In preparing for my Easter sermon I got to thinking about what exactly the cross means in a cosmic way. It relates back to the beginning of time, in the garden. God took His time in dealing with original sin. In the Old Testament when sin got really bad, there was a flood that wiped out the earth (Genesis 6.5 - The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.) Not too many generations later we get the tower of Babel and the division of people by language due to the arrogance of mankind. God's people had to wait in Egypt for over 400 years before the sin of the inhabitants of the land of promise was great enough that there was no hope of repentance and reformation. God hates sin but has incredible but not unlimited patience with sinners. His creation, particularly that part which bears His image, is of infinite value to Him. Sort of like the crummiest piece of furniture I own is the most valuable to me because it is the one thing I ever made on my own from my own plan.
I have spent a long time now (more than 2 years) teaching through the book of Genesis with a group of guys and I can't get away from it in my thinking. The temptation posed to Eve is that in eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil her eyes will be opened and she will become like God. When I read that I think about babies of all things. It is always fascinating to see a baby's eyes opened, not at birth but later when their field of vision expands and you can see that they get it at a new level. That is the promise held out to Eve by the serpent. The problem is that while it is wonderful to see the eyes of a baby opened it isn't long before what they see becomes spoiled by sin and the second opening of the eyes brings about not wonder and delight but cynicism.
Eve interprets this promise in an interesting way, and we have made the same mistake ever since. She believed "that the tree was to be desired to make one wise" (Gen 3.6). The mistake she made and that we make all the time is that the tree was a tree of knowledge not a tree of wisdom. Isn't there a huge difference between knowledge and wisdom or are we not yet wise enough to see that difference?
1 comment:
Isn't there a huge difference between knowledge and wisdom or are we not yet wise enough to see that difference?
So very, very true. I think of my own brother who is very smart, he has all the knowledge in the world but he lacks the wisdom necessary to see who Jesus is. He thinks that because he was "done" by the bishop at twelve years his ticket is punched. He doesn't go to church, but that is no problem in his mind.
Archie
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