Genesis 3 - Note 1..Misery Loves Company

At 48 I've watched very, very many movies and television programs. Perhaps because I am male and wired for these things most of them have included varying levels of suspense, danger, action, and yes, murder/killing. I probably do not want to know how deeply these programs have informed my own world view and proclivities for lust, anger, rage, or revenge.

Many have featured usually a villain, but sometimes a "hero" who, when faced with their unavoidable death, have declared with inspiring heat some variation of " If I'm going, then I'm taking as many with me before I go!". This, as far as I can tell, is a dramatization of the old saying "Misery loves company".

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil."

The Satan, the Accuser, the Adversary, the Devil...appears from scripture to have been the first of God's creation to desire self over God, and to have rebelled against Him in his disobedience.

In the perfect beauty of the Garden, understanding fully choice and consequence, he possesses all he needs to lead God's highest creation, who also has free will, formed in some regard in God's own image, into the depths of his own misery.

No wonder the most excoriating judgements in the New Testament are reserved for those who knowingly set before others the traps they themselves have fallen into.

Genesis 2:18-3:6 (selected) The Power of Loneliness

When I was in high school I read a series of books by Stephen R. Donaldson titled "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" in which a formerly well known and therefore wealthy writer had developed leprosy which ultimately led to his wife and children leaving him alone in his rural home.

He was afraid to venture out in case an unknown scratch led to gangrene (leprosy damages peripheral nerves and without the pain from injury registering, the smallest injury can lead to infection therefore gangrene), but also afraid to be cut off from his fellow man. The power of loneliness finally drove him to walk into town both to overcome fear of injury, and to prove that he was still part of humanity.

Loneliness, the absence of "one like me", is a powerful motivator. Apparently God did not like loneliness.

"And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him."
"...but for man there was not found a help meet for him. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:and they shall be one flesh."

The value of this gift was inestimable.

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."

The gift of "one like me" was perhaps so highly valued that, fearing to lose companionship and be lonely again, Adam ate. I have done likewise on many occasions to avoid being "left out".

Ironically, choosing the gift over the Giver will ultimately lead to a much greater separation. All other right relationships are derivative of the one we have with God and reach there fullest potential as a result.

A Good and Perfect Trust - Genesis 1:28

I was a boy in the 1970's and can remember a commercial which portrayed a native American overlooking the refuse of a consuming nation scattered over the once beautiful landscape. It was well conceived and striking to me because of the single tear which ran down the weathered cheek of a strong man obviously (at least as portrayed) saddened by the lack of stewardship which would cover green grass, and clean water with garbage. The actors name was Iron-Eyes Cody and once-upon-a-time my 20 something year old dad met him while wandering the West in his youth - a story for another time.

"And God blessed them:and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

I am not an environmentalist in the modern quasi-political sense, but I do consider myself a steward of all that God has blessed me with. I am the first to admit that my stewardship is inconsistent and easily overcome by my own wants..but it is a frequently reoccurring thought particularly as I age and look around at the world my children will inherit.

God appears to have created all of the wonders of the earth, indeed the universe, as a gift for mankind. It was all good and the stewardship given to man was also good and perfect. Yet all relationships, however unconnected we may think they are, were and are bound up in the relationship between created man and Creator God. It seems apparent to me that our stewardship of things below us was broken along with the relationship with He who is above us.

The tears of a saddened Indian are as fitting a tribute to paradise lost as I can think of.

As knowledge of God and His love diminish it should be no surprise that His gifts would be valued less.

Genesis 1

I have read through the Bible before..actually a few times cover to cover. Currently I am doing the same however, this time I am allowing myself the luxury of sitting down to think and imagine when I a stumble over one of the "roots" of this "tree". It reminds me of the walks I took in the woods after school or during hot, boring summer days as a boy when I would stop to watch a hawk or lay down to listen to the breeze in the leaves.

You'd think I'd have more to say about the creation account in Genesis 1, and I would if this were a formal Bible study...but it's not.

Verses 11-13 resonate at this time because I am, as I always do, marveling at the tiny sprouts of carrots, butternut squash, onions, spinach, and mustard greens emerging from a hard, dry, not beautiful, apparently dead seed. So small, tender, and vulnerable but holding the promise of good things to come.

"And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit- trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth:and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after their kind:and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day."

A preacher from another, distant congregation visited ours and spoke one Sunday evening and his words regarding God's generative power became seeds in my mind which have continued to sprout and grow themselves. He said "We can count the number of seeds in a fruit and extrapolate the number of fruit produced and following this, perform the same multiplication using the number of fruit to tell the number of future seeds and so forth and so on. God knows the number of trees in a seed."

These thoughts reveal to me that I can generate nothing, that God prepares marvels of provision for His children, and that so long after the world was twisted out of shape by sin - seeds still obey their divine instructions for my benefit. In my better moments...I am grateful.

Hebrews 4:12 & 13 "For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two- edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight:but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

I am a simple man, and an imperfect follower of Jesus. I read the Bible frequently and make notes, comparisons, and wonder about things as I do so and have no other purpose for this blog than to share some of those things in the hopes that they be an encouragement to others seeking hope in what seems to be an increasingly despairing and hopeless world.

Most of what I think about and write are hybrid thoughts affected by a multitude of acquaintances, friends, family, authors, and circumstances. We are all, to some degree, products of these influences. It has been said by someone else that, in pride, one reads the Bible thinking they will reveal or uncover God and His purposes when the truth is the reverse...as the Bible is read, it is God revealing and uncovering the reader and his/her purposes to themselves so they can rightly understand their need for Him. This has been my experience and is the reason I chose Hebrews 4:12 as the header, and "The Two-Edged Sword" as the title for this blog.

May my posts awaken in you a seeking for objective Truth, and an interest in this sacred book which, as far as I can determine, has as it's primary purpose, the restoration of created man to Creator God both in this (very) temporary physical life, and after that, in eternity apart from the darkness and broken misery which haunts all of our steps now.

The following posts will be in order of the "books" of the Bible.

Onward and Upward!