Rebellion and Mercy
The Bible tells about the next five generations of descendants from the line of Cain. No further mention is made of any more of them. Adam and Eve produced another son, Seth; and the Bible follows his line, which will eventually give rise to the incarnated Christ. Here, we will just consider the first ten generations of Seth’s descendants.
At the time of Seth’s tenth generation of descendants, the entire population on the earth had degraded into unrelenting sin – rebelling against God in every fathomable way:
The LORD saw that the wickedness (depravity) of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination or intent of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. Gn. 6:5 AMP
The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence…for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Gn. 11, 12. NKJV
If all of humankind was in rebellion, it means that they had turned away from being led by their spirit – yielding instead to every desire of the flesh. The Bible gives us a crystal-clear picture of what the corruption of the flesh manifests:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Gal. 5:19 – 21. ESV
Not a pretty picture. Thus, the world was separated from its Creator. God could do nothing to change the hearts of humankind, because that would mean violating their free will, which He will not do.
God was crestfallen (Gn. 6:6), because He loved them. However, God cannot pardon those who will not change; He must let them fall victim to the consequences of their actions. Sadly, seeing no way out, because God cannot abide with sin, He decided to wipe humanity off the earth (Gn. 6:7).
Yet, God’s heart is so big, and He loves us so much, that He exercised His vast mercy to comb all of humanity, to see if He could find just one exception – one uncorrupted individual from which He could forge a new people. Fortuitously for us, God found eight: Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their son’s wives.
Noah was 500 years old when God called Him and commanded him to build an ark, which took him 120 years! How many times must Noah have had to explain his doings to an unbelieving populace? He would have been effectively preaching the word of God. In spite of their mockery, Noah remained faithful to his task:
By faith [with confidence in God and His word], Noah, being warned by God about events not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his family. By this [act of obedience] he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith. Heb. 11:7 AMP
God then floods the world. Noah and his family and the animals survive, they disembark when the flood recedes, and begin to re-populate the earth. Praise God for His mercy!
To reiterate, why did God have to start over? Because of intentional, unrepentant, chronic sin. So, let us dig a little deeper into the nature of sin…
We make many mistakes over the course of our lifetimes. Every one of them has the potential to teach us something, be it the knowledge that a particular act is not a good thing to repeat, or, it can reveal the way to a better path.
Some mistakes bring severe consequences. Many of these include ‘sins,’ i.e. acts that are contrary to God’s ways. Jehovah never intended sin and its consequences to be part of His plan for you. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve blew that.
Every time that we turn away from the path that God sets for us, sin is waiting. We can however, with God’s help, turn away from sin, and instead pursue righteousness.
The glory of humankind manifests itself when they reach for the highest good; and in so doing, become a reflection of the glory of God, and glorifying Him as well.
Why is sin so deadly? First, sin is the opposite of love:
He who despises his neighbor sins [against God and his fellow man]… Pr. 14:21 AMP
To despise is to hate. Hate is the opposite of love. Thus, sin is the opposite of love. God is love; so, sin is contrary to God.
Our Creator is also a God of peace. Sin, on the other hand, is borne out of unchecked emotions. That is why He gives us this warning:
BE ANGRY [at sin – at immorality, at injustice, at ungodly behavior], YET DO NOT SIN; do not let your anger [cause you to shame, nor allow it to] last until the sun goes down. And do not give the devil an opportunity [to lead you into sin by holding a grudge, or nurturing anger, or harboring resentment, or cultivating bitterness]. Eph. 4:26, 27. AMP
We see then that prolonged, unexamined sin invites the author of them, Satan, into your life. Your welfare is not what he has in mind. What the devil is looking for, is to bring enslavement and death to his victims / followers:
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. 1 Jn. 3:8 ESV
Do you not know that when you continuously offer yourselves to someone to do his will, you are the slaves of whom you obey, either [slaves] of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness (right standing with God)? Rm. 6:16 AMP
Sin never involves the sinner alone. They are always hurting someone else as well – be it another person, Jesus Christ, or Jehovah God.
We need to see and own the vile nature of sin, so that we can develop a godly aversion to these acts. How else can we minimize our practice of it?
1. Do not hang out with people who will not give up their willful sinning. Guilt by association is a real thing. Their sin will rub off on you.
2. Do not listen to that voice (ego) in your head for advice. You know that voice; it is the one that berates you.
3. Do your best to walk in God’s word.
4. Most importantly if you have sinned, go to God, and confess with a repentant heart:
“…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin…” 2 Chr. 7:14 NKJV
Jehovah God is the ultimate forgiver, who gave up the life of His only Son so that you can be made clean.
We will fall from time to time, that is human nature. Yet, God always has an outstretched hand to lift you back up. Why? So that He can cherish you…
Goodnight and God bless.
