A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 03 February 2015. Presented to River Street Cafe, 20 November 2015.
Read
Genesis 1:28, 11:1-3
When God made the beautiful garden for Adam and Eve to look after.
He asked something simple in return. God asked people to:
1)
populate the earth (Genesis 1:28a),
2)
take care of everything in it (Genesis
1:28b) and
3)
to hold off on eating the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17).
The
very first thing God asked us to do was, Genesis 1:28 ‘Be fruitful and increase
in number; fill the earth and subdue it…’ He has told us to go and fill the
whole earth and in Chapter 11 we say, “Thanks anyway God, but I think we’ll
just stay here and make a name for ourselves instead of going and filling the
whole earth like You said.” How well do you think that goes over?
That’s
like telling your children to get their coats and boots on because its time to
go to school, then heading out to warm up and scrape off the car. Upon coming
back into the house, you see them still sitting around in their pyjamas. And
when questioned they answer you, “we decided not to go to school today.” How’s
dad going to react? How’s dad going to feel? Our earthy fathers are going
to - in maybe not their most gentle
voices – tell their children to get ready right now! Dad is not happy. The
children are going to school whether they like it or not! The children are none
the better off for this little stunt because a loving father is still going to
send his children to school because he wants what is best for them. And a generation
and a court ruling or two ago, they might just have had a sore backside to show
for their disobedience as well. The children’s stunt doesn’t help their cause
at all because they still have to go to school, just now they are a little less
happy about it then they would have been if they had done what they were asked
in the first place.
It is
the same with God –our Heavenly Father- and humankind’s decision to disobey His
command to fill the earth. Just like the kids still had to go to school, we
still had to do what we were told – scatter over the whole earth – but now we
just have something extra to remind us about it. Genesis 11:8-9: “So the LORD
scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the
city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the
language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face
of the whole earth.”
God
has, does and is going to do what is best for the world because He loves us.
God sent His people to the ends of the earth to testify about Him. God sent