Tag Archives: God

creator

Adam and Eve, bible, Genesis, Salvation , , , , , , Leave a comment

Lessons from the Garden: Hide and Seek

by

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9 NIV

When we last left husband and wife, they were hiding from G-d in the garden, having realized that they had done wrong and worse yet, they were completely exposed, physically and morally. Knowing this, and hearing G-d walking in the garden, they not only hid themselves from the presence of G-d, but hid their nakedness with fig leaves (“and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Gen 3:7 NIV).

The Lord G-d, as he was walking, called out to the man, “Where are you?” Gen 3:9 NIV

Now G-d, being all knowing, certainly knew where the man was, so why did he call out for him? I am reminded of a game my wife and I would play with our children. We would place our hand over our eyes or alternately, over our child’s eyes, and say, “Where’s…” followed by the child’s name. Removing our hand, we would then say “There she is!”

As they got a little older, they themselves might look at us and put their hand over there own eyes and we would dutifully say “Where’s…?”. They would then remove their hands and of course we would say “There she is!”.

I was curious about why we play this game, a variant of “Peek-a-Boo, I see you”. As it turns out, there are many practical benefits to this game. First and foremost, it is a reinforcement to the child that while the parent may be gone for a time, there is a reunion. It conveys the message to the child that he is never abandoned, and he learns to feel secure, even when the parent is not in sight.

The story relates that G-d was walking in the garden, and that it was in the cool of the day. This suggests a leisurely stroll. The point is, G-d was not angrily rampaging through the garden, “looking” for the man and the woman, to harm them. He calls out “Where are you?”, giving them the opportunity to reveal themselves rather than Him having to “find” them.

G-d calling out for the man also emphasizes the spiritual separation that has occurred, as does the man’s hiding out with his wife; which indicates that the man himself sensed this separation. After all, what would be the point of hiding from One in which you are in constant communion?

Adam, his fear likely easing somewhat, sensing that G-d is not “out to get him”, replies “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

G-d responds to the man, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Here, Adam admits that he ate from the tree, but, as men are want to do, he blames G-d, and he blames his wife, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

G-d then says to Eve, “What is this you have done?”

Eve, clearly not wishing to be the “fall guy” responds, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

When we become convicted of doing wrong, we can respond in a number of different ways. We can simply deny it; we can admit it and accept responsibility; or we can admit it, but make excuses and blame others.

The man and the woman chose option three. This makes some sense because, on the one hand, it would be pointless to deny it. The evidence of their transgression was obvious; their hiding from G-d, their understanding of their exposure and vulnerability, all pointed to their disobedience of the one law that G-d had given them. And on the other, the culpability of the man in disobeying that law, the woman in initiating the rebellion; but more importantly of the serpent in deceiving them, particularly in deceiving Eve, is undeniable.

Adam and Eve possibly believed that their blame game and excuses would somehow allow them to escape the consequences of what they had done. It did not, as we shall see later.

What strikes me here is how true this story rings. Did these events actually occur in the manner described? I believe so; but that is not what I am referring to when I say that it rings true. I am referring to how well the story explains our current behavior and our current predicament.

We are born into this world helpless and innocent of any wrong doing of our own. From the beginning, we are given laws, rules and regulations. Initially, these rules are designed primarily to protect us from ourselves. “Don’t put that in your mouth” or “Don’t run on the steps”.

As we get older, these prohibitions continue, such as “Don’t walk alone down dark, deserted streets” for example, which also helps protect us from others. But we are also given rules that are designed to protect others from us. Rules such as “Don’t hit your brother” and “Don’t eat all the ice cream”. This last one in particular, I was often prone to violate. Hey, I like ice cream! All right?

In addition to the rules telling us what not to do, we are given rules which we are are obligated to actively do. From “Play nice” to “Honor your mother and your father”. Or how about the “big two”? When asked what the greatest commandment is, “Jesus replied: “‘‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Mathew 22:37-39 NIV

Jesus taught that “all the law and the prophets hang on these two laws”. If you obey them, you will fulfill all of the law and the teachings of the prophets. Simple, right? Easy! Whoa, not so fast! Has anyone ever done this throughout their life, never disobeying them? That is, has anyone besides Jesus; who did fulfill them completely, to the point of torture and death?