The Bad Seed
We looked at how our problems in life began with the original sin committed by Adam and Eve. Furthermore, we commented on how the consequences of this ‘bad seed’ were passed down from them to all generations. God shows us the big picture when he addresses Satan for his maliciousness in the Garden of Eden:
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are more cursed than all cattle, and more than any animal of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity (open hostility) between you and the woman, and between your seed (offspring) and her Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, and you shall [only] bruise His heel.” Gn. 3:14, 15. AMP
What God is saying is that the world will be divided into two camps: those who follow the devil, and people who follow Jehovah. These camps will be engaged in a spiritual battle for all time, until ultimately, Jesus, who is His Father’s and His followers’ champion, will finally vanquish Satan for all eternity.
Because of Adam’s sin, all people were pronounced dead:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world, so death spread to all people [no one being able to stop it or escape its power], because they all sinned. Rm. 5:12 AMP
…when sin has run its course, it gives birth to death. Jas. 1:15 AMP
…for there is no one who does not sin… 1 Kings 8:46 NKJV
If you look at the scriptures that reveal the nature of sin, you can see why it must be avoided as much as we are able to. Conglomerated, the definition of sin goes something like this:
Sin is an act that causes one to miss the mark [i.e. the 10 commandments, (Ex. 20:3 – 17; Mt. 22:37 – 40)], that God has set for us to reach for, which points the way for living the highest and best life. It is an act of rebellion against Jehovah, a lapse in moral character, a behavior that deviates from His word, a volitional perpetration of injustice that offends God and separates the offender from His love.
Thus, sin is serious stuff; and it gets handed down.
How do we know that sin was handed down? Because we find it within Adam and Eve’s first-born child, Cain.
Cain and Abel were brothers. They were called to bring an offering to God as a form of worship, which must be presented to Him exactly the way He prescribes it. At that time, animal blood sacrifices were required to provide atonement for any disobedience against God:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Lv. 17:11 NKJV
The atonement is a tradeoff: the life in the blood of the sacrifice is given to God; and He in turn, stays the penalty of death for sin. It is a pardon, restoring your eternal covenant with Him, (which we now receive through the sacrificial blood of Christ).
Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, Cain’s was not. God is not showing favoritism, He loves everyone equally (Rm. 2:11). Something else is afoot:
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended as righteous… Heb. 11:4 ESV
We must have faith when we approach Jehovah regarding anything (Heb. 11:6). This infers, with regards to Cain, that he did not come to God in faith, that his heart wasn’t in the right place.
Cain did not take God’s refusal well. He gave way to wrath. Jehovah responds directly to Cain:
“Why are you so angry? And why do you look annoyed? If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it.” Gn. 4:6, 7. AMP
God is telling Cain that if he does the right thing, He will give him a ‘righteous do-over,’ so that Jehovah can restore the love-connection between them.
Instead, Cain goes in search of his brother and compounds his sin of unrighteous anger, with committing the first direct murder of another human being. Being that Cain is willfully expressing his sin, it indicates that he is under a dark influence – as scripture confirms:
…Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. 1 Jn. 3:12 NKJV
Yet, God’s mercy is immeasurable. He first gives Cain a chance to confess and repent by asking him about the whereabouts of Abel; Cain responds by lying to God, telling Him that he didn’t know (Gn. 4:9). Thus, Cain made no confession and offered no repentance. Jehovah’s response must have made Cain weak in the knees:
“What have you done? The voice of your brother’s [innocent] blood is crying out to Me from the ground [for justice].” Gn. 4:10 AMP
God banishes Cain from tilling the earth and casts him from His presence, to live as an outcast vagabond (Gn. 4:11, 12.)
God’s second recorded act of mercy:
Cain cries out to God, lamenting the severity of His punishment – mostly concerned that someone will murder him in his repugnant state (Gn. 4:13, 14.).
Even in the face of murder, God extended His loving mercy. While He did not relent on Cain’s banishment, He put a protective ‘mark’ on him that would ward any murderers away from doing him harm.
There is no one that God does not love, regardless of their circumstances. Whatever we say, think, or do, God will forgive our transgressions against Him if we accept Christ as our Savior, and offer our sincere confession and repentance.
God wants us to be with Him forever. To do that, we must position ourselves to be cherished by God. That can only take place if we do our best to live godly lives. To help facilitate that, we must be extremely familiar with ungodly living and its destructive behavior. Then, we can identify it when it first shows up, (when we practice ungodliness), and extricate ourselves from it as best we can, as well as, and more importantly, to enlist the help of Jesus to better walk His walk.
Next time we will begin looking at how to extricate Cain’s sin-problem, anger, from our lives…
Goodnight and God bless.
The Final Destinies of the City of God and the Earthly City – 2
Since the beginning of the commingled history of these two cities, God has judged the citizenry – beginning with Adam and Eve. This continual judgment could have been avoided had the citizens adhered to the word of God. But alas, we have human weakness and a proclivity towards self-indulgence:
…no man acts rightly save by the assistance of divine aid; and no man or devil acts unrighteously save by the permission of the divine and most just judgment. – St. Augustine
‘For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the LORD, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’ Jer. 29:11 AMP
God’s plan is bigger than we can fully comprehend. We see some good people live difficult lives while we also witness many of dubious character live lives of wealthy excess with a continual satiation of sinful appetites – where it seems that no apparent penalty is being applied.
