Dream Word – DESIRE
Genesis 30:14-16
Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." But she said to her," Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" And Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes." When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." And he lay with her that night. NKJV
I was in a large food supplement store recently looking for some powerful vitamins and was once again overwhelmed by the choice before me. “Can I help you today?” Says the assistant. So I explain my need and requirement of information to make the right decision and he looks at me with piercing eyes and says, “Well, let me guess, I am pretty sure you are in your late fifties so I would recommend…” It would appear I really do look my age!
I became a Christian when I was in my nineteenth year and being, well let's just say, more mature in years now, I have been walking with God for over forty years, and tonight, being such an expert on walking with God, I have been invited to speak at a Presbyterian church about the need for a strong devotional life. I shall, of course, be talking about the need for some real spiritual Viagra.
Our text for tonight makes reference to Mandrakes. These are part of the potato family and are also linked to ‘Belladonna,’ or, ‘Deadly Nightshade.’ They are referred to as ‘The Devil’s fruit’ and also as ‘Love Apples,’ and the reason for this is that they are, in effect, an aphrodisiac! It is not just for their mild narcotic, aromatherapeutic properties that Mandrakes were sought after, but in heavy doses, not only did the Mandrake act as an anesthetic but in mild doses, they can, as one old commentator put it, “excite the nerves, act as a stimulant and have the power to excite voluptuousness!” Sounds good to me, put it on my Gold Card.
So, in our text tonight, Leah, the loser in love to Rachel for the heart-attention and all the associated passion of their husband Jacob, is very simply trying to get the sexual edge. Leah is trying to use artificial means to no doubt excite both her and Jacob, into such a passionate lovemaking session, that it will, in turn, result in babies. You see, Rachel and Leah are locked into a competition of love, through the means of child production. Believe me when I tell you, that this still goes on today.
Old Testament stories can sometimes present us in the 21st Century with such a foreign cultural context that the stories we read seem so very strange to us. Yet, what an equally and much more strange world we live in now! A world where have murdered unwanted children in their tens of millions, and yet a world in which conception control, coupled with erections out of control, magnify and increase sexual activity to such an extent, that all the associated terrible transmissions of sexually acquired diseases are multiplied in a mad voluptuous viciousness. Yes, it is a mad, mad, mad, mad world!
Viagra, of course, is the brand name of one of the latest 21st Century chemical Mandrakes. It’s not cheap though, and so many folks are buying the drug online and/or from cheaper places of production, like South America, or China. One of the latest drug manufacturing scams involves the production of Viagra, wherein the 'knock-off' of the drug, whilst presenting itself in identical packaging, colouring, shape, and sizing is not in fact anywhere near the real deal in its potency. Pharmacists have been examining the cheaper product coming into the country to
