Prostitution the oldest profession on earth. This is not true according to Scripture it is farming, for the LORD told Adam to tend the garden, but we do know that it has been around a long time. Every culture in the world has had to deal with this inevitable curse due to the wicked hearts of men. Throughout history women and girls have been defiled in the name of religion, such as the devadasi’s of the Hindu religion, which is really just a way of causing them to sell their daughters into prostitution due to the lack of provisions. There have been many cultures who throughout the centuries who have had temple prostitutes, these women sell their services in the name of religion. It is even spoken about in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible. If you would like to see what I am speaking about read the immoral woman study, and when she says that she just gave her sacrifices in the temple before she tries to seduce the young naïve man, this is what she was doing.
I have met a few different prostitutes throughout the years and they all have this in common, they are very street smart. They have hard hearts and they know what men desire sexually out of a woman. They do not do what they do typically for the sex, it is usually for the money. They tend to look at money as evil, for they do what they do for money. Most of these girls when you get talking to them have had horrible lives, they have usually been sexually abused since childhood and now they usually have drug addictions to try and cover up the pain of their lives. They would love to quit doing what they do, but society does not usually give them the chance. No woman would take them into their homes, for fear that they would try and seduce their man. These women usually turn to a pimp or a forced by a pimp to work for them. He tells them that he will protect them from predators, while they themselves are the predators.
I met a young prostitute named Rosemary and she told me that she was first pimped out when she was twelve years old. This girl is only twenty years old now. She has been used and abused by men almost half of her young life. She has been deceived into selling her body in order to survive. I told her that she has a father in heaven that is concerned about her and wants her to quit doing what she is doing. I gave her some ministries to contact, but the decision is hers. I pray for her all the time and I hope that she will make the right decision. I hope that this study will show her and many other prostitutes that they have a father in heaven that cares about them also. There are actually two prostitutes in Jesus’ own genealogy. This just tells you how much the LORD loves them!!! But He does give warnings about turning our daughters into prostitutes. The LORD does not condone the sin of prostitution, he wants these people to quit prostituting themselves male and female.
We live in a society today here in the United States that we are guilty of turning our daughters into prostitutes, between the name of entertainment (Porn, Hollywood, Craigslist, etc.), we are guilty as a nation. I pray and hope that we turn from our sins and truly get convicted and beg for God’s mercy in this area of our lives, so that God does not judge us, but forgives us and convicts us, so that we can get right with Him and so that our youth will have a good future. This next generation has a lot to deal with, from the last few generations that have embraced this sexual sin as a good thing and I pray and hope that they do not have to reap the consequences of the fathers bad decision making.
May God Bless You and keep you and I hope that when you read this study that the LORD shows you how devastating this sin is in our society, and also how much He cares about these people, in Jesus’ name, Amen!!!
Leviticus 19:29
“Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with promiscuity and detestable wickedness.”
Genesis 34:1-31
One day Dinah, Leah’s daughter, went to visit some of the young women who lived in the area. But when the local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, saw her, he took her and raped her. But Shechem’s love for Dinah was strong, and he tried to win her affection. He even spoke to his father about it. “Get this girl for me,” he demanded. “I want to marry her.”
Word soon reached Jacob that his daughter had been defiled, but his sons were out in the fields herding cattle so he did nothing until they returned. Meanwhile, Hamor, Shechem’s father, came out to discuss the matter with Jacob. He arrived just as Jacob’s sons were coming from the fields. They were shocked and furious that their sister had been raped. Shechem had done a disgraceful thing against Jacob’s family, a thing that should never had been done.
Hamor told Jacob and his sons, “My son Shechem is truly in love with your daughter, and he longs for her to be his wife. Please let him marry her. We invite you to let your daughters marry our sons, and we will give our daughters as wives for your young men. And you may live among us; the land is open to you! Settle here and trade with us. You are free to acquire property among us.”
Then Shechem addressed Dinah’s father and brothers. “Please be kind to me, and let me have her as my wife,” he begged. “I will give whatever you require. No matter what dowry or gift you demand, I will pay it- only give me the girl as my wife.”
But Dinah’s brothers deceived Shechem and Hamor because of what Shechem had done to their sister. They said to them, “We couldn’t possibly allow this, because you aren’t circumcised. It would be a disgrace for her to marry a man like you! But here is a solution. If every man among you will be circumcised like we are, we will intermarry with you and live here and unite with you to become one people. Otherwise we will take her and be on our way.”
Hamor and Shechem gladly agreed, and Shechem lost no time in acting on this request, for he wanted Dinah desperately. Shechem was a highly respected member of his family, and he appeared with his father before the town leaders to present this proposal. “Those men are our friends,” they said. “Let’s invite them to live here among us and ply their trade. For the land is large enough to hold them, and we can intermarry with them. But they will consider staying here only on one condition. Every one of us men must be circumcised, just as they are. But if we do this, all their flocks and possessions will become ours. Come, let’s agree to this so they will settle here among us.”
So all the men agreed and were circumcised. But three days later, when their wounds were still sore, two of Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, took their swords, entered the town without opposition, and slaughtered every man there, including Hamor and Shechem. They rescued Dinah from Shechem’s house and returned to their camp. Then all of Jacob’s sons plundered the town because their sister had been defiled there. They seized all the flocks and herds and donkeys- everything they could lay their hands on , both inside the town and outside in the fields. They also took all the women and children and wealth of every kind.
