There is a very important scene portrayed in Zechariah 3.  I always envision a courtroom when I read it.  God sits as judge.  Joshua stands as the accused and satan stands as the accuser.  This is all revealed in the passage, “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and satan standing at his right side to accuse him.”

What I find so incredible is the absence of the arguing.  No evidence and no comment from satan the accuser.  The verse says that satan was standing at Joshua’s side “to accuse him”.  The next thing that is said comes from the Lord.  “The Lord rebuke you satan!” .   That’s it.  The next thing that happens is the angel says to remove the filthy clothes off Joshua and replace them with new clothes.  Nothing else is said about satan the accuser.  Was he excused?  Did he just walk away?  Was he kicked out of the court?  All we know is that the Lord openly and harshly rebuked satan and that was the end of it.

What we need to always remember is that the same scene applies to us as Christians.  Satan stands and accuses us every day.  He accuses us of being failures.  He accuses us of not following God’s commands.  He accuses us of being hypocrites, and liars, and cheats.  We are also accused of such things as gossip, lust, pride, gluttony, and every other sin imaginable.  The most incredible truth about this situation is that we are basically in the same scene as Joshua in Zechariah 3.  The other most incredible truth is that everything is done exactly the same way.  God sits as the judge, we stand as the accused and satan stands as our accuser.  One thing to acknowledge is that the accusations that satan brings against us are all true.  We know that we sin and fall short of where God wants us to be.  Even so, we stand victorious and satan gets rebuked.  The reason that satan gets rebuked and sent on his way is that Jesus Christ has already paid the price for all our sins.  This is confirmed very vividly in Revelation 12:10-11 where we are told, “the accuser of our brothers , who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.  They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony..”  There is much to be thankful for when we realize the great price that Jesus paid to have our sins removed from our record.  Otherwise, it would be satan doing all the talking as we stand before God.

1 Kings 4:29-30 tells us, “God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understanding  as vast as the sand on the seashore.  Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.”

It is hard to imagine that kind of wisdom.  Wisdom given directly by God.  I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking I have “some” insight and “some” understanding.  Try to imagine the level of insight and understanding if it was given to you by God Himself.  That’s some impressive wisdom for sure.  Solomon builds the temple for God and Solomon displays much of the wisdom and insight God blessed him with through the entire lengthy process.  Upon completion of the temple, God appeared to Solomon to deliver the most important news.  1 Kings 9:4ff- “As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever..”  Now that is a great promise!  What a wonderful story of how powerful God is to bless His people with such great and incredible gifts.  For Solomon it was the incredible gift of wisdom and insight and understanding.  The gift that will forever have Solomon known as the “wisest man in the world” and yet………. 1 Kings 11:4ff-”When Solomon was old, his wives seduced him to follow other gods.  His heart was not completely with the Lord his God, as his father David’s heart had been.  Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians,  and Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites.  Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and unlike his father David, he did not completely follow the Lord.”  The bible goes on to tell us that Solomon even built high places for the detestable idols of the people.  Good grief!  How can this make any sense to anyone reading it for the first time?  It gets even more unbelieveable when we are told that God appeared to Solomon and God was burning with anger.  God commands Solomon to stop.  Solomon does not listen and continues to do evil in the sight of God.  The result of this response is God tearing the kingdom away from Solomon and giving it to his servant.

What’s the message for us today?  I believe it can be simply stated as we need to grow in our understanding of our condition when it comes to wisdom.  Regardless of how “wise” we become and how much insight and understanding we obtain there must always be an acknowledgement that we are still mere flesh and blood corrupted daily by sin.  Let’s not forget the garden.  In Genesis 3 satan tells Eve that the reason God didn’t want her to eat the fruit was because if she ate it her eyes would be opened and she would be like God.  It was all about knowledge.  Look at the explanation given by God for removing Adam and Eve from the garden.  Genesis 3:22- The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out , and also take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” The main point being mere flesh and blood, now corrupted by sin, cannot maintain the purity of true knowledge.