The answer, of course, is no. No one besides Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets. I have two witnesses to this. First there is scripture: “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of G-d” (Romans 3:23). Second, my life experience testifies to this, in myself and others. And third, there is the Spirit of truth that G-d sends to all who put their faith in Him, who also testifies to our wrongdoing.

What are we to do then? Romans 3:24 as well as elsewhere in scripture, provides the answer: “… and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”. Faith in G-d, in Jesus Christ!

Just as Adam and Eve put their faith in the serpent, and only then broke the law by eating the fruit, when we put our faith in G-d and the salvation He provides in Jesus, who perfectly kept the law, we also keep the law in Him, not of our own doing.

Next, we will start to look at the consequences of our first parents’ rebellion, in “Lessons from the Fall: Crime and Punishment”.

Uncategorized , , , , , , Leave a comment

Lessons from the Garden: The Fall

by

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying “…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17 NIV

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 NIV

In the Bible story of The Fall, we have three players: G-d, mankind (Adam and Eve), and the serpent. G-d is the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and most importantly, loving Creator. In the overall context of scripture and history, G-d is the protagonist, but in this story it is clearly mankind who is the protagonist, and it is their actions that take center stage. And then there is the serpent. Considered as either representing Satan or actually being Satan, the serpent is the evil tempter who contradicts G-d and leads mankind astray.

After G-d created everything (with the exception of Eve), he placed the man Adam in the Garden to tend to it. G-d had also placed two trees, among the many, in the Garden. The Tree of Life was one, of which it is presumed that if eaten from would bestow eternal life on the partaker. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the other. G-d did not place the man in the garden just to tend to it, but to also derive his sustenance from it. In fact, G-d told Adam (remember, this was before Eve was created) that Adam could eat from any tree in the Garden except from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He told him that if he ate from that tree, he would surely die.

A short time later, less than a day, G-d created the woman Eve as man’s partner and helper, and the single man becomes mankind. Significantly, G-d gives mankind dominion over all of creation: to tend to it, care for it, manage it and rule over it.

Eve eventually finds herself in the presence of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and by the coincidence of coincidences, there is also the serpent. Adam is also nearby observing the proceedings.

The serpent sees Eve looking at the tree and asks her, “Is it true that G-d said that you may not eat from any tree in the Garden?” “No”, Eve responds, “He said we could eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden, except for this tree. He said we could not eat the fruit of this tree, nor even touch it, or surely we would die”

Now this was a curious thing to say in this one respect and that is nowhere does the Bible relate that G-d said the man could not touch the fruit. Also, neither does the Bible anywhere say that G-d told Eve about the rule; He told Adam. So how did Eve know about this rule at all and where did she get the “don’t touch” prohibition?

There are two possibilities: G-d told her, or Adam told her. My money is on the latter. I do not think that Eve came up with the “do not touch” part on her own and G-d wouldn’t add that embellishment for reasons we shall see shortly. This only leaves Adam. He probably thought that telling her she shouldn’t touch the fruit would help insure that she did not eat the fruit.

This is what is known as a “fence law”. It is a law that does not proscribe something that is wrong, in and of itself, but is designed to prevent you from doing that thing that is wrong. Fence laws are ineffective because people do have a knowledge of right and wrong and are more likely to break a fence law, since it does not seem intrinsically wrong. However, once the fence law has been broken, it makes it that much easier to break the law that the fence law was designed to prevent. If this was Adam’s “plan”, then, as we shall see, it appears to have backfired big time.

The serpent responds by not only directly contradicting G-d, “..you certainly will not die…”, but he also impugns G-d’s motives by saying that G-d just wants to prevent Adam and Eve from being wise like G-d, knowing good from evil. At this point, the fruit of “that tree” is looking pretty good to Eve and she plucks from it. What doesn’t happen here is that Eve does not die. Eve, probably noticing this, decides to take a bite. Still, she does not, at least in appearance, die.

As I mentioned, Adam was nearby watching and listening and I am sure he noticed that Eve did not die and is now convinced that G-d was pulling a fast one on him. When Eve offers the fruit to Adam, he also took a bite. Instantly their eyes were opened, they realized that they had done wrong. They also realized their nakedness and out of fear and shame, they hid from G-d.

There is certainly a lot to unravel here. First, why didn’t they die? The short answer is they did. The long answer is that once they disobeyed G-d, their relationship with Him was broken, resulting in their spiritual death. They died spiritually and their physical death was an eventual certainty.

