Previous Genesis 10 -- Next Genesis 12
11 -- Do you see God's grace in his judgment today?
GENESIS 3:16-19
16 And to the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your hardship in childbearing. In pain you shall give birth to children; and your longing shall be towards your husband and he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying, ‘You not shall eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in hardship you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 and thorns and thistles it shall sprout for you; and you shall eat the grass of the field. 18 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
God's judgments are just and holy, because he had warned humans from falling into sin, clarifying to them that death would be the result of their rebellion. But now the fear of death has encompassed all of mankind, “for the wages of sin is death”. So whoever distances himself from God, will die bodily and spiritually. Reality is that our life is a journey under the shadows of death, because we have surrendered to the slavery of sin. The aim of God for us was eternal life, but now every man is moving towards his death. You also are going to die soon, because you are a sinful human. Have you ever thought about perdition and pain and anguish and suffering? We humans have caused all this by moving away from God and by our evil and our rebellion. For this reason death has become a verdict over every man.
But God -- even though He has the right to destroy us instantaneously, by reason of every sin, be it big or small -- did not do it, acting in harmony with his mercy. So you must learn anew that, by reason of his iniquity, no man has any right to live. Thus, all wars, earthquakes and catastrophes are righteous punishments. “But He is patient with us, and does not want to destroy people, but wants that all should come to repentance.” So every moment of your life is a gift of God's mercy, and you must respond to this with permanent thanksgiving.
It is correct that in the course of the short duration of our life God allows us to pass through pains and tribulations, but these are to test our faith and to teach us to seek refuge in Him and to trust in His love. And sometimes God even disciplines humans in the foundation of their duty. The mother, for example, is in pain in the hour of childbirth to understand that she cannot bestow life without the aid of her Lord. And after having been equivalent to her husband, she today has become submitting to him, perceiving the world through him, just as the body lives by the guidance of the head.
Also God punished the man in his work and threatened him with failure and fatigue and illness, so that he would not think that he is able to create food and clothing on his own, rather that he would humbly thank his creator, always asking for His blessing. Thus our sin is the disease underlying all the anguish through which we pass. It is that which has separated us from God so that pain has become a judgment upon us. God did not curse us, but he punished us, revealing himself as a holy judge and a merciful savior. And ultimately he triumphed over our withdrawal from Him by sending His Son to us. Thus, since the coming of Christ, God has become God with us. This is the victory over original sin. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. This marks a triumph over the result of sin. So Christ came to undo sickness and death and sin, surrounding us with His kingdom. Do you still live in fear because of your sin, or are you established in the life of God due to your justification by Christ?
MEMORIZE: By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:19)
PRAYER: Oh Father, I have sinned towards heaven and before you and I deserve death. Forgive me all my sins for the sake of the death of your unique Son. Fill me with the love of your Holy Spirit, who is the eliminator of our sins, to live with you in eternal fellowship, together with all believers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.