As the orange sun begins setting in Thailand the horizon pulls the warmth from the city like a warm ocean current receding, and the sudden shock of cool water sends shivers down the spine. The crooked smile of Jezebel curves and twists with the shape of the moon as she makes her presence known in the doorways and on the corners.

 
We begin to settle ourselves in a position of prayer – readying ourselves for the night of work ahead of us.

As we make our way down the street, the neon lighting reflects faces that look far too familiar to home in a way that I do not long to recall. A look of panic streams across some of the faces, afraid that our faces are far too familiar as well. I believe prayer has gone up in both parties.

Each woman has learned her body well. She knows how to produce a sudden flush in man's face, a rise in body temperature, a quickened heartbeat. They extend a lingering touch on a man's arm suggesting he come in for a drink of a well that promises to quench.

 As we take our seat in the bar the women respond to genuine kindness as if encountering it for the first time. I am mystified by their ability to open up their arms and hearts after having them set aside for the purpose of body and debased sex. Yet, in spite of the acts of the men before us, we sit around a table as friends and sisters, and we play Dominos and laugh far into the night. 

At times, I find myself struggling to stay present and not retreat to my mind that is racing with questions. With one eye on the game I watch as the youngest, with braces still on, leaves the game to greet the man who just entered the bar. The night goes on in a bustle of degrading music and a blurred stream of men leaving the bars with these fragile women on their arms. Each man and woman is certain that they are filling their cisterns- money for her, sexual gratification for him, only to find that they are digging the well deeper and deeper.

As thoughts and questions fight for my attention in my head and anger burns hot within me – God reminds me of the story He shared with His children, the children of Israel.


 
 
"You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around your harlotry. You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite."

 

Ezekiel 16:31-34

 

God hates sin. The sin that does not accept the price Christ paid. And He compares it to harlotry. When people sin they believe they are gaining the world, and they are, and forfeiting their souls to the enemy. They are not being paid or gaining anything, but in fact paying out of their souls. They have scorned the payment that Christ paid for their freedom. They have sold themselves in to the bondage of sin where they are left to be abused.

 

It is a sin that spits on the God who cries out for His children to turn to Him with their entire heart. It is a sin against the God who, verses earlier, says:

 

"As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.'

"And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you ‘Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live' I made you thrive like a plant in the field and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.'

"When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine," says the Lord God.

Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck. And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head."

"Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you," says the Lord God.

 

Ezekiel 16:4-14
 
 
You need not go far from home to find those in prostitution. We have a world full of lost sheep who have given themselves over to sin and false intimacy. Like these women, they walk in ignorance of a life that is better, and available to them in Christ. A life that promises protection, purity, wholeness, and true intimacy. It is not based on "what you can do, or give" the man that walks in the bar. It is based on love without condition. A love that extends to the bars and brothels, the valleys and pits, to the deepest, darkest areas of our hearts. He loved us while we were still in sin. We were all in that bar. We were all bound in prostitution. We all needed the light to expose the darkness. Now it is up to you and I to bring the light to those dark corners! What we have freely received, we can freely give!