Do you know why there are two testaments in the Bible? Simply defined, the Old Testament is the story of life on earth before Jesus was born and the New Testament is the chronicle of Jesus' life, death and the birth of the church that followed.
That's the tiny nutshell verson, but, of course, there is a lot more to it than that.
.For instance, did you know that God walked here on earth with Adam and Eve? He did! Before they messed up and disobeyed Him anyway. It happened in Chapter 3 of Genesis.
By Chapter 6, man had become so evil that God could take no more.
Chapter 6, people! That's not even a nanosecond in the big picture of eternity. 😕
Good grief!
But, seriously, though, can you blame Him? We were beyond running amok; evil reigned supreme—by chater 6 of the Bible. That's really sobering when you think about it.
It's no wonder God was ready to throw in the towel.. but, for the faith of Noah, I guess he would have. Thankfully, Noah was the glimmer of hope God needed to carry on. After the flood, God decreed a covenant with man saying never again would He interfere with His original plan for creation.
His hope in creating us was that we would choose to follow His will for our lives. Which pretty much boiled down to showing love to our fellow man and acknowledging God as our Creator. It seems simple enough and if we'd succeeded, we'd all be living in paradise right now.
Can you imagine it? The Garden of Eden was supposed to be the norm!
Since I haven't even gotten past Chapter 8 in Genesis yet, I had better stop the play-by-play.
The Old Testament is important. It documents the history of the relationship between God and man from the point of creation up to a time when God left us to our own devices. Or, perhaps that should read God left us to our own vices because sin has become so embedded within us, we don't even realize it.
Sad, but true.
And, the world grew darker because of it.
The vast majority of the population knew no different. They just kept on keeping on. And, sadly, at times God was not acknowledged for so long that His own people lost complete sight of Him.
How could they get to that point?
From Adam and Eve on, God's chosen, had bout after bout of turning from God for one reason or another. This resulted in God taking away His protection for a time. The people would, eventually, wise up and tell God they were sorry.
God, the very nature of love, would know when their hearts were sincere, forgive them, and set them on their path again. This happened time after time and, finally, there came a day when God had had enough.
He was silent for 400 years.
When God deemed the time was right, Phase 2 of His plan was put into action. This phase of creation was not an afterthought—it was planned from the beginning; Jesus was at the ready. Even knowing what was to come, His great love for us superseded all he would endure because we are His passion.
He chose to come and live life as a man. He experienced every emotion, felt hunger and pain, and faced temptation—probably all to the nth degree! The evil one was chomping at the bit from the moment Jesus got here to fell our Savior in any way possible! As Jesus grew so did the possibilities! If he could get Him to mess up outright... Can you picture him—shoulders hunched and hands clinched together in evil anticipation... *shudder* But, guess what! Jesus never caved—not even close. He felt everything we feel. Lust, hunger, anger, pain... and still was able to lead a life free of sin. He never displeased His Father. Not once. Because of that fact, He was worthy to become our sacrifice. "Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified." ~Hebrews 10:11-14
I encourage you to read Hebrews Chapter 10, however, those four verses are a lot to wrap your head around, huh? We can only imagine the conversations in heaven, still, they have them. I wonder if when discussing creation plans, God mentioned that we would be incapable of following His lead. Perhaps, noting if Lucifer (Satan) had mastered the art of luring a number of His heavenly creations away, what chance did man have to withstand him? God loves us and would not want us to be doomed from the start. But, I can just see Jesus at the ready even then! Smh (shaking my head)... In wonder! "I can do it, Dad! I'll show them the Way! Send me! If I do this for them and if they accept this gift I offer, they will make it. Send me!" I can imagine him saying something like that. Can't you? 😊 *sigh* Of course, God knew that Jesus was capable. He would succeed and become a worthy sacrifice to eradicate sin once for all. First from individual lives and one day for all creation. But this was His Son...
Even though, Jesus was willing to endure crucifixion... Could His Father allow it? Could His Father bear it? The above is just me thinking as a parent. But, I mean, seriously, have you considered what God did for us? Could you condemn your child to such a horrible fate for being perfect? I've talked to God about that... I don't know how he did it. I'm not sure that I could.
However, it was determined, they gave us a chance to get it right on our own. But, as stated above, we proved pretty early on that we weren't going to get it together. We needed help.
Oh, thank you, Father God, for sending Him. Thank you, Jesus, my brother, for coming! I think we are going to leave things there for now. But we'll delve in a little deeper, okay? God not only forgave His people over and over, but He also tried His best to get us to understand why it's so important to stick with Him. There are lessons for us there, my friend. Then, the New Testament shares the victory over sin. Once for all. May we pray? Thank you, Jesus, for what You've done for us. Sin was defeated that day on the cross. Let all who read this and have a decision to make, hear You speaking to their heart of hearts. May all who read this that do know You as Lord and Savior of their lives, be spurred to action. Sharing your great love with those that need to know. You are the bridge. The connection we need to stand right with God. It's in Your name we pray. Amen See you next time. Love, C Photo Attribute: www.earth-association.org