THE BASTARD SEED:

Generally speaking, what we do not understand we fear and tend to shy away from. In this regard fornication is a perfect match. To slant the meaning of this subject for the sake of appeasement of family members, or the divorcee segment of the church could be a mistake that leads to eternal ruin.

The comments below are the compliments of Paul Tenison who sheds a great deal truth on this subject:

[Here are the Greek words, see Thayer for more detail:

•  4202 - porneia (fornication)

• 4203 - porneuo (commit fornication)

• 4204 - porne (harlot, whore) or female prostitute (feminine gender)

• 4205 - pornos (whoremonger, fornicator) or male prostitute (masculine)

• 1608 - ekporneuo (giving over to fornication) Jude 7

Both Strong’s Concordance Greek Dictionary and Thayer’s trace these back to peremi, which means "to sell". See Thayer’s #4204 and Strong’s Dictionary #4205. Unfortunately, peremi is not in the bible, so it has no Strong number. Interestingly, our word pornography is formed with two Greek words, that literally mean "the writings of prostitutes." Long before there were nude pictures, prostitutes sold erotic fiction that they wrote, which was called pornography.

A key to all of this is in Hebrews 12:17, where Esau is compared to a fornicator, as one who sold his birthright.

Hebrews 12:16-17 "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright......For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."

Also see Jeremiah 49:10-11, where Esau’s seed is spoiled, referring to the fatherless children. In other words, Esau sold his posterity down the river, leaving his offspring in the condition of bastards, without inheritance. That is the condition of one who is born of fornication.

Jeremiah 49:10-11 "But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not......Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me."

It is also of interest what Thayer says about adultery. See #3429 on p. 417. In classical Greek writing, the word means "to falsify, corrupt" or "to usurp unlawful control over the sea."]

In addition to the sin of fornication, Esau was guilty of idolatry in that his belly was his god by selling his birthright for something to eat.

Phil 3:19 "Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)"

Literal fornication had nothing to do with Esau’s sin, but wholly spiritual in nature and profane. However, his idolatrous coveteous desire to fulfill the lust of his body caused him to sell his birthright and therefore, bastard descendants without inheritance were the result of his folly. Certainly, the same applies literally in the act of selling one’s body in the profession of prostitution that results in bastard children born of fornication. We will address coveteousness which is idolatry in our next segment.

The great sin Israel was that of fornication and idolatry by prostituting herself among the heathen. She was deeply entrenched into idolatrous worship among the Egyptians long before God delivered her from the hand of Pharaoh. God continually reminded Israel of her whoredoms through his prophets but to no avail.

Ezek 16:15-20 "But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was......And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so......Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,.....And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them......My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD......Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,"

Ezekiel 16:25-29 ""Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms......Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger. .....Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way......Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied......Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith."

Psalms 106:32-41 "They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:.....Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips......They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:.....But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works......And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them......Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,.....And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood......Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions......Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance......And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them."

Israel sold herself into spiritual sexual slavery among the heathen and to express it another way, she opened her feet or spread her legs and could not get enough.