Why Did Thissssss Happen?

This started out as a comparison of Sabbath and rest days between the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim belief systems. But I got hijacked by Jesus in Mark 2:27 when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”

God created everything, including man in six days and then He rested. This “rest” was not to relax and recuperate from a long, tiring week. God arrested or terminated His Work as an illustration of how man should behave. For God, the work creation was easy, fun, and fulfilling. He wanted to revel in its perfection. Recall that He pronounced everything, “Good.” That was not on the comparative scale of good, better, best, but on the scale of excellent or execrable, only fit for disposal.

The Sabbath day was instituted for man to contemplate God’s creation and God Himself. Man has the honor of joining God in labor and “creating” something. Man does not create ex nihilo, but his efforts can be ideally as satisfying as what God did.

And that is where the “rabbit hole” opened up. Into this perfect contemplation of God’s finished work of creation a nevil was interjected. (For those who are not familiar with C. S. Lewis’ Narnia tales, “The Magician’s Nephew” chronicles the creation of Narnia. And into this perfect world a wicked witch was injected. One of the characters remarked that a nevil (an evil) had entered and they wondered what a “nevil” was. And what follows is the rest of the story. But I digress.)

A nevil was released into the perfect world that God created in Genesis 1:1. And we are observing and living out “the rest of that story.” The attack is reported in Genesis 3. Notice that Satan does not use the creation tack to tempt Eve. (Adam was there too, but he was playing the strong, silent type. Actually the strong, silent, stupid type. I am told that his name in Hebrew is pronounced, “ah `Dahm.” I will let you pronounce it that way, but type it normally. I hate to see all those squiggly red lines all over my screen. But I digress again.)

Satan did not approach Eve with the thought that God is not strong enough to cope with them “knowing as much as He does.” If God could create the whole kit and caboodle, he could handle anything. The creation argument would be a non-starter with ah`Dahm and Eve. (It is up to you from here on. Adam it is.) Satan is too smart to choose loser arguments like creation.

He took another tack. “Hasssss God said that you cannot eat from any of the treesssss in the Garden?” (We can hear the hisss from here.)

“Oh no!” interjected Eve. “We can eat from them all except one and we cannot even touch that one.” (Warning Will Robinson! When we start adding to what God said, we are heading for trouble.)

Evidently Eve, anyway, had been contemplating the “forbidden” fruit, and in order to help her “keep the law,” she began to hedge it with other “helpers” to keep her from falling. “Don’t even touch it.” Incidentally, that was the problem with the Jewish celebration of the Sabbath.

“Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20) Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it. “Don’t eat from this tree.” But the Jews added layer upon layer of regulations to guide them and everyone else in how to “remember and keep.” It got so complicated that one was almost afraid to breathe hard, because moving air could be considered “work.”

That precipitated the exchange recorded earlier, when Jesus reminded them that the Sabbath had been instituted for Adam’s benefit and not to unduly restrict and burden him. Satan’s attack was on the goodness of God. “God is not giving you His best. He is keeping it for Himself, the selfish old goat!”

And Eve fell for the line. The attack is the same today. “How can a good God let thisssss happen?” (Hear the hissss from the Garden?) Insinuated is the thought that a “good” God will not let bad things happen. But the “bad thing” has already happened. Adam and Eve learned something that God did not want them to learn. It was not because He could not handle it. They could not handle it.

Adam and all of his offspring are now acquainted disobedience, death, and destruction. That disrespect for God led to the other failures. Worship is contained in respect. Refusing to substitute inferior objects for God is a result of respect. Using His Name in a disrespectful manner likewise is a copartner with disrespect. Sanctifying the Sabbath as He commanded is rooted in respect. (And that is the wedge that got us in here.)

Everything else is grounded in respect. Honoring and respecting parents, refusing to murder, commit adultery, stealing, and lying to one another are likewise respectful actions. And the final one, coveting, is essentially valuing something else above God, and it inexorably leads to all of the other transgressions. When Adam and Eve “learned” what evil was, it led to the corruption of every other relationship in the family and society.

That was what God was protecting them from. Again, all of His commandments were to preclude the horrible consequences of “knowledge.” My mother was somewhat naive in terms of societal “junk.” She was not hip to all the nuances of popular language.

She responded to catastrophic and horrific events with, “Horrors!” Her kids, the girls and my brother, along with me kind of chuckled every time she said it. It sounded like a slang term for prostitutes. I think the girls finally broke the news to Mom. She was horrified (‘scuse the pun) at what that meant. She certainly did not mean to take the name of prostitutes in vain.

But in a way, her “ignorance” was a blessing, because she often would catch herself when she was about to blurt out her reaction to disaster, when it was perfectly appropriate. It was our dark interpretation of her statement that was the problem. Adam and Eve were unaware of sin until they knew the difference between good and evil. Evil was present. They just did not recognize it.  That knowledge was not a blessing. It was, and still is, a curse.

And ultimately, without the gracious intervention of God in Christ, the ultimate disaster of separation from Him for eternity would have been visited on all of mankind. The command to Adam and Eve was not to protect God, it was to shield them, and all of us, from the consequences of sin.

If God intervened and prevented every disaster, this world would be as attractive as Eden. God does not wish for us to suffer, but better a little suffering now to warn us about the ultimate suffering to come. He wants us to recognize that every time a disaster occurs, that death was just one of the ramifications of sin. The proximate relief from this will come to the earth when Jesus comes back to rule on the earth for 1000 years. The full and complete deliverance was accomplished on the cross.

Jesus paid the “death” penalty imposed by Adam’s sin and repeated by you and me. Adam accepted the “proximate” deliverance offered by the lambs’ skins, and the ultimate release effected on the cross. (Genesis 3:15) I have too. I hope and pray that you have.

Don’t let the hissss of disssssaster distract nor preclude you from turning to the Redeemer. Do it today. You may contact me or call 888-NEED HIM (888-633-3446).