God's broken heart |
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Was God over-reacting in anger when he sentenced mankind to toil and sorrow? No! God was brokenhearted.
God's anger and foremost judgement were directed at "...that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray..." (Revelation 12:9 NIV). How dare this wily serpent meddle with the object of His devotion! Yet that is exactly what God had to allow. There was no other way to birth a race who would return His love by choice and not by force. God pronounced the curse upon mankind out of love. God knew that now it would take a world of pain and sorrow, thorns and thistles, to ever again get this race to the place where they could receive the great sacrifice He would make for them. They would have to come to the end of themselves. They would have to die before they could live. When God forced his precious loved ones from the Garden of Eden, he knew the awful cost He would pay to bring them back home. He said to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Genesis 3:15 NIV). This is the first promise of a Redeemer. Jesus Himself would intervene to rescue the woman's seed and to crush the serpent's head! The man and woman were helpless to fix the consequences of their rebellion. God stepped in immediately and made coats of animal skins to clothe them. Then, with tears and love, He drove these dear blighted mortals from the garden he had planted just for them. He could not allow these creatures to partake of the Tree of Life and live forever in their blemished state. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:21-24 NIV). God's whole creation was wounded, desperate, hopeless. God could not bring His blighted race home now. Not one of them was worthy to enter the gates of Heaven. Even their eternal spirits had been damaged, so that they could no longer commune with Him on this earth or in the life to come. Rebellion was all they knew now. They were lost. Click Next to read the incredible measures God took to get his loved ones back! |