Alec
and Eva married right out of college. Eva’s
parents were deceased and she was an only child, but
Alec’s parents treated her
as if she was their biological daughter.
The newlyweds both landed great jobs at Fortune 500 companies, Eva in
marketing for a major realtor and Alec as a day trader for Charles Schwab. Their six figure a year salaries allowed them
many of the luxuries that most people dreamed about. Alec’s dad cautioned them to save more and
spend a little less lavishly but they blew him off because they felt they had
time on their side because of their youth and then it happened, the bottom fell
out of the economy. Eva was stunned when
she was called into her boss’ office late Friday afternoon and was informed
that the entire department was being eliminated and though she received a
generous severance for her past seven years of service it would probably only
last a few months. She called Alec as
soon as she got to her car. He consoled
her as best he could and told her they would discuss it more over the weekend. Early the next morning after breakfast they took
a serious look at their finances and based upon Alec’s projection things
weren’t as bad as Eva thought. To their
horror two months later Alec was laid off and the financial avalanche over the
next few months ended with an eviction notice on the door of their million
dollar home. Needless to say they were
completely devastated.
Alec’s parents treated her
as if she was their biological daughter.
The newlyweds both landed great jobs at Fortune 500 companies, Eva in
marketing for a major realtor and Alec as a day trader for Charles Schwab. Their six figure a year salaries allowed them
many of the luxuries that most people dreamed about. Alec’s dad cautioned them to save more and
spend a little less lavishly but they blew him off because they felt they had
time on their side because of their youth and then it happened, the bottom fell
out of the economy. Eva was stunned when
she was called into her boss’ office late Friday afternoon and was informed
that the entire department was being eliminated and though she received a
generous severance for her past seven years of service it would probably only
last a few months. She called Alec as
soon as she got to her car. He consoled
her as best he could and told her they would discuss it more over the weekend. Early the next morning after breakfast they took
a serious look at their finances and based upon Alec’s projection things
weren’t as bad as Eva thought. To their
horror two months later Alec was laid off and the financial avalanche over the
next few months ended with an eviction notice on the door of their million
dollar home. Needless to say they were
completely devastated.
Unbeknownst
to Eva and Alec another couple faced a similar situation several thousand years
ago but they weren’t evicted from their home for failure to pay, it was for a failure
to obey.
As
we discussed in the “Sin is the Blame” blog Monday, April 7, 2014, Man (Adam) and Woman
(Eve) disobeyed God’s commandment (sinned) when they ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In addition to the consequences for their
actions as stated in Genesis 3:15-19 they were also evicted from the garden,
their home.
Victory Nugget: the Bible does not say what type of fruit Eve ate.
So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of
Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of
Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that
flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:23-24 (NLT)
What
is sin: 1 John 3:4 (NLT) Everyone
who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. A sinner is one that habitually breaks God’s
law, so the person who does things that we are familiar with: theft, murder
(hatred), adultery, fornication (sex between two people that are not married),
lying, pride, taking advantage of people, etc.
But did not know that it is a sin to fail to accept Christ as your
personal savior? 1 John 3:23 (NLT): And this is his commandment: We must believe
in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he
commanded us.
Adam
and Eve’s thoughtless act carried a huge weight that didn’t just affect them,
it affected mankind as a whole because we inherited Adam’s sinful nature. We don’t have to be taught to do wrong, it’s
instinctive and the more we get away with the more we want to do. Have you ever observed small children that can
barely walk or talk but they can shake their heads “no.” You tell them not to do something and they do
it anyway until you set “healthy boundaries” and some of them will still
challenge you. I hear you: but it’s just
a baby they doesn’t know any better.
Exactly, no one has taught them to be disobedient, selfish, etc., it is
instinctive.
What’s
even more catastrophic is the fact that sin separated Adam and Eve from God. To be clear, God still loved them both and it
was because of his loving kindness that He did not kill them both instantly. Remember, the consequence for eating the
forbidden fruit was death. Instead, He
punished them and then evicted them from the Garden and they had to learn how
to survive on their own. Those days of
hanging out with God when He would leave heaven and come to the Garden were
over. God didn’t abandon them, nor did
he throw their sin up in their face, but the relationship was completely
different. It sounds harsh, doesn’t
it? Well, it’s called tough love and I
am sure it hurt God even more to have to evict His own creation.
Now
that Adam and Eve don’t have the “hook up” (e.g. protection, fringe benefits of
their relationship) with God they’re on their own probably kicking themselves and
blaming each other for being tricked by the serpent. I can only imagine what
that argument must have sounded like (“Man, this is all your fault, why didn’t
you stop that Serpent.” “Woman, you tripping, I told you we should have stayed
on the Westside, but no, you wouldn’t listen, this is all your fault.”
Etc.) For the first time they are
separated from God and that has to be absolutely devastating. They have no covering, they had to be full of
anxiety, questions and fears. Can you
imagine the void that they felt? Of
course you can, it’s the same void you felt before you surrendered to God and
if you haven’t yet it’s the feeling of emptiness that you can never fill with
people, places or things. Nothing that
you try satisfies the emptiness.
They
survive instinctively and have their first child, Cain, as well as several
others. Cain murders his brother Abel
out of jealousy, God banishes him from his family and curses him as a homeless
wanderer. (Genesis 4). Between Adam and his descendants, they populated
the earth as God instructed them but as they multiplied in number so did the
sin.
The Lord
observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that
everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. Genesis 6:5 (NLT)
It
was nothing like the crime that we are familiar with because at least we do
have some “law and order”. It was so bad
that God literally regretted ever creating man.
I’m talking about complete anarchy and most assuredly no laws except for
the ones they may have made up on the fly. I would imagine that their might
have been some type of hierarchy because as human beings there is usually
someone who stands out as a leader, asserts his/her strength. The weaker ones will follow this person
blindly and/or out of fear, but the renegades who decide they don’t have to
listen to them don’t and the ongoing fight for power ensues. I have no scripture to confirm this, I am
merely giving my opinion based upon the nature of mankind.
All
of this because of one Man’s disobedience, there has to be a solution, and
there is, but it calls for drastic steps which we’ll cover tomorrow.
In
His Humble Service
Tania
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