I have a new appreciation for the truth found in 1 Corinthians 1 concerning wisdom.  As I look around at how mankind has tried so diligently to establish wisdom concerning God and His character I must confess i get a little bit amused.  I look at Solomon who was blessed directly with wisdom from God.  He is described as the wisest man in the world and yet sin still brought him down.  He was flesh and blood.  The most important lesson from Solomon for me is to realize we are ALL flesh and blood, corrupted by sin regardless of the wisdom we claim to have.  1 Corinthians 1:20-21- “Where is the philosopher?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the debater of this age?  Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?  For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached.”  I try to avoid diving into discussions about the “deeper” things of God.  I have chosen instead to take the route of the apostle Paul by saying, “I am determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

One of the most impressive descriptions given to any of Gods servants that we read about in the Old Testament has got to be that of Moses in Numbers 12:3.  We find even more people grumbling and complaining against the leadership of Moses as Miriam and Aaron are talking about Moses behind his back.  They are criticizing Moses in this passage because he had married a Cushite.  Being criticized was nothing new for Moses.  It seemed to be a daily ritual that he would be challenged and criticized in a very negative way by so many people.  That is why this verse really impresses me as it is stuck very neatly between all the criticizing.  Verse 3 tells us, “Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth”.  Wow!  I pray that I can live my life in such a way as to be described like this.  Humility is the one characteristic that I believe God looks for the most in His people.  Look at Moses.  He had every opportunity to “flaunt” who he was and what he knew to everyone he came across.  I never read of him doing that.  Instead, I see Moses falling to the ground and crying out to God on behalf of the people that were criticizing him and saying all kinds of terrible and negative things.  Even in the passage involving Miriam and Aaron.  God heard the two of them talking bad about Moses and His anger burned against them.  Numbers 12:10 tells us that God struck Miriam with leprosy.  Here was a great opportunity for Moses to blast them by telling them they are getting what they deserve!  Moses could have stood up and proclaimed how great he was that God would do something like that for him.  In verse 13 we are told how Moses responded.  “So Moses cried out to the Lord, O God, please heal her!”  I propose there is a lot to learn from the example of Moses concerning humility.  A lot to grow in our understanding of concering the humility that God wants us to have in our lives.

Exodus 32 tells us the events that took place surrounding the golden calf incident.  There are literally hundreds of messages and points that could be made from this short chapter.  The messages that are most interesting to me occur on top of the mountain and down below with the calf.  Moses had gone up to the top of Mt. Sinai (Ex. 19:20).  God began to instruct Moses on laws and details for making a tabernacle.  Moses stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, (Ex. 24:18).  The people down below got restless.  They figured Moses would not be coming back, (Ex. 32:1), so they directed Aaron to make them some gods who would go before them.  Aaron instructed them to take off their gold and he used that gold to make a calf and presented it to the people as their god.

Meanwhile, Moses is still receiving the instructions on all that God has planned for His people.  In Exodus 32:7 we find that God has stopped giving instructions and starts giving the command for Moses to get out of His sight because the people down below had committed a terrible sin.  The first word that jumps out at me is found in this verse.  God told Moses, “Go down, because “YOUR” people, whom “YOU” brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt.”  God was angry!  God wanted Moses out of the way so that He could destroy every one of the people down below and rid the earth of them completely.  I gain a whole lot of respect for Moses from this simple verse.  Remember when it all began for Moses?  Exodus 3 starts by telling us Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law.  Moses wasn’t looking for something to do.  Moses was doing his job and minding his own business.  Next thing you know, a bush starts on fire and doesn’t burn up and God speaks to Moses and tells him everything He wants him to do.  Exodus 3:7 God tells Moses that He has “indeed seen the misery of “His” people in Egypt”.    God goes on to tell Moses, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring “MY” people the Israelites out of Egypt”.  Moses immediately comes up with every excuse in the book to get out of doing what God was calling him to do.  It didn’t work.  The passage is filled with God making statements concerning “His” people.  We find that the Israelites are led out of Egypt and everything that God said would happen did happen and eventually they all end up at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  Moses leaves to talk to God and the people commit a terrible sin.  It is then that God tells Moses, “Go down because “YOUR” people whom “YOU” brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt”.  It wasn’t that God forgot that it was Him who brought the people out it was just that the people had broken the covenant and therefore He would no longer be their God.  I love how Moses handled the situation.  He didn’t blow up and set the record straight by screaming at God how he never wanted to be a part of the silly plan in the first place.  Moses didn’t shout out the facts of everything he had been put through because he was obedient to God.  Moses simply turned and put everything right back where it belonged when he said, “O Lord, why should Your anger burn against “YOUR” people, whom “YOU” brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?”.  So subtle and simple and powerful.  It wasn’t Moses “setting God straight”.  It was Moses simply seeking the favor of His Lord by asking a question that kept everything in perspective.

