Friday, November 1, 2019

Men Overcame By Evil (RD40)

    'Rightly Dividing the Word'

Free Will Given to Man
Gen 2:16-17  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
    Before the creation of man, God had decided to give men their free will and the choice of loving Him or not. He placed them in the garden of Eden and empowered them to dominate and to name all the animals.    
    Every evening God would come down to enjoy the love and fellowship with His children Adam and Eve, who must be having a wonderful time in this paradise enjoying the perfect and divine love of the Father.
    God will be highly delighted to receive men's sincere and genuine love for Him. The only way to test the authenticity of our love for Him is our obedience to His commandment. So God forbid Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to test their love for Him.
John 14:15  "If you love Me, keep My commandments."

Men Chose Wisdom
Gen 3:6  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
     It was the lust of the flesh, the lust of eyes and the pride of life in the nature of Adam and Eve that made them to disobey and rebel against God's command. Since then, these lusts and pride of life became the downfall of men.
    Having rejected God's love by eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were imputed with the wisdom in their conscience of the knowledge of good and evil.
    God respected and accepted their choice of running their own lives based on the knowledge of good and evil in their conscience. Out of His great fatherly love for His children, God still tried to help men overcome their weaknesses.
    Unfortunately, men could not follow their conscience but allowed their carnality to lead them to great wickedness till God had to wipe them out with the deluge.
Gen 6:5  Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The Holy Nation of Israel
    With the failure of men as individuals, God prepared the Israelites by sending them to Egypt, where they were made into slaves. After 400 years with signs and wonders, God delivered these two millions monotheist descendants of Abraham and Jacob from Egypt and then sent them to possess Canaan land.
    God required them to be
1. circumcised to differentiate them from the Gentiles
2. a holy nation by keeping His commandments - eating only the clean food meant for animal sacrifices, free from sin and the abominable practices of the Canaanites.
    During their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites taught their children the Mosaic law and even made them to memorize them.
Deu 6:6-7  "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

Failure in Canaan Land
Jos 2:9  and said to the men: "I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you."
    Before the Israelites entered Canaan land, God had prepared the inhabitants to surrender Canaan land to the Israelites for they were fearful to face the awesome power displayed by Yahweh.
    Yet the Israelites rebelled against His words after God handed Jericho to them without they lifting a finger. This resulted to the Israelites losing the next war at Ai, which gave hope to the already defeated Canaanites. Because of their frequent and numerous rebellions, they were constantly defeated by their enemies.