Genesis 39 vs 6-10, deals with seduction and objectification.
Contextually, it seems that either Potiphar, Joseph’s boss, was an actual castrated eunuch in Pharoah’s employ and couldn’t satisfy his wife, or that Potiphar’s wife was promiscuous. Either way, she tried to seduce Joseph, who is one of few the Bible describes as well built and attractive.
‘Enduring Word’, point iii, touches on a complex sexual placebo effect known loosely as sexual cannibalism. The namesake, sexual cannibalism, has no reference to physical cannibalism. Rather, it deals with the psychological delusion we play on ourselves by pursuing the IDEA a sexual conquest will do for us.
David Guzik, ‘Enduring Word’, mentions in point iii, two critical points relevant to sexual cannibalism- challenge and self-worth from feeling desirable. Both these are massively hypnotic forces in the illusion sexual cannibalism paints in our mind.
UNDERSTANDINGING SEXUAL-CANNIBALISM:
To clarify cannibalism in its ancient origins was steeped in the deception that if a person ate the body part of another they would attain the power they perceived that body part to have. This, obviously, is a false notion, but decidedly a demonically inspired behaviour practiced across many ancient cultures.
How this translates to sex is that, like Potipher’s wife, we build a ‘perceived truth’ around the symbolic attachment of our objectification- Joseph was well built and handsome- and we create a fantasy of what the reward will be when we conquer the symbol of our attraction.
A few examples:
Some people have a festish for overweight people.
Some for BDSM.
Some pedophillia.
Some for beastiality.
Some for sex in public.
The point is that the placebo effect created by the dopamine rush from the pursuit of the symbolic meaning of the fantasy, and the dopamine rush from relaying what the symbolic fantasy means create a deception in our mind blinding us from the reality of what lies beneath the object we place our attraction onto.
Once we conquer a person/object/animal that fits our fantasy, like a drug, we want more of it as we crave the chemical high we get from conquest. This creates the false notion of power which is perceived to momentarily fulfill our need for validation and self-worth.
Here is the tea…….
IT IS NOT REAL!!!
The reality is, as in Potipher’s wife’s case, is the need behind our objectification is the REAL ISSUE, not the cannibalistic pursuit of a fantasy to AVOID the real needs behind our delusions of sexual symbolism.
QUESTION:
Have you ever been attracted to someone, and when you get chatting you realise that something didn’t appeal to you anymore?
Guess what?
You fell for the mental game of sexual-cannibalism. The idea of something drove you to objectify the person in the hope to feed yourself something.
We ALL have fallen for the powerful seduction of our mind conning us with fantasy and objectification of symbols regarding sex.
A PERSONAL TESTIMONY:
When I did Sexual Healing Therapy in my 30’s, I was stunned that my mind equated attraction to muscles. In turn, muscles symbolised protection. The NEED to be protected was my child-mind crying out as a sexual abuse survivor.
This is one of many symbols my mind attached to objectification.
As I worked through, with God, what the needs were behind my symbols, God showed me godly and healthier ways to meet those symbolic delusions.
Point iii, ‘Enduring Word’, Genesis 39 vs 6-10, is so incredibly loaded, it can be studied for years.
I hope that this post gets you to think about what your sexual symbols are, and how they drive your own sexual-cannibalism that leaves you despondent because humans can never live up to the delusions in our mind fuelled by dopamine highs.
A few questions to ask yourself when you find yourself objectifying someone:
1) What is it about this person that is attracting me?
2) What does the thing mean to me?
3) Why does the thing mean that to me?
4) Is it really true, or is it just an idea that the meaning of the thing can be captured by me?
5) Why do I want to possess the thing for myself?
6) What am I missing that I want to act out this way?
7) Can I meet my need in a way that doesn’t use other people/object/animals in such a disrespectful way?
8.) Where does my need come from?
9) What do I need to heal to eliminate the need from reoccurring?
10) What about the rest of the person beyond my symbolic attachment to my attraction? Are they a person beyond my symbolic reference of them? If so, why am I excluding the whole person in favour of fantasy? How would I feel if I was treated as a part and not a person deserving of respect as a creation of God?
I want to encourage you, God loves us, and wants to heal the ugly parts in us that are a result of unhealed stuff in us. The devil (yes, he is real) exploits our unhealed parts and feeds us fantasies that become sexual-cannibalistic behaviours.
THE TRUTH IS….. behind the objectified sexual symbols, is a person in you that wants to be loved, and your mind has created the FALSE NOTION that you can only be loved by fulfilling the fantasy.
THAT IS NOT TRUE, you can heal.
AND JESUS WANTS TO SHOW YOU A LOVE BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION.
I am 50 next month, and have been practicing celibacy for 6 years, a follower of Jesus for 20 years. It has taken a lot of work, with God’s Patient Help, to let go of hurts that made me be someone I never liked.
ONE THING I PROMISE YOU, I LOOOOOOOOVE JESUS. I have learned the Goodness of God who has held me through every trial, failure, and astonishing healing process.
I KNOW THAT JESUS IS REAL, and you can too.
BESIDES, Jesus already knows everything about us and still chose the cross to save us, so we don’t need to be ashamed that hurt created monsters in us. God already knows.
The BEST ADVICE I can give you is, “Choose Jesus and let Him unmonster you.”
Understanding Christian Sexual Ethics:
JESUS LOVES YOU.
#Hayibo 