Another result of their disobedience and the breaking of their relationship with G-d was that they now had “independence” from G-d, but at a steep price. Prior to The Fall, Adam and Eve lived in paradise. All of their needs were provided for by G-d. This would include the knowledge of good and evil. So, they did not need the knowledge of good and evil of their own, since G-d would provide that guidance through his Spirit, directly to man, as needed. Now, though, this relationship was broken and the spiritual communion and communication could no longer take place.

It is Interesting to note that the very act of disobedience that gave them a certain independence from G-d also gave them the very thing they needed to survive as “independent” beings; the knowledge of good and evil.

Given the title Lessons from the Garden, what can we learn from the story up to this point and what does it mean to us today?

On the surface, man disobeyed G-d, and as a result, felt shame, guilt and fear; but what actually happened and what is its significance? Man disobeyed G-d because he put his faith in the serpent, and not in G-d. This resulted in two important events. 1) G-d withdrew His Spirit from man resulting in man’s spiritual death and 2) Man switched allegiance from G-d to the serpent, thereby giving dominion of creation to the serpent (Satan). Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

1) G-d withdrew His Spirit from man resulting in man’s spiritual death

What does it mean to be spiritually dead? Maybe a better question is “What does it mean to be spiritually alive?”. To be spiritually alive is to have G-d’s Spirit and a man’s spirit united and in communion. Mankind was created to be dependent on G-d. G-d would provide, directly or indirectly, for all of man’s or woman’s needs. This would not just be physical needs but also spiritual, emotional, and intellectual needs. He would provide for all of mankind’s needs and would do this primarily through the guidance and inspiration of His Spirit within the spirit of each man and woman, and through His creation.

When G-d withdrew His Spirit from mankind, their spirit died and they could no longer draw on their spirit as a source of strength, guidance, and inspiration. As for God’s part, since He could no longer inspire, guide, and strengthen mankind from within their spirit, he had to use another means to communicate with them. As we later see in scripture, He did this through burning bushes, pillars of fire and smoke, through his messengers both human and angelic, and ultimately by Himself taking on human form in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

2) Man switched allegiance from G-d to the serpent, thereby giving dominion of creation to the serpent

G-d had given Adam and Eve dominion over all of creation. They turned this over to the serpent when they put their faith in him instead of in G-d. This is demonstrated in Mathew chapter 4 where Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would only bow down to him. Jesus does not dispute that the devil can do this, give Him all the kingdoms of the world; and not doing so is tacit acknowledgement that those kingdom’s do in fact belong to Satan. He simply responds by saying that according to scripture, one should bow down to G-d alone.

The next time you wonder why there is evil in this world, or you question why a good G-d would allow evil to exist, think about the story of the fall, and who, at least for the time being, really has dominion over this world. Thankfully, there is a remedy. His name is Jesus, the G-d-man who paid the price of redemption and is allowing time for all to be saved who will be saved, before He reclaims His dominion.

The man and the woman now find themselves in a difficult position. They have disobeyed G-d and turned G-d’s creation over to the serpent. Out of fear and shame, they are hiding out in the garden, separated from G-d. What can be done? The story continues in the next post: Lessons from the Garden: Hide and Seek.

Meaning, Morality, Sacrifice, Tyranny , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Final Solution

by

“then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.” Deuteronomy 30:3 NIV

January 27th marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp where it is estimated that 1.1 million people were executed by the Nazis during World War II.  About 90% of those executed were Jews….

Auschwitz was a network of concentration, extermination, and labor camps that the German Nazis built and operated in occupied Poland during World War II. Auschwitz I was originally established in 1940 to hold Polish political prisoners. The extermination of the prisoners there began in 1941. By early 1942, Auschwitz II was constructed as part of the Nazis’ “Final Solution”, their plan to exterminate all of the Jews of Europe, and ultimately the world. It is estimated that at least 1.1 million prisoners were executed at Auschwitz; about 90% of them were Jews. Later came Auschwitz III, a labor camp that supplied workers to an IG Farben factory. (Most of this information is from the Wikipedia article “Auschwitz Concentration Camp“)

When I was very young, probably in the range of 5-7 years old, I came across a set of books belonging to my father. They were a five or six volume set, entitled “A Pictorial History of the Second World War”.

