Kehinde A. Bolutife
One of the crops I savour eating much is corn, whether roasted or boiled. So on this beautiful day while returning from the office I stopped by the way to buy the roasted version. Mere looking at the corn being displayed on the roasting coal fire, they all appeared freshly attractive with the enticing sweet-scented aroma usually characteristic of roasted corn. I carefully selected the hubs and paid the cost thinking it was fresh from the farm.
But as soon as I look the first bite, lo and behold, it was tale to the taste. Guess what has happened, I had bought a corn that was not freshly plucked from the farm as I had earlier judged it by mere looking at it. I paid for the corn because I actually thought it was freshly plucked from the farm by the judgment of my physical eyes. But alas, my expectation was disappointed! Such was the consequence of carnal choice – choice that is made based only on physical senses; it always ends in disappointed expectation.
Danger of Carnal Choice.
The story of Mr. Lot in the Holy Bible vividly illustrations the dangerous consequences of making choices based only on what your eyes can see, your ears can hear; your hands can feel. There are always unseen things behind the things directly influence the physical things as they are inseparably linked. As matter of fact, the physical things are the physical manifestations of the spiritual u seen realities.
A time came in the life of Mr. Lot when he was confronted with the choice of where to pitch his tent of habitation for himself wife, children and multitude of his flock. At that cordial junction of his life, this was how he made the choice: “And lot lifted up his eyes, and behold all the plan of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD… then lot choose him all the plain of Jordan…” (Gen 13:10-11)
“And lot lifted up his eyes, and behold all the plan…”
At the junction of choice, Lot employed only the instrumentality of his physical eyes and what he could only see was a well-watered, green vegetation suitable for his herdsman ship but the physical eyes lacked the capacity to see the death sentence placed on the land of Sodom. All his eyes could see was a land that looks like the garden of the Lord. But alas! What looked like the garden of the Lord turned out to be land of loss and destruction. Having made his choice based on his physical eye, he went in to settle in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” The carnal choice of Lot eventually positioned him among the enemies of the LORD. And the consequences? If not for the intercessory prayers of Abraham for Lot, he would have lost all that made him Lot in the land of Sodom when God visited them with overflowing judgment. Even with the prayer of Abraham, Lot still lost his possessions, wife and ultimately his daughters to incest as a result of the carnal choice he made some years earlier. What a matter to consider!
Often times, the danger of carnal choice is not always visible to the physical eyes or immediate, but choice and consequences are always inseparable. Eve, the first woman, made her own choice when she “…saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes…she took of the fruit there of, and did eat…” the consequence was the crashing down of the beautiful creation into an irreparable pieces!
Isaac wanted to bless Esau initially, but ended blessing Jacob because his carnal senses of hearing, touch and smell upon which he relied deceived him. Prophet Samuel also almost made an irrevocable mistake of pouring the kingly anointing on the wrong head if not that he had learnt the secret of consistently hearing God all the way, otherwise he was already carried away by the gorgeous and impressive physical appearance of Eliab which God had rejected. How camel sense can deceive even a prophet of God!
Our senses of vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste are all limited. The human eye can only see a certain range of colors; the human ears have a limited range of wave lengths or pitch they can detect; there is a minimum volume or loudness of a sound that human ear can hear; there is a limitation to the function of your natural senses. They are not dependable when it comes to making life decision of grave future consequences.
Some are regretting today because they took decisions based only on what they could see with their carnal (physical) senses. Be very careful how you make important life choices, the Delilah that suits Samson well as wife eventually became the den of his glorious destiny. The land that looked like the garden of the Lord to the physical eyes of Mr. Lot later turned out to be the land that swallowed up its inhabitants. What suits you well today may not be a suit for you tomorrow. If you asked Samson, he would tell you the bitter agony of carnal choice.
The spies that appeared as friends in the physical eyes of Captain Joshua were actually their avouched enemies in disguise who later became thorns in the flesh of Israel. All these reveal the inadequacy of natural senses in making important life decisions. If others are doing that, it is not expected of children of God.
Those who in choosing marriage partners, business proposals, place of settlements or callings are guided and governed only by their physical senses, and seeks not to check if it is the will of God for their lives will ultimately be disappointed even in that which they particularly aimed at. In all our choices this principle should overrule us: That is best for us which is the will of God.