In Knowing Him

"Over and over again, mankind created gods from their imagination, trying to fill the need that God had placed in them. God was not discouraged by this."

GOD WHO CREATED MAN put in man a need to worship God, but when death entered through sin, the wisdom of God available to man was replaced by human reasoning. In fact, human reasoning through Satan’s deception is why man committed sin which brought death. Eve misstated what had been spoken to her. This is generally accepted by the church. But Adam chose sin, for her sake, knowing her reasoning was faulty and wrong. Point is, all Satan did was restate God’s words as a question and insert doubt, and Eve’s reasoning created an alternate theory for what God had said. Or hadn’t said, as the case actually is.

They were told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why? Because the fruit of that tree could only be eaten by one man, Jesus Christ. Notice, also it is the tree of KNOWLEDGE and not the tree of WISDOM. They already had the knowledge they needed to live full of God and without sin. Knowing there was the possibility to sin had been stated to them. Knowing OF IT was not sin. Instead, it was choosing to do what they had been told not to that was sin, the weight of it falling on Adam who knew better and understood what he was doing, since Eve was a part of him when it was stated.

Reread all that.

The worship of God turned to the worship of objects and creatures God had created because man still had the capability of incredible things but had lost the presence of God living within which would guide them into truth. The tower of Babel was an object of worship. The golden calf Aaron claimed had leapt from the fire was made for worship. The statue of Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel’s three friends refused to worship became the reason they were thrown into the fire (but were not burned). Over and over again, mankind created gods from their imagination, trying to fill the need that God had placed in them. This spanned into the cultures of Greece and Rome, known for their man-created gods, and the lands which surrounded Israel for thousands of years.

God was not discouraged by this. It is our human mind again which reasons that He must have been. After all, He’d created mankind in His image and in His likeness to worship Him, yet so many had not. Men worshiped false gods and mental reasoning and were laid in the grave. Yet, God saw to it that those who walked in righteousness would be saved. These are Jesus’ words in Luke 16 when He told of the poor man and the rich man. The rich man, in Hades, asked for Abraham to send the poor man to him, to cool his tongue, and Abraham replied that no one could cross the gulf between them. There is much to be said about this story (first, that it is not fictional), but the point needed here is that many were held in what was called “Paradise.” It was to Paradise that Jesus went after death to lead those within up to heaven. There is an understanding they saw His redemption, and mention is made of Him speaking to the angels in hellish prison in 1 Peter 3:19. So the One who crossed the gulf was the One who died for mankind who was raised from the dead three days later, as Victor over death and King of Kings.

The truth is we do not know how many were in Paradise. Mention is made of Paradise when Jesus forgave the thief who hung beside him. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise,” He says in Luke 23:43 (BSB). This eliminates any theories of Jesus in torments. He could not enter Paradise, being condemned for sin. We must see Him as the sacrifice for sin and not a sinner. This is a huge revelation. Plus, He is Christ and always full of the Holy Spirit. They are one and cannot be separated. The Spirit of God is the reason He could hold the weight of all sin, though He was flesh and blood. Our Comforter held the weight of the Red Sea back as a solid wall and dried the ground at the bottom of the Sea. He hovered over the entire earth’s waters in Genesis and separated the earth from the sky. We need to realize that nothing is impossible for Him in power or scope or weight or wisdom.

We need to also realize the depth of God’s mercy. The Old Testament shows God as being angry in what reads to us as wrath and vengeance. But when you can read the Old Testament and see God’s mercy, His love, then you will know that you truly know Him. The apostle John states this in 1 John 4:7-8. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (BSB).” To know God as love is to truly know Him. In this same passage, he tells us there is no fear in God’s love. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are good and do good. They are everlasting mercy. They are love in its greatest measure.

They are worthy of our worship. There is no other God but them. What man has created in imagery, in statues, and temples is as fruitless as a sky without oxygen. We need oxygen to live. We need the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in order to live. We need Jesus the prophesied Hebrew Messiah as Christ our Savior. We need the Spirit of God as the life and power of God within us. Any other worship is the work of the devil, who still seeks to trick men and women into believing in images of gods that cannot save. Our God can. Our God has. Believing in Him asks trust beyond our mental reasoning. It asks us to set human thinking aside and lay all we choose and decide and can “figure out” at His feet, where He has promised to supply all our needs out of His generosity.

He has said He will give us wisdom when we ask, and He gives liberally without any judgment for our not knowing. But it is the humble man, who has submitted himself to God, who will hear Him and know Him. And it is in the knowing, in living aware of Him, that we become sure and confident in all He has promised.

“In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.” (1 John 4:17)

Gold Image at Pixabay
Tree Image by Petra from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com