One final message that jumps off the pages from this event is found in Exodus 32:19-20.  Moses comes down off the mountain and sees the people committing this terrible sin and he is angry.  He is so angry that he throws the tablets down and breaks them to pieces.  The deal is off.  The covenant has been broken,  and now all that remains is for the people to pay for their sin.  What Moses does is quite disturbing in one way and quite ingenious in another.  Verse 20 says, “he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.”  Why don’t I remember this scene from the movie with Charlton Hesston playing Moses?  I’m sure it would have never left my mind if I would have seen it.  To see Moses having the golden calf put into the fire and melting it down and then grinding it into a fine powder and scattering it over the water.  His point was to show the Israelites how foolish they were to think that this physical object could take the place of the almighty God.  Then it was time to drive the point home of how terrible it was that they had committed this sin.  The god they had created was dissolved right before their eyes then ground up and scattered on the water and Moses “made” them drink it.  I’m not sure what the side effects would be for drinking such a potion of ground up gold and silver and ashes.  One thing I know for sure is that it certainly wasn’t pleasant.  Moses had mixed the perfect potion of punishment.  What a perfect way to get the point across of how terrible it was to commit such a great sin before God.  It makes me even more thankful today that the grace that comes through Jesus Christ continues to cover all of God’s people.  Can you imagine what it would be like if we had someone like Moses mixing the potions of punishment made specifically from the sins we commit?  Not a pleasant thought at all!  Hebrews 9:25 tells us that Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.  “Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”  I know I am waiting for him.  I pray that you are too.

Genesis 4 reveals the story of Cain and Abel.  What I find most interesting from the story is found in verse 2.  “Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.  In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.  But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.”

Where did that come from?  Did God hand Adam and Eve a handbook on Worship etiquette when He escorted them out of the garden?  I don’t find any scriptures that reveal any communication between God and Adam and Eve concerning bringing offerings and placing them before God.  I do find many scriptures, however, that reveal many things about the act of worship to God.  Let’s never forget how God created us.  Genesis 1:26- ” Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”   We were created in God’s image.  We came into being with “pre-installed” parts.  One of the most important “parts” that God put within us is the ”instinct” to worship.  Acts 17:26-27 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”  The fact of the matter is that we were created by God to worship.  We were created to be in relationship with Him.  All mankind comes into this world with the “pre-installed” instinct to worship. It is absolutely amazing to read about different civilizations being discovered in our world today that have never been exposed to any outside influence.  Usually they are discovered deep in the jungles of some far off place completely secluded from the modern world and all its thinking and systems.  What is most amazing is that this group of people have survived without the modern technology that we enjoy.  They have survived and literally thrived without television or radio or fast food places.  And what is completely shocking is that within the group there is always some idea of a god that they serve.  Somehow they have come up with an idea that there is a “higher being” and that ”higher being” is to be worshipped.  Granted, the “higher being” that they have established might not correspond very well with who we know  the only true God to be, but the truth remains, they were worshipping a god. There was  no outside influence concerning religion or church,  no outside influence concerning creation or a creator,  yet somewhere along the way, they established a system of worship to a god.    Where did that come from?  It came from God.  It is how we are ALL created- In the image of God.  We have a natural “instinct” to worship.  Now whether man decides to use that instinct to worship the one and only true God is entirely their choice.  Many choose to use that instinct to worship other things, usually themselves.  Still others use that instinct to worship a god or gods that they have created.  Regardless, we all have this God-given instinct to worship.  The only challenge remains in how we choose to respond to that instinct.  Do we worship the God who created us with that instinct?  Or do we reject Him and choose to worship someone or something else?  The conclusion remains the same.  We choose.  The truth also remains the same.  There is only one true God and creator of all mankind and He has created all mankind to be in relationship with Him.

