Babs was upset when other worshippers did not take the Tenebrae service to heart.
This week, she stayed in bed all one day.
I walked up the stairs and knocked on the door. She hesitated, but she said that I could come in. She had the covers up to her chin. “Babs,” I asked, “Do you feel ill?”
Babs sighed, “In a way, I guess I do. I do not think that I am physically ill. But I hardly slept at all last night. At about two in the morning, I turned on the light and I read the entire book of Genesis. I am not a speed reader like the young Babs was. She could read the entire Bible and remember everything. But everywhere I turned in Genesis, someone was sleeping with someone else. I used to make my living doing that. You do not get much sleep, and here I was not getting any sleep. I wondered if God was trying to tell me something.”
I scratched my head, “You have left that lifestyle behind, Babs. That is in the past. Let it go.”
“But I want to have one last chance at love. I want to do it the way God wants us to do it. But my entire history was doing the deed for all the wrong reasons. I have these yearnings, and I feel ashamed.” She pulled a hand from beneath the covers with a tissue to wipe her eyes.
I sighed, “I know that I am about to regret this, but you say that sleeping with someone is throughout the book of Genesis. What situations did you find? What about Adam and Eve?”
Babs huffed, “The NIV says that Adam and Eve had sex and Cain was born. So, the first time you see “sleep with’ is when Sarai gave Abram Hagar to sleep with. And if they only ‘slept with’ there would have been a lot less trouble. Then, Lot’s daughters got their father drunk and each of them slept with him. And Moab and Ammon became countries that caused the Israelites trouble. Besides, it was incest that started that one, no, started those two.”
I had a feeling this would take a while so I sat in her comfy chair near the bed.
Babs continued, “Then in Genesis 34, ‘sleep with’ appears in two different stories, but really all the same story, the story of how Jacob became the father of twelve sons. First Rachel gives Bilhah to Jacob and he sleeps with her. Bilhah has two sons. The NIV does not say ‘sleep with’ when Leah gives Zilpah to Jacob and she has two sons. But then, Reuben picks some mandrakes and gives them to his mother. Rachel gives up her conjugal bed with Jacob to get the mandrakes. What is up with that?”
I smiled, “I have researched that one. Mandrakes were phallic symbols.”
Babs asked, “Did she use them like a sex toy?!”
I threw up my hands, “I have no idea, Babs! But mandrakes were also used as a hallucinogenic. Did she worship the mandrakes? Did she… Oh, please, Babs, I am not even going to ask your suggestion. Or did she use a little mandrake to get high? None of those options are honorable. And giving up her bed with Jacob eliminated the one thing that might get her pregnant. So, what was the next ‘sleep with’? Was that when Leah slept with Jacob again and God opened her womb once more and she had the next two sons?”
Babs nodded, “Then the next story is when Shechem fell in love with Dinah. He did not wait to marry her. He raped her and then Simeon and Levi circumcised the men and then killed the men of Shechem. And then in Genesis 39, Potiphar’s wife tries to ‘sleep with’ Joseph, but Joseph runs away. Potiphar’s wife then accuses Joseph of having slept with her, and Joseph is thrown into prison. Harold, the book of Genesis is cluttered with a lot of sleeping with this person or that person.”
I nodded, but I said nothing, at least not yet.
Babs asked, “And have you noticed the common thread in practically all of these, and a couple that I did not mention?” I shrugged. I wanted her to answer her question. “Abram slept with Hagar, a slave. She was property, and Sarai gave him permission. Ishmael’s presence caused strife, and the descendants of Ishmael have caused trouble off and on ever since. Lot’s daughters had incest with their father. Incest is wrong, and the offspring gave the Israelites a lot of trouble. You explained the mandrake thing, but Bilhah and Zilpah were servants. You might boss around a servant, but sleeping with them? That simply causes more jealousy in the household. Then Dinah was raped, and Joseph was sent to prison for not sleeping with his boss’ wife. Trouble, trouble, trouble.”
I mused, “And this has upset you? Do you recall the other instances that you have not referred to?”
