We all know that our actions carry consequences. Yet sometimes, we proceed to do our thing anyways. There are times when our actions affect others, because we don’t live in a vacuum. In those cases, actions matter a lot. And the decision we take can have serious long term consequences. That’s the way it has always been. Consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Genesis 2:16-17 CEVDCI
[16] But the Lord told him, “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden,
[17] except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!”
All But One
According to our Nougat, the first man, Adam, got very simple and straightforward instructions. Eat those, not that. (These days there’s an app for such.) He was also given a sense of the outcome, immediate death. It was okay to eat everything else, except fruit from that one tree. In principle, it was an easy task to obey . But we know it didn’t go as intended.
Self-Check
How do we react to imperatives, that is, instructions that are commands? Does the status of the person giving the commands affect how seriously we treat the imperative?
Digging Deeper
To be fair to Adam, he wouldn’t have known his choice had implications for future generations. Genesis 2 indicates that Adam’s spouse had not existed at that time – he was a bachelor! There was no thought of protecting what didn’t yet exist. He might even have wondered whether God would make others like him.
In the same vein, we must remember that death was also an alien concept. It didn’t exist. His safeguarding skills were not necessary. It might have seemed that any decision he made had no consequences.
But consequences existed.
And noncompliance proved that the consequences were exactly as indicated. Death followed. Not in the obvious way that we understand it. He lost his home. His relationship with God was destroyed. And the bond between him and his special companion shifted. It was as though someone wished to kill, steal and destroy all he had going for him by coercing Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. He had no power to restore things for himself. None.
That’s where God’s grace comes in.
Knowing the outcome in advance of Eve and Adam’s actions, Y’shua was ready to take on physical death, thus defeating the enemy of our souls, and creating the way back to life. That’s reason to celebrate life and the life-giver. He could have refused to save us. But He didn’t. In Him is hope for all generations present, past and future.
Remembering Y’shua’s journey, that faithful, final journey into Jerusalem – which ended with His death for our life – will we worship Him?
Point to Ponder
How do we respond to the idea that sin entered the world through one man – Adam – and redemption came through the other Adam, i.e., Y’shua?
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May all we seek be found in Christ
