Tag Archives: garden

THE GREAT DECEPTION

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Genesis 3:1, 4-5 NLT‬
[1] “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
[2] “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. [3] “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
[4] “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. [5] “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

What was this all about? In a subtle way, Satan, masquerading as “light”, introduced to the first human pair the greatest deception ever perpetrated on humankind.

The devil’s ambition was to replace God as the sovereign of the universe. He tried this ploy before the beginning of time but God very smartly put him in his place.

‭Isaiah 14:12-14 NLT‬
[12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. [13] For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. [14] I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ “

Who is this ‘shining star, son of the morning’?

According to Scripture, God created an order of spirit beings whom He called ‘gods’, sometimes ‘sons of God’ or ‘princes’, to whom He assigned the nations over which to govern in partnership with Him.

‭Deuteronomy 32:8 NLT‬
[8] “When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court.”

This is an amazing insight into God’s heavenly parliament. Each of His ‘cabinet minsters’ in His ‘heavenly court’ was given a nation to govern under His authority. Daniel’s prayer, in Daniel 10, refers to a being called ‘the Prince of Persi’ who fought against Michael, one of God’s chief angels. This ‘prince’ must have been Persia’s ruler.

A high-ranking member of God’s angelic divine counsel, eventually called ‘Satan’, meaning ‘adversary’, led a rebellion against God and was cast out of heaven, taking with him those angelic beings who sided with him.

‭Ezekiel 28:12-17 NLT‬
[12] “Son of man, sing this funeral song for the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. [13] You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone— red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald— all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. [14] I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. [15] “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. [16] Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. [17] Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.”

Was this ‘king of Tyre’, possibly the angel assigned to rule over Tyre, the one who led the rebellion?

God has pronounced His judgment on the heavenly rebels, assigning them to eternal death, as He did the human race, because of their rebellion.

‭Psalms 82:1-2, 6-7 NLT‬
[1] God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgment on the heavenly beings: [2] “How long will you hand down unjust decisions by favoring the wicked?…
[6] I say, ‘You are gods; you are all children of the Most High. [7] But you will die like mere mortals and fall like every other ruler.’ ”

God created a man and a woman in His image, to begin to populate the earth with the human race. He decreed that they would manage His planet with and for Him, and eventually take over the function of the rebellious heavenly beings in God’s divine counsel.

‭Daniel 7:27 NLT‬
[27] “Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will last forever, and all rulers will serve and obey him.”

‭Genesis 1:26-28 NLT‬
[26] “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” [27] So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. [28] Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

He gave mankind authority to manage the physical creation, excluding the nations which were under the rule of the gods, princes, sons of God…His heavenly council,

The plan was working well until….

this Satan, now functioning on the planet God prepared for His human family, disguised as a serpent, and determined to undermine God’s authority and position over creation, approached His human representative on earth, Adam, through his wife, Eve, with a subtly disguised deception….

“Perhaps God didn’t mean what He said”!

And a counter offer,

“You can be like God, make your own rules, and live without Him!”

True, they could, but Satan didn’t tell them the small print. God said they would die if they disobeyed Him. Satan said they wouldn’t die. Instead they, like God, would have experiential knowledge of good and evil.

Here is the subtle deception. God made man LIKE HIMSELF with His life in them. Humans were able to know and have fellowship with Him and live in harmony with Him and His creation through His Spirit in them.

Satan offered them a likeness, not to God but, without saying so, to himself, apart from God, without God and all that He is, cut off from God, and trying to be God. The devil offered man a life that was completely independent of God, so-called ‘free’ from God’s authority and, so they thought, of accountability to Him.

This offer sounded attractive, so they fell for it. Of course, Satan didn’t tell them that they were now at his mercy, under his influence, and subject to the same consequences of disobedience to God as he was.

Simply because he said so, Satan could not cancel the death sentence.

‭Romans 6:23 NLT‬
[23] “For the wages of sin is death…”

Satan has control over the world system which is dominated by selfishness and greed. Everyone without God, dead to God and without His Spirit in them, lives under his influence. He keeps people in the dark by continuing to lie to them with his great deception,

“You don’t need God. You can be God,”…

just as he chose to do when he rebelled. Since he lost his bid to unseat God, he was determined to ruin God’s plan for the human race by claiming authority he did not have and luring them away from union with God.

‭2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT‬
[4] “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”

Independence, the great deception, still rules in the hearts of all people. Until, by God’s gracious intervention, His mercy extended to those who believe what He says, everyone is spiritually dead and under His eternal death sentence.

Only God can undo what Satan has done…ansd He did, through His own Son, Jesus.

Stated very simply…

‭John 3:16 NLT‬
[16] “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

A Rich Man’s Tomb

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A RICH MAN’S TOMB 

“At the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” John 19: 41-42 NIV.

Ever built a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle? It’s a massive undertaking. First one has to find a table or board big enough to fit the reassembled puzzle and all the loose pieces separated and lying face up. Then one has to find all the edge pieces and put them in their correct places to form the outer frame. Next, one painstakingly studies the picture and the pieces to find the shapes and colours that will fit together to form the picture, either beginning at the outer edge or with some focal point that will fit into the puzzle as one goes along.