As the name states, the books told the story of WW2, mostly with pictures.  Some of the pictures were relatively benign: pictures of troops in training; of USO gatherings where coffee and donuts were served, or perhaps a USO sponsored dance; and pictures of Women’s Army Corp (WAC) members dealing with the rigors of life in the field.

Other pictures, though, were taken during battles, of land, sea, and air, and showed up-close ground combat, aerial dogfights, and tremendous naval engagements.  As I viewed these pictures, my young heart and mind were awed and made fearful at the same time.  What would I have done, if I had been there?  Would I have been afraid?  Would I have been brave?  Would I have come home?

Still other pictures depicted the aftermath of these battles;  burned out tanks and sinking ships, the wreckage of planes, the desolation in the wake of the atomic bombs, the fire-bombing of Dresden, and of course, the wounded, the dying, and the dead.

One day, as I paged through a volume, I came across pictures that I had difficulty understanding.  They were the pictures of the liberated concentration camps.  War, to a degree, I understood, even at that age.  There were two sides; they disagreed, they fought, killed, and died, for what they believed in.  But the concentration camps were another matter.

At first, I wasn’t even sure of what I was looking at: emaciated survivors with hollowed eyes, crematoriums with half burnt bodies, bodies piled eight feet high awaiting burning or burial, mass open graves with bodies tossed in helter-skelter, where, incredibly, the Nazis had tried to hide their atrocities before the Allied troops arrived, but were forced to flee ahead of the advancing armies before their work was done; and, finally the “showers” themselves, into which the victims, mostly Jews, were herded; and where they were gassed.

This was, to my young mind, incomprehensible.  Why had this been done?  What had these people done to deserve this?  What could anyone possibly do to deserve this?  And who were they, the victims of these crimes?

I went to my parents with my questions about the “war” books, and they were a little upset with me that I had been in their room by myself, something I was not supposed to do. But much more than that, they were horrified that I had been exposed to these things at my young age.  They made an attempt to explain to me what I had seen, but how do you explain such things to someone so young?  How do you explain them to anyone, really?

You can’t, except maybe to simply say that the German Nazis were bad people and, for some reason, they hated the Jewish people.  The bottom line though, was that I was absolutely forbidden to look at the books anymore, and in fact I did not until many years later.

But I never forgot them, and the impression they made.  Over the years I got answers to my questions, but the answers only raised more questions.  For example, to say that the German Nazis considered themselves the “Master Race”, and Jews (and just about everyone else) as inferior; that they were trying to “purify” their nation and their culture, explains nothing.  It is delusional and insane.

A modern, “civilized” nation, one of the most modern and most civilized, put people in charge that not only held these deranged ideas, but believed them to the point that the they would methodically and systematically go about the task of murdering a people with the same detachment and business-like efficiency of a successful sausage maker.

Of course, though the holocaust may be the worst example, persecution of the Jews did not begin with the Nazis.  We should not forget that Israel was born a nation of slaves in Egypt.  The Pharaoh tried to wipe them out when they left Egypt.  Later, the Assyrians defeated the ten northern tribes of Israel, and scattered them to only G-d knows where – and He does.

When the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were in exile in Babylon, another villain whose name begins with an H, Haman, plotted to induce King Xerxes to destroy them, only to end up plotting his own ignominious execution.  In more recent times, the sorrowful, shameful history of most of the nations of Europe, and their relationship with the Jewish people, led up to the holocaust and made it possible.

And of course, unfortunately, the persecution of Israel did not stop with the German Nazis, either.  The day in 1948 when, for the first time in almost 1900 years, Israel once again became a nation, the neighboring countries tried to drive them into the sea, and out of existence.  This is still the desire of many, to this day.

The most amazing thing, though, about this story of attempted genocides and persecution isn’t that it happened, but that the people of Israel not only survived, but have prospered.  This is where the story gets really interesting because all of this was predicted thousands of years ago.

The prophets of the Torah predicted, starting with Moses, that the people of Israel would be scattered and persecuted.  They predicted the people would lose their land and reside in the land of strangers, even those hostile to them; but, they also predicted Israel’s restoration and ultimate vindication

The Christian scriptures, which also had Jewish writers, followed in this tradition and spoke of these things.  Jesus Himself spoke of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple, and the Book of Revelation describes Israel’s restoration in the end times.

What does all of this have to do with explaining the Holocaust?

