DEAD FLIES

 DEAD FLIES

Ecclesiastes 10:1 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,  so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

PEOPLE LIVING IN the Middle Eastern countries have always held perfumes and fragrance in high esteem -- whether during  Biblical days or in our modern era. Its prohibitive cost had not stopped men and women,  rich and poor alike, from striving to possess it. The world’s most expensive perfume today is available in Dubai, at $ 1.29 million (more than 10 crore rupees) a bottle! Wouldn't it be catastrophic if a little fly fall into  one of these and turn the whole precious content of the bottle into a filthy stench?

THERE ARE A NUMBER of references to perfumes  found accross the Bible:

St. John narrates a curious incident (John 12:3-8) when Mary took a pound of ointment of pure liquid nard (a rare and highly expensive perfume), poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. The disciples were indignant. "What a waste!" they lamented "this rare perfume could have been sold for 300 Dinari (a whole year's wages of an average person) and the proceedings given to the poor and destitute!" But Jesus admired the woman's action as an anointment and told the disciples not to stop her. The scenario became so important that three of the four Gospel writers recorded it.

IT IS INTERESTING to note that Joseph--who is considered as a type of Jesus--was sold to the Egyptians along with camel loads of spices, balm, and myrrh (Genesis 37:25).  Either as a domestic slave at Potiphar’s home or during his long incarceration or at his exalted position of the governor of the province, Joseph never failed to spread his fragrance of righteousness. 

MYRRH IS ALSO listed as an ingredient in the holy anointing oil used to anoint the tabernacle, high priests and kings. God instructed Moses to employ different perfumes generously during worship.  The author of Psalm 45 praises God saying God is anointed with the oil of joy; all His robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia! (verses 7, 8). Myrrh may well be chosen as the type of Jesus on account of its preciousness, its perfume, its pleasantness, it's healing, preserving, disinfecting qualities, and its connection with sacrifice. Jesus' body was anointed before burial with perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. 

THUS PERFUME occupied an exalted place in worship. Realising this,  Solomon adds in Ecclesiastes 10:1b ''so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor''.

It is important we understand that our souls are very dear and precious to God. That’s the reason why God the Father sent His only begotten Son to die on the Cross for us. 

THUS A LITTLE folley on our side, that is, “a dead fly” can ruin our standing with God. The Bible says (2 Corinthians 2:15, 16) "For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life."  Paul  asserts we are an expensive perfume to God, and we must attract believers and unbelievers toward Christ by our sweet fragrance. We are not to repel people by being a dead fly that would spread stench all around. It is imperative for us to keep our soul (heart, mind, and conscience) undefiled before God. As we live in a world that is filled with every kind of ungodliness, evil and sin that grieve the Holy Spirit, we must make a conscious effort to keep our souls unsullied. Please read the following:

1Timothy 1:5 Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure heart and a good  conscience and sincere faith.

1Timothy 3:9 They must possess the mystic secret of the faith with a clear conscience.

2Timothy 1:3 I thank God Whom I worship with a pure conscience, in the spirit of my fathers, when without ceasing I remember you night and day in my prayers...

AND THERE IS MORE! Paul writes about the ungodly in Romans 1:29-31 "They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,  slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;  they are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless". 

And in Galatians 5:19-21 "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God".

IT IS IRONIC THAT the very man who authored this brilliant anology himself became a victim of worldliness and turned away from God allowing the "dead flies" of his foreign wifes  ruin his great wisdom, honour and reputation inviting God's displeasure. David's single act of sin - the dead flies of adultery and murder - brought ruin up on himself, his family over three generations and eventually engulfed  the whole nation. Judas Iscariot allowed the dead flies of greed into his life and met a tragic end to his life and ministry.

THE SCRIPTURES contain many more examples of the dead flies in your soul to defile you. A bottle of perfume or a cup of coffee can easily be rejected because of its impurity. But God will never disown you because of your many transgressions. If you come to him in repentance He will purify and you will be clean; He will wash you, and you will be whiter than snow. (See Psalm 51:7).

IF WE CLAIM  we're free of sin, we are only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins - make clean breast of them - He won't let us down; He'll be true to Himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. (See   1 John 1:6, 7). Let us pray like David did -  "behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart.  Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow... Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:6,7,10).

Get yourself rid of your Dead Flies now and get ready to meet your saviour.

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