In spite of what looks like an unresolved imbalance, (which somehow fits into God’s design), at the end of all present things, God has wondrous things in store for His children in the city of God, of whom all receive His promised eternal rewards:
And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to HIs plan and purpose. Rm. 8:28 AMP
So, regardless of our difficulties in this earthly life, we must do our best to stay on Jehovah’s path:
…in these days of vanity it makes an important difference whether he resists or yields to the truth, and whether he is destitute of true piety or a partaker of it – important not so far as regards the acquirement of the blessings or the evasion of the calamities of this transitory and vain life, but in connection with the future judgment which shall make over to good men good things, and to bad men band things…For whosever has real existence is this, is a keeper of God’s commandments; and he who is not this, is nothing. For so long as he means in the likeness of vanity, he is not renewed in the image of the truth… – St. Augustine
When all has been heard, the end of the matter is: fear God [worship Him with awe-filled reverence, knowing that He is almighty God] and keep His commandments, of this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, every hidden and secret thing, whether it is good or evil. Eccl. 12:13, 14. AMP
To better understand that end, we must visit the events in the book of Revelation. Accordingly, however you view the concept of the ‘rapture,’ there will be a time when many of God’s children will be sequestered from the tumultuous events during the tribulations. In addition, there will be some holdouts that come to salvation through Christ as that time.
Thus, the city of God, (which we must remember is also the ‘kingdom of God’, exists in the present, but has its full realization at the end of time), is co-existing with the city of the earth during the tribulations.
The resurrection of the ‘two witnesses’ signals the end of the tribulations, and the last chance for any of the city of the earth to change citizenship is then lost…
Following will be the ‘first resurrection,’ that is when the elders, the dead and still living saints, the Jewish converts to Christ, the ‘great multitude’ and the two witnesses come to reign with Christ on the earth for 1000 years.
Note that nations are still existing on the earth (those unbelievers that managed to escape death during the tribulations – still having babies). All other dead unbelievers will stay dead during this ‘millennium.’ So, in effect, the city of God is again cohabitating this earth with the living remnant of the citizens of the city of the earth, all of whom are existing in their ‘soul state.’
During this 1000-year period, remember that the devil is bound up with the rebel angels in the abyss. (Rv. 20:1-3). And so, he has no direct influence in this time.
Thus, all without exception, were dead in sins, whether original or voluntary sins, sins of ignorance, or sins committed against knowledge; and for all the dead there died the only person who lived, that is, who had no sin whatever, in order that those who live by the remission of their sins should live, not to themselves, but to Him who died for all, for our sins, and rose again for our justification, that we believing in Him who justifies the ungodly, and being justified from ungodliness or quickened from death, may be able to attain to the first resurrection which now is.
For in this first resurrection none have a part save those who shall be eternally blessed; but in the second, of which He goes on to speak, all, as we shall learn, have a part, both the blessed and the wretched. The one is the resurrection of mercy, the other of judgment. – St. Augustine (see Jn. 5:28,29.)
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love… Col. 1:13 NKJV
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. Rv. 20:6 NKJV
After the 1000 years have elapsed, the devil is loosed, whereupon he seduces those outside of the church to make war against Christ and His followers. Thank God, the devil and his minions lose this final battle in a big way and are devoured by divine fire.
We have now come to the end of time, the day of the LORD, judgment day. Those citizens of the now eternal city of God are not subject to a ‘second resurrection,’ but enter into their eternal promise with their new immortal, incorruptible bodies, living on a new earth, resting in new heavens, in the city of God, New Jerusalem, which has come down from heaven.
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not come to mind. Be glad and rejoice in whatever I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.” Is. 65:17 – 19. NKJV
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, arrayed like a bride adorned for her husband; and then I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “See! The tabernacle of God is among men, and He will live among them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them [as their God,] and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there will no longer be sorrow and anguish, or crying, or pain; for the former order of things has passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Rv. 21:2 – 5. AMP
Now they themselves, when they have been purified, shall be sacrifices of complete and perfect righteousness; for what more acceptable offering can such persons make to God than themselves? – St. Augustine
Unfortunately, those who have steadfastly rejected the Father and the Son, are resurrected for a second time – to judgment, damned to the ‘second death.’ They do not get incorruptible bodies, but rise with bodies that are changed in such a way that they cannot truly die, but must suffer eternal anguish:
“For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will remain before me” – this is the LORD’s declaration – “so your offspring and your name will remain. All mankind will come to worship me…they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never go out, and they will be a horror to all mankind.” Is. 66:22 – 24. CSB
Yes, this is the final judgment, where everyone meets Jesus:
For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment [that is, the prerogative of judging] to the Son [placing it entirely into His hands]… Jn. 5:22 AMP
It is at this point that the two cities are finally separated into two distinct final destinies: the city of God to heaven on earth, and the city of earth (now the city of the devil), to Satan’s damnation. How does that look? We’ll take a look see next time…
Goodnight and God bless.