MERCY IN SPITE OF TRANSGRESSION

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

1 Timothy 2:13-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever stopped to think about your origins?

If you’re like me, genealogy causes a sure headache after I get beyond my closest relatives and so I take comfort in knowing one thing ahead of anything else in regard to my heritage roots:

I am a descendant of Adam and Eve.

You are too as is every man and woman who has ever lived. The dawn of mankind can trace its beginning back to God’s first created couple.

Now, there’s good and bad news there. I say this because Adam and Eve also ushered sin into the world via disobedience. You may remember this account of what is largely known as The Great Fall:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened. Genesis 3:1-7a

Everything God made was perfect in every way, including his first man and woman. He provided Adam and Eve with everything they would ever need to not just survive but thrive, a utopia that only He would create. There was an abundance of food in the garden for the first couple to enjoy, enough that they would never go hungry, and God had given them only one simple rule to follow:

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16-17

Simple, right?

God had given Adam and Eve everything they needed except access to one tree and its fruit. All they had to do was obey and do as He told them to do.

Well, as we see, temptation was about to take center stage for there was a serpent in the garden that Satan would use to entice Adam and Eve into disobedience, ushering in the disease of spiritual sin that would infect mankind from that point forward.

So how did Satan manage to find his way into the Garden of Eden?

We need to look to the scriptures and this passage from the Book of Ezekiel for the answer:

“You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.”

“You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth.” Ezekiel 28:12-17

Here, embedded in a rebuke of the king of Tyre, we find the Lord giving us insight into Satan’s origins and his fall. Some theologians have asserted that God was comparing Tyre’s ruler to Satan through these words, perhaps implying he was possessed by the devil.

So what do we learn about Satan in this passage?

One key thing was that he was in Eden, the garden of God. Initially “a seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty”, a change happened inside God’s blameless cherub. He became wicked, violent, prideful, and sinful, all of these corrupting his wisdom and so God condemned and judged him, throwing him to earth. There, he has established a reputation as a master deceiver (John 8:44) and that evil skill was first successfully put on display through the serpent in Eden’s garden who convinced Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

Now, go back to Genesis, chapter 3 and you will see where God was none too pleased with his now sinfully disobedient first couple as he doled out the consequences that have plagued men and women ever since.

To the woman He said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” v. 16

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Vv. 17-19

Men would labor hard for their food until the day they die, the day they return to the dust, from that point forward.

Women would go into labor bearing children and that labor wouldn’t be easy for God assured that the pain would be “very severe” while giving birth. He also placed wives under the rule of their husbands as part of the imposed punishment and we need to remember this when we read excerpts of the scriptures that place a wife under her husband’s authority. This was instituted by God as fallout from The Great Fall.

Okay, we’ve covered a lot to get to our scripture passage today from the closing verses of 1 Timothy, chapter 2 but as you will see, our discussion up to now has set us up nicely to understand what God’s word is conveying. Let’s look at these verses as we close out chapter 2:

For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. Vv. 13-15

Go back to Genesis 3 and you will remember that the dialogue was between Eve and the serpent. She first was deceived and ate the fruit before handing it to Adam who then ate. He didn’t have to follow her suit but he did and was equally a sinner and as culpable as Eve was. We know this because God imposed penalties on them both.

You’ll remember Eve’s punishment, one that has been passed onto every woman since, was pain in childbirth but note God’s mercy on display in the closing verse of 1Timothy 2. For although childbirth would bring severe pain, God would ensure that the woman would endure and survive if they would only live in faith, love, holiness, and self control. This isn’t talking about salvation by any means because we know that this only comes through believing in Jesus Christ but what we do see is that we serve a God who is merciful despite our transgressions. We don’t merit His grace and divine providence but yet He extends it to us when we show our respect and obedience to His word and way.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.