I am reminded here of the story of Job.  In the beginning of the Book of Job, we find G-d holding court, and in comes Satan from “roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it”. (Job 1:7 NIV)

G-d asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless–a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil”. (Job 1:8 NIV)

Satan replied that, of course Job fears G-d – G-d has protected Job and made him wealthy, but if G-d took everything that Job had, he would curse G-d. G-d then gave Satan permission to take everything from Job, except his health. (Job 1:9-12 NIV).

Satan left G-d’s presence and attacked Job, taking or destroying all of his possessions, and even killing his children, but Job did not curse G-d. (Job 1:13-22 NIV)

Later, G-d was once again holding court and Satan was there.  G-d pointed out to Satan that even though Satan had challenged G-d into allowing him to attack Job, Job did not curse G-d.  Satan responded that Job still had his health, and if G-d allowed him to take Job’s health from him, then surely Job would curse G-d.  G-d then gave him permission to take even Job’s health from him, but not his life.  (Job 2:1-6 NIV)

Satan once again left G-d’s presence, and afflicted Job with terrible, painful sores all over his body.  He was in such torment, even his wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9 NIV)  But Job refused to do so, and in the end, Job’s fortunes were restored and he was given many children. (Job 42:12-17 NIV)

In my narration, I have skipped many chapters, in most of which three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, try to convince Job that he must have done something wrong for G-d to allow him to be treated this way.  Job protests his innocence, and at times, questions God’s justice, because He allows the wicked to prosper and the righteous to suffer.

Job’s friends, while they say many true things about G-d,  persist, and even accuse Job of self-righteousness.  This is of course wrong, as G-d Himself said at the beginning of the story that Job was righteous in all his ways; and besides, innocent people suffer all the time in this world, a point which Job’s friends seemed to have missed.

One more of Job’s friends speaks up, Elihu, but instead of claiming that Job must have sinned in some way in order to suffer, he addresses Job’s attitude in the present.  He asserts G-d’s essential righteousness and tells Job that G-d cannot treat anyone wrongly.  He addresses Job’s complaints against G-d, and provides answers to those complaints, but unlike Job’s other friends, he never does accuse Job of unrighteousness.

Finally, G-d speaks up, but rather than try to explain Himself, He challenges Job with a series of questions; just as Job had questioned and challenged Him. Of course, Job is completely unable to answer G-d’s questions but, through these questions, G-d demonstrates to Job His omnipotence and His sovereignty, and Job realizes his folly for questioning G-d, and repents.  When G-d is done speaking to him, Job responds:

“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:2-6

But G-d did one more very important thing besides question Job, He fully vindicated him.  He told the three friends who had accused Job of unrighteousness that they had done wrong; that hey needed to make the appropriate sacrifices in the hope that Job would forgive and pray for them; so they would not be punished for their own folly.  Job of course prayed for his friends, and was rewarded with far more wealth than he had before.  He was given seven sons, and three daughters who were the most beautiful in all the land, and he saw his children’s children to the fourth generation. (Job 42:12-17)

There are many lessons that can be learned from the Book of Job, but one that stands out for me and is most relevant here is that, according to the scriptures, there is a war going on in the spiritual realm.  It is a war between good and evil, between G-d and Satan.  The war began when the angel Lucifer, the most beautiful and intelligent of G-d’s creation, let pride enter his heart and determined to make himself god in G-d’s place.  One of his strategies is to demonstrate that G-d is not sovereign, that He is a liar, and unfit to be G-d.

As part of this war, Satan enlisted man on his side through cleverness and deception.  G-d, out of love for man, developed a plan; His own strategy to win the war, and to win man back.  G-d could have made other choices, such as to simply destroy Satan and the angels that followed him, as well as man, and started over; but, what would that have proven? In a creation where G-d has given created beings the ability to choose, brute force solves nothing, and persuasion, diplomacy, and most important, love, are necessary.

Mankind, then, is both a combatant and a battlefield in this war.  Satan continues his deception and is constantly trying to create doubt in men’s and women’s hearts and minds about G-d.  G-d simply continues to show His love for them, and requires them only to have faith in Him and His plan.

The book of Job teaches many other lessons; one very important one is about our attitude towards those who suffer and how we should treat them.  Do we accuse them of sin and unrighteousness, or do we provide them with comfort?  Do we tell them that G-d is punishing them, or do we assure them that G-d loves them and cares for them?

Our answers to those questions could very well determine whose side we are on in this great, millenniums long war that we are in.

Revised and republished January 2023.