We live in a world broken by sin. We laugh together that I continually point to
Genesis 3 for explanations but it does go back to that one little thing, that
little sin of disobedience in the garden.
Over the years you have surely heard marijuana referred to as a
"gateway drug", that it is non-addictive but the pleasure derived
from it leads to seeking other pleasures in other places. Whether that is true or not is debatable but
it applies to sin and nowhere is it clearer than in Genesis. After the sin of eating of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil we didn't get wisdom. We may have known good and evil but we didn't
get the wisdom and will to choose the good.
God asked two simple questions of Adam, “Who told you that
you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to
eat?” Adam's response was to shift blame
first to the woman and then, quickly, to God Himself, “The woman whom you gave
to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Eve did somewhat better in her moment in the
box, at least she didn't blame God: Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What
is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I
ate.” Why didn't God intervene to stop
them?
It seems such a small thing but it brought sin and
disobedience and death into the world.
No longer would we know anything that was truly good until Jesus came
into the world and we proved that after millennia of searching and even being
given revelation of God by God we had no idea what good looks like and we
destroyed it by mutilating Him and putting Him on a cross.
Only one chapter later in Genesis we have the first murder,
Cain killed Abel because he was jealous that God had regard for Abel's
sacrifice but Cain's was not regarded. Cain sought to do away with the competition by
killing his brother but we know that God saw this heinous act and confronted
Cain. Why didn't God stop it? Why allow Cain to live once He knew that this
was conceived in his heart?
Why didn't God intervene?
That is the question that is always asked in such situations, it is the
question the world is asking today, the day after the murder of those innocent
children in Connecticut. They were
simply at school, counting the days until Christmas, singing songs, playing and
learning so that when they grew up they could take their place in society when
a young man entered their school and ended all the hopes and dreams their
parents had for them, killing 20 of those who are precious in His sight.
We become like Adam, blaming God when in reality it is sin
that is to blame, sin that entered the world through the serpent in the
garden. The Bible is brutally honest
about who is to blame, we are, we allowed our desire to be like God to triumph
over humility and dependence on Him. The
serpent merely offered us the way to independence and we took it. We take it all the time, we can't blame Adam.
In this season of Advent we are reminded that the Lord
desires a people who are different from the world, who are striving through
their own effort and the power of the Holy Spirit working within them against
desire and against the drive to be independent, who know they are radically
dependent on Him if they are to be true image-bearers. The world is living in darkness and under the
power of satan who thought the kingdoms of the world were his to offer
Jesus. Sin reigns. The first of God's creations was light, John
tells us that Jesus is the true light and that His life is the light of men and
that " The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it."
In this dark hour we are to be the light of Christ to the
world. We are to be those who bring hope
and life in the midst of despair and death.
Nearly fifty years ago an Episcopal organist named Kathleen
Thomerson wrote a song called, I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light. There has never been a more appropriate
moment to truly sing this song and mean it with all our hearts, the world needs
a people who are dedicated to becoming children of the light.
I want to walk as a
child of the Light I want to follow Jesus. God set the stars To give light to the world
The Star of my life is Jesus.
In Him there is no
darkness at all. The night and the day are both alike. The lamb is the Light of
the city of God. Shine in my heart Lord
Jesus.
I want to see the
Brightness of God. I want to look at Jesus. Clear Son of righteousness shine on my path
And show me the way to the Father.
I’m looking for the
coming of Christ. I want to be with
Jesus. When we have run, with patience,
the race We shall know the joy of Jesus.