I have found that trying to sort through all the events included in the creation story from Genesis can give you a headache.  It would be interesting to have a list of questions put together from everyone that has read through the story.  I personally have many more questions than answers.  What did God and man talk about during the day?  Weather certainly wasn’t the topic.  The environment was perfect.  No cold fronts to talk about or slight chance of thunderstorms.  How old did God create Adam and Eve?  Were they teenagers or older or perhaps younger?  Belly buttons or no belly buttons?  Genesis 2:15 tells us, “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”.  What work did the garden need?  There were no weeds or thistles.  What about this snake?  What does it mean, Genesis 3:1- ”the serpent was ”more crafty” than any of the wild animals”?  Was it a walking snake?  Did all the animals talk?  The subject of the snake alone has resulted in commentary after commentary being written with all kinds of different perspectives.  Some say that the snake was an entirely different creature before the curse turned it into the snakes we know about today.  Some say that satan just made his voice come out of the snake  while others say satan entered into the snake.     How much time passed from the time God told them to stay away from the tree until they ate from the tree?  Genesis 3:16 says the curse on the woman would involve the pain in childbirth greatly increasing.  How would Eve know if the pain was “greatly increased”?  I wonder how the the perspective of Adam and Eve changed towards the snake after they were banished from the garden.  Did they hunt it down and stomp it to pieces? 

There are certainly more questions than answers when I read through the creation story.  There is a very serious and very real danger involving “questions without answers” for many people.  People are wired differently in how they think and reason.  Some people can read the creation story and think about some of the questions and simply shake their head and move on knowing there isn’t a documented explanation or answer.  Other people will read the story and think about the questions and will not be able to move on at all.  They will come to a stop and not be able to continue until someone or something helps them to understand or to “make sense” of what they are questioning.  It is a sad situation because God doesn’t want any of His creation, for any reason, to stop in their walk with Him. I know the standard encouragement given to people struggling with questions is to wait until they get to heaven and then they can ask God.  That never worked for me.  I took a different route and today I am very thankful that I don’t have anymore questions.  I took the route that kept me walking on the journey with God.   That doesn’t mean I don’t have all sorts of thoughts, ideas and proposals about all kinds of diffent things I read from God’s word.  It just means I no longer get “hung up” on the things that I think about which I know do not have any defined answers that I can find.  No more headaches.  

And as for the waiting until I get to heaven to ask God?  Thanks, but no thanks.  I don’t like waiting lines.  Besides all that, I can’t imagine having anything at all to ask once I am in that amazing place. 

Greg Smith

Let’s establish some facts here.  God is all love.  God is all good.  God created all things good.  So why is it that everywhere we look there is evil?  Great question.  I wish I could say the same about the answer but I can’t because the answer reveals a problem that is not with God but rather with us.  First of all let’s run a little garbage disposal through the question to “clean” it up a bit.  I see a tremendous amount of “good” in our world.  I certainly don’t have to look far to find evil but I see some incredible good in the world we live in.  I see people loving one another like God wants them to love one another.  I see families that are strong and loving.  I see caring and concern and compassion amongst people here in this world.  Where did that come from?  I look at this issue from a completely opposite perspective.  I do that frequently and most times it gets me in trouble but I look at the question of evil today from a different view.  My question is “Why is there so much “good” in the world today?”

