The Dangers of Curiosity

Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. Genesis 34:1

Has curiosity ever gotten you in trouble? There was something in you that just had to know something you didn’t know ~ but could know ~ if you pursued it. Restraint and prudence were set aside.

Curiosity ruined Dinah’s life.  She had grown up sheltered. She only knew the ways of her family. She’d heard stories of other tribes but had never seen them up close. But now, living on the outskirts of Shechem, she was interested to know the ways of these peculiar people. So, she left the protection of her family and wandered off just to satisfy her curiosity. She would be raped and her innocence would be stolen.

There are many things God tells his children to stay away from. Mystical spirituality, peripheral and beguiling edges of the occult, these beckon the curious. So many have tasted hell’s delights and paid a high price for the after-effects. A door was opened that gave Satan access to their lives. Most, even know, don’t know how to close it, or know that it can be closed, and live a life of unrest that comes from spiritual compromise. 

What am I to do with my God-given curiosity? What can I do about my thirst for what is hidden? Is it wrong to want to know the secrets of the kingdom? No. I am the child of a Father who loves to teach me His ways. “There is a God in heaven who is the revealer of mysteries.” Daniel 2:28   My thirst for kingdom secrets, the ones that leave me in openmouthed in wonder, is found in God. If I ask Him to teach me, He takes me to stunning places of wisdom and understanding. When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. John 16:13

The problem is this ~ Satan has led us to believe that spending time with God is boring, that reading scripture is monotonous, and that prayer is the stodgiest thing of all. The problem is compounded by the fact that many of our spiritual teachers aren’t alive to the Spirit of God and keep perpetuating the lie. They are merely reporters of their traditions rather than revealers of the spiritual keys of the kingdom.  We are left to believe that to be emotionally, intellectually, and emotionally stimulated, we must go outside of scripture to find it.  Tarot cards beckon.  Horoscopes attract.  The sins of the flesh glitter.  And the price of consumption is the ravaging of our spiritual boundaries by an enemy who slithers into our property because we give him the legal right to oppress. 

I love to meet with others whose hearts bubble over with what God is teaching them.   Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Romans 11:33 If I set aside an hour to share and to pray with them, the time flies by, and the clock becomes an enemy.  It seems we just got started.  The older I get, the more I discover that life in the Spirit is like a suspension in time.  

Curiosity can be dangerous!  While Dinah didn’t sin by leaving home, she ventured outside safe boundary lines. She would never be the same again. It doesn’t matter who it is ~ roaming outside God’s boundary lines exacts a stiff price and is never worth it. The best things in life are found at home in the courts of our King.

I pray for everyone reading this who doesn’t know You as the revealer of secrets. Open the eyes of their spirit to Your Word. Open the ears of their heart to Your voice. Feed us at Your table, and we will be content. Amen