April 18, 2021
When you study the Old Testament, you don't have to read very far to find a theme that is prevalent throughout the entire Bible. God created the world and told us that it was "Good" even "Very Good". A couple of pages later, Satan comes onto the scene and entices Adam and Eve to turn that "Very good" into something awful. The fall of our first family sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. The world became so wicked that God tells us that not only was mankind doing evil things, but every thought of His heart was wicked (Genesis 6:5). It seems that man was addicted to sin. However, God found favor on Noah and his family. The thought of "Finding favor" in God's sight means that Noah made God smile. God placed Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives on an ark. The rest of the world perished in a world-wide flood. God had started over with a new "first family" and once again everything was good. Unfortunately, Noah did not fare any better than Adam. Not long after he got off of the ark, Noah got rip-roaring drunk. His drunkenness even led to the sin of his son, Ham. Read a bit farther and you will find that as a boy, Moses was saved from a premature death because of the foresight of his parents. He was raised up in the home of Pharaoh. However, when he was forty years old, Moses killed a man and had to spend the next forty years living in the backside of the desert. In spite of his failure, God used Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. God led them through the Red Sea, gave them a law and made them a nation, new and pure. It was an exciting time. Like others before them, not long after Moses was out of sight on Mt. Sinai, receiving the law from God, God's people forgot who they belonged to and held a fireside dance-a-thon in front of a golden calf. This story plays out time and time again in the Bible. God blesses man; man follows God for a bit then turns his back on God. The good news is, God didn't give up on Adam, Eve, Noah, Moses, or the nation of Israel. He doesn't give up on you or me either when we sin. Before God created the world, He made a provision to bring sinful man back to Him. Through the death of God's Son, Jesus, the price for sin was paid. All sin. Everyone's sin. Past, present and future. Now THAT is the ultimate act of love.
Be Blessed and be a blessing,
Brother Andy