God created the world as a perfect and only good place.  He created man to be a perfect and only good people.  And God created a little thing called “free will” so that His creation had the complete ability to “choose” what they wanted to do.  We know the result of that from Genesis 3.  The perfect man in the perfect environment with the perfect relationship with God made the imperfect choice to sin against God.  It ruined everything.  Not because God wanted it ruined or planned for it to be ruined but because man made the choice that ultimately ruined it.  The result of that choice?  Curse after curse after curse.  Gen. 3:14- Curses on the snake, Gen. 3:16-Curses on the woman, Gen. 3:17-Curses on the man.  My question today is “How is a world that has been cursed directly by God supposed to look?”  I say we should not see “any” good.  It should “all” be evil!  It has been cursed by God!  In fact it is on a timer right now just waiting for the moment when God finally says, “that’s enough”, and then He is going to completely destroy it once and for all.  That’s what a curse looks like.  Expalining the presence of evil in our world is not even close to a challenge for me.  What is a true challenge is in trying to explain why there is any “good” in our world.  Why do we live in such luxury when God specifically cursed the ground so that it would only be through “painful toil” that we should eat of it?  The only ”pain and toil” I’ve experienced from “eating of it” has come from a result of putting more food in my system than I physically had room for! Why do we have it so very “good” if this God fosaken place has been directly cursed by God?  There shouldn’t be one ounce of good to be found as I see it and yet as I stated earlier, I see a tremendous amount of good in our world today.  WHY?  THe answer is that there are many people in the world today that “choose” to do good.  The good that they were origianlly created to do.  Eph. 2:10 tells us, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do “good” works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”.

Just because everything was ruined as a result of mans choice in the garden does not mean that man was no longer created for “good”.  God is the one who creates all mankind.  We are ALL God’s workmanship, created to do “good”.  Now whether we make the choice to do that which is “good” is entirey up to us, just like it was in the garden.  The result of making the choice to not do the good results in what is known as evil.   Evil was not “created”.   Evil is simply the result of not choosing good.  The definition is right that says darkness is simply the absence of light and evil is simply the absence of good.  God did not create evil. it is not possible.  God created only good and he gave that which was good the free will and choice to choose how they should live.  The choice in the garden to disobey God resulted in evil and we are suffering the consequences of that choice every day.  Not because God created evil to consume our world but because man continues to make the wrong choices in life and those wrong choices result in the evil we see and experience.  We need to get beyond the blaming game and accept the responsibility of the terrible consequences of sin in our lives.  Evil is “NOT” everywhere we look.  There is truly good to be seen in many places and that good is there because of people making the right choices concerning how they are living their lives.  We will continue to suffer the consequences of having to live in a world that has been eternally cursed by God but God has created us with the same ability to choose how we will live.  I pray we will always choose to live according to God’s word and always choose to do the good for which we were created to do.  It is so frustrating to witness how God is the first to get the blame when something bad happens in life and God is the last to get the credit when something good happens in life.  It is not right.  We live in a world that has been cursed by God.  How do you expect it to look?  I thank God everyday for the “good” that exists in our world today.  That good is here because people are choosing to do it.  I pray that we will be those people.  I pray that we will live every day demonstrating and making the choices of good until He comes.

Greg

The very familiar verse in Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”.  That is a very powerful truth that we need to live by.  If God’s word is our lamp and our light for our path then it must be very important to know God’s word.  Not just bits and pieces but all of it.  The question now is how can we know all of GOd’s word if we have not read “all” of God’s word?  I strongly challenge and encourage all people to make the committment to read through “all” of God’s word in 2009.  Many people have done this and I say “fantastic”, read it again.  I will be reading through all of God’s word in 2009 and will also be entering some thoughts and observations on this blogging website.  It will be a first for me in many ways.  The only requirment I will ask of you is that you always acknowledge that these are “my” thoughts and observations and through them I pray that you might be challenged to think even deeper for yourself.  Do not “EVER” take anything I say and file it  under truth until you have filtered it through the only real truth and that is God’s word.  I know for certain that God wants every one of us to “grow” in our understanding of who He is and how He wants us to live (Eph. 4).  I am also certain that we will “grow” if we will make the committment to read and study God’s word.