Babs growled, “Reuben slept with Bilhah. Even though she was only a concubine, she had produced two of Reuben’s half-brothers. And Levitical Law states not sleeping with the father’s wife. I cannot count how often the scenario of one of my naughty films is incest but passing it off as sex among stepchildren or stepparents. God’s Law is written in such a way that the concept of ‘steps’ cannot get around that. But then another incident is in the bizarre chapter of Genesis 38. It is all about Judah and Tamar, the pagan wife of Judah’s firstborn son, Er. Er died, and Onan was supposed to make Tamar pregnant, but he spilled his seed and then died. Thus, Tamar could not produce an heir for her dead husband. Judah thought Tamar to be a black widow, and he prevented her from sleeping with the third, and last, son of Judah. So, Tamar dressed up as a shrine prostitute and slept with her father-in-law. That was a forbidden liaison and worshipping a false god was wrong, but Tamar got pregnant. When she confronted Judah, Judah said that she had been more honorable than he had been. They both raised the twins, but they never slept with each other after that. It is a nasty story, but it is in the Bible due to Judah and Perez being in the genealogy of Jesus.”
Babs turned red, “More trouble. More sin. And I can look back in my life and I can see those times when the script, if you could call it that, had me as the woman doing those naughty things or having those naughty things done to me.”
I sighed, “But in all those memories, you are forgetting one memory.”
Babs scrunched her nose, “Harold! There are so many memories that I did not even think of when reading Genesis. What could I forget?”
I replied, “At the beginning of Hebrews 10, the author talks about how sacrifices paid the penalty for our sin. We could look back to Leviticus to the guilt offering, that offering that covers those sins that we might have forgotten about. You do know that God has forgiven all your sins. Later in Hebrews 10, it talks about how Jesus paid that sacrificial price so that we are found not guilty of any of our sins. So, I have a question for you. Why are you feeling guilty for sins that God has already forgiven?”
Babs scrunched her nose again, “Ummm. I guess you are right. But I do want to sleep with you someday. And right now, all I can picture in my mind is sinful images. How can I ever see the words ‘sleep with’ and not feel shame?”
I suggested, “By trusting in God and letting our love for each other grow into something that is pure and holy.”
Babs giggled, “You almost proposed in that statement. You are giving me hope, but I hope it does not take too long. I fear that Satan will reintroduce guilt feelings until I experience that pure love. Harold, will you lay down with me? No funny business, just staying prone next to each other. No ‘sleeping with’ at all, that is unless we take a nap.”
I got up to walk around to the other side of the bed.
Babs gasped, “No wait! I’m naked. You cannot see me naked.”
I asked, “And why are you naked?”
Babs moaned, “I was having a hot flash, or thyroid storm. Anyway, I was hot and sweaty. I took off my T-shirt and boxers. I read the Bible without having even the comforter over me. I even had a fan running. Then this man barges into my apartment…”
I interrupted, “Wait! I asked if I could come in and you granted me entrance.”
Babs huffed, “I am telling my story in dramatic fashion, Harold. My prince charming crashed through the door, and I barely had time to slip back under the covers. But I still want you to hold me, and my dowdy nightgown is in my chest of drawers on the other side of the room.”
I laughed, “How about I leave the room and close the door. You tell me when I can return.”
She nodded eagerly. I went to the landing at the top of the stairs. In less than a half minute Babs said that I could return. Babs was back in bed, but the covers only up to her waist. And she even made a dowdy nightgown look good. I kicked off my shoes and crawled into bed next to her. We hugged and kissed. Babs giggled. I stayed next to her with my arms enfolding her. A minute or two later, she was asleep. I did not wish to pull my arms away. I might awaken her. And within another couple of minutes, I was asleep also. Both of us were fully dressed. We simply slept.
So, if you read this and you are tempted to tell my children, Morrie and Willie, please do not say we ‘sleep with’ each other. Technically we did, but not in a “biblical” sense.
Credits
All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife. We would talk about anything and everything. And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.
My wife had “hot flashes” when she was in her thirties. Our primary care physician at the time thought that it was odd, and he treated her for a thyroid storm. He tested her for a few diseases, but the results were inconclusive. But these hot flashes continued erratically. By the time she got enough information, her thyroid was barely functioning. Then menopause was nothing in comparison, getting that earlier than expected.
My wife rarely stripped in front of a fan, but she often used cold compresses to try to cool down.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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