NOTHING CHANGES
Since the dawn of time, mankind has seemingly always wanted to react to information in its own way. There is always seems to be a comfort in doing things one’s own way or by listening to someone who seems to support your way of thinking instead of listening to so called outsiders or others who have different opinions.
In fact, at the very first, did not Eve appear to think this way when she saw the forbidden tree in the garden? She already had seen that: “…the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and…desirable to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). She may have already been having these thoughts before she was confronted with “…Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1) to which she in part replied “…God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”(Genesis 3:3). And to this the reply was “…You will not surely die…”(Genesis 3:4). As a result of this, two events evolved.
Firstly, the word of the authority (God in this case) was put into doubt. And secondly, Eve did not instantly die as might have been expected if the threat were true. When this did not happen, it became easy to disbelieve and deny the entire instruction, and from there to go on to total disobedience.
Has anything really changed? When an authority tells us we need to follow some protocol today, do we not often have doubts regarding such because we already have pre-formed opinions ourselves regarding the same protocol? And when nothing seems to happen as a result of our doubt, then denial and disobedience soon seem to follow. We often forget that just because nothing happens initially does not guarantee that repetitive actions won’t lead to punishment in the future.
Just because Eve didn’t die immediately as she probably expected does not mean that death did not occur; it just happened in another but unexpected way. And when we disobey the authority of today a type of death may develop in the same four ways that happened way back in the time of Eden.
First, physical death does occur. “It is appointed for men to die once” (Hebrews 9:27). Therefore, we all know that we will eventually die. This, however, happens in many ways and under many different circumstances but probably none more so than at present. We still like to do things our way rather than do as we are instructed. Over 700,000 people have died in the US since the start of Covid, many of whom would probably still be here if they had followed authority.
Secondly, for those involved, there has been the death of relationship between authority and those people. When Eve disobeyed God, the trusting relationship between herself and God disappeared. Likewise the trust and connection between authority and many people has been shredded recently due to the doubt and denial that has developed from death of that relationship.
Thirdly, when Eve broke relationship with God, the relationship between her own family members also died. This became most evident when Cain murdered Abel. Such would not have happened if trust in God and obedience to Him had continued. Likewise, today, due to the difficulty some people have with doing what is needed to be done, families have been split and communication has been difficult due to the firm opinions held on both sides of the fence regarding the situation faced by society at the present time.
Finally, there has been in many cases the death of one’s mental health and psychological well being. In the early times, we became separated from our initial identities and our God given relationship. The physical world also became more difficult to deal with and unstable. Our emotions became more confused and chaotic, and the future became more blurred. Likewise, today, emotions have become more frayed and torn, mental difficulties more prominent and common, while at the same time the physical world has seemingly become more unstable than ever before with the present global situation only exacerbating all of these problems.
So we still, in many cases, refuse to recognize authority and continue to ignore God’s direction. The first people saw only too well how such action led to their death; spiritually, interpersonally, mentally, and eventually in the physical sense. Has anything really changed? In our continued desire to do things our way and to refute God’s direction, and the direction of other well meaning authority, we too have in many cases suffered the losses of spiritual faith and relationships between friends and family, and experienced emotional upheaval and premature physical death.
Perhaps more of us should really do what common sense tells us and do what we all know in our hearts to be right.
It’s at least something to think about.
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