As the story of Jesus flowed, things happened in quick succession which replicated the words of the prophets of the Old Testament with uncanny accuracy. It was as though God had in front of Him a picture of the events of Jesus’ life, from His conception to His ascension which He had described to the prophets. As event after event happened, He put the puzzle pieces together exactly as the picture showed.

Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 53 contributed the details of part of the completed picture. Joseph’s compassionate action provided the pieces which reproduced the picture of His burial perfectly.

“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.” Isaiah 53:9 NIV.

According to Matthew 27:57-61, Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man who owned an unused tomb near the crucifixion site, which he had prepared for his own burial. Mark added that he was a prominent member of the Jewish Council. What moved him to request the body of Jesus and to use his own tomb in which to bury Him? Was it love, generosity or perhaps even guilt because he had not been open about his faith in Jesus?

Perhaps, as he watched the terrible events, knowing that Jesus was innocent and that He had been killed to mask the wickedness of his fellow religious leaders, he was moved in his heart to rescue Him from the ignominious end of executed criminals – cremation in the city’s garbage dump in the Valley of Hinnom.

When he was sure that Jesus was dead, he hurried off to Pilate to ask permission to take charge of the body. Together with Nicodemus who allied himself with Joseph, they claimed His body, carrying out hurried burial rites because it was almost sundown and the beginning of the special Sabbath, and placed it in the tomb.

What does this little detail say to us who read it? It fascinates me that God wrote Jesus’ story in His book before He was born. Apart from the fact that it gives me assurance that the Bible really is God’s book — who else can write a biography before it happens and be spot on in every detail? — it also makes me wonder whether He has written my story as well. If He has, it means that I am not an insignificant nobody in His eyes, but someone worth writing about.

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16b.

Does that mean that I am just a puppet that God pushes around at will? I don’t think that’s what David meant when he wrote those words. I think he meant that God sees everything from beginning to end. He is able to write our stories before they happen because He can see the whole thing from His perspective. That means that God is very great, greater than that He can see into the future. Past, present and future are all “now” to God. He is already there, at the end of my story just as He is here now where I am on the journey and was present at the beginning.

That also means that although Jesus died at a specific time in history, all the benefits of His death applied from the beginning of time. God’s people weren’t forgiven because they offered animal sacrifices. That was only a picture to help them to understand that it was the blood of God’s Lamb, His Son that cleansed them from sin.

God has taken care of everything that was needed to forgive us and reinstate us as His children. He left nothing to chance and He leaves nothing to chance as far as our lives are concerned. We can trust Him.

The Power of “I AM”

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THE POWER OF “I AM”

“When He had finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and He and His disciples went into it.

“Now Judas, who betrayed Him, knew the place because Jesus had often met there with His disciples.  John 18:1-2 NIV.

Gethsemane! It was almost as though Jesus and Judas had arranged to meet there.

No doubt Jesus had not discussed His next move with His disciples. He gravitated to the olive grove after the Passover meal almost from habit. Perhaps He felt claustrophobic after sitting for hours in the smoky Upper Room. He felt the stuffy heat of the enclosed room and the events of the next few hours closing in on Him. He needed the space and the cool, refreshing night air of the garden.

Judas had made a calculated guess as to where Jesus would go. He had slipped away from the group around the supper table to buy supplies, so John thought, or even to pop something into the offering box for the poor. But why at this hour of the night? No one suspected that he had left to commit a deed so heinous that no one would credit a human being for doing it to a fellow human being, least of all to one’s own rabbi.

Judas’ real reason for leaving was to tip the high priest off about Jesus’ whereabouts. Perhaps he was lurking in the shadows when the little group made its way through the darkened streets towards the outskirts of the city. He may have followed at a distance until he was sure of Jesus’ intention and then hurried off to Caiaphas to offer his services as a guide for the arresting party.

“So Judas came into the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

“Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘I am He,’ Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing with them). When Jesus said, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” John 18:3-6 NIV.

Only John recorded this remarkable incident. Why was it important to him? The purpose of his gospel was to present Jesus as the Son of God. During the course of His disputes with the religious leaders, Jesus had already made it clear to them that it was He who had interacted with His people during the Old Testament era, revealing Himself to Abraham on many occasions and to Moses at the burning bush as the “I AM” and claiming the title, “I AM” in His “I Am” sayings.

But, according to John, He not only claimed the title but He also showed His enemies the power of that name. He was not merely saying, ‘I am the one you are looking for,’ but ‘”I AM”, Yahweh, the God of Israel.’ This was important because Jesus had made it clear that His crucifixion was not the choice of the religious hierarchy or the Roman government but a voluntary sacrifice planned by both the Father and the Son.

“‘I AM the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep… The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.'” John 10:14, 17-18 NIV.

Not only were His enemies to know who they were dealing with but also that they had no power to arrest Him. He would voluntarily hand Himself over to them and submit to everything they did to Him because He chose to submit, not because they had power over Him. . He could free Himself from their clutches at any time, but He didn’t because He chose to lay down His life for His sheep