“Afterward Jacob said to Levi and Simeon, “You have made me stink among all the people of this land- among all the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are so few that they will come and crush us. We will all be killed!”
“Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?” they retorted angrily.
Side Note: In seeking revenge against Shechem, Simeon and Levi lied, stole, and murdered. Their desire for justice was right, but their ways of achieving it were wrong. Because of their sin, their father cursed them with his dying breath (Genesis 49:5-7 ), “Simeon and Levi are two of a kind- men of violence. O my soul, stay away from them. May I never be a party to their wicked plans. For in their anger they murdered men, and they crippled oxen just for sport. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; cursed be their wrath, for it is cruel. Therefore, I will scatter their descendants throughout the nation of Israel.” Generations later, their descendants lost the part of the Promised land allotted to them. When tempted to return evil for evil, leave revenge to God and spare yourself the dreadful consequences of sin. Such as these two did not and paid the consequences later.
Genesis 38:6-27
When his oldest son, Er, grew up, Judah arranged his marriage to a young woman named Tamar. But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life. Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “You must marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. Her first son from you will be your brother’s heir.”
But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with Tamar, he spilled the semen on the ground to keep her from having a baby who would belong to his brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too.
Then Judah told Tamar, his daughter in law, not to marry again at that time but to return to her parents’ home. She was to remain a widow until his youngest son, Shelah, was old enough to marry her. (But Judah didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die, like his two brothers.) So Tamar went home to her parents.
In the course of time Judah’s wife died. After the time of mourning was over. Judah and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went to Timnah to supervise the shearing of his sheep. Someone told Tamar that her father in law had left for the sheep-shearing at Timnah. Tamar was aware that Shelah had grown up, but they had not called her to come and marry him. So she changed out of her widow’s clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself. Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. Judah noticed her as he went by and thought she was a prostitute, since her face was veiled. So he stopped and propositioned her to sleep with him, not realizing that she was his own daughter in law.
“How much will you pay me?” Tamar asked.
“I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah promised.
“What pledge will you give me so I can be sure you will send it?” she asked.
“Well, what do you want?” he inquired.
She replied, “I want your identification seal, your cord, and the walking stick you are carrying.” So Judah gave these items to her. She then let him sleep with her, and she became pregnant. Afterward she went home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual.
Judah asked his friend Hirah the Adullamite to take the young goat back to her and to pick up the pledges he had given her, but Hirah couldn’t find her. So he asked the men who lived there, “Where can I find the prostitute who was sitting beside the road at the entrance to the village?”
“We’ve never had a prostitute here,” they replied. So Hirah returned to Judah and told him that he couldn’t find her anywhere and that the men of the village had claimed they didn’t have a prostitute there.
“Then let her keep the pledges!” Judah exclaimed. “We tried our best to send her the goat. We’d be the laughingstock of the village if we went back again.”
About three months later, word reached Judah that Tamar, his daughter in law, was pregnant as a result of prostitution. “Bring her out and burn her!” Judah shouted.
But as they were taking her out to kill her, she sent this message to her father in law; “The man who owns this identification seal and walking stick is the father of my child. Do you recognize them?”
Judah admitted that they were his and said, “She is more in the right than I am, because I didn’t keep my promise to let her marry my son Shelah.” But Judah never slept with Tamar again.
In due season the time of Tamar’s delivery arrived, and she had twin sons.
Side Note: As you can see, just like it was said in Leviticus 19:29, that if you let your daughter be defiled as a prostitute that the land will be filled with promiscuity and wickedness. As you can see, this has happened in the last two stories. But don’t be judgmental towards prostitutes, for the Lord himself reached out to them and forgave them of their sins, as you will see in the coming up verses.
Joshua 2:1-24
Then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia. He instructed them, “Spy out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.” So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night.
But someone told the king of Jericho. “Some Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab: “Bring out the men who have come into your house. They are spies sent here to discover the best way to attack us.”
Rahab, who had hidden the two men, replied, “The men were here earlier, but I didn’t know where they were from. They left the city at dusk, as the city gates were about to close, and I don’t know where they went. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them beneath piles of flax.) So the king’s men went looking for the spies along the road leading to the shallow crossing places of the Jordan River. And as soon as the king’s men had left, the city gate was shut.
Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. “I know the LORD has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone is living in terror. For we have heard how the LORD made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the LORD your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. Now swear to me by the LORD that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.”
“We offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety,” the men agreed. “If you don’t betray us, we will keep our promise when the LORD gives us the land.”
Then, since Rahab’s house was built into the city wall, she let them down by a rope through the window. “Escape to the hill country,” she told them. “Hide there for three days until the men who are searching for you have returned; then go on your way.”
Before they left, the men told her, “We can guarantee your safety only if you leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window. And all your family members- your father, mother, brothers, and all your relatives- must be here inside the house. If they go out into the street, they will be killed, and we cannot be held to our oath. But we swear that no one inside this house will be killed- not a hand will be laid on any of them. If you betray us, however, we are not bound by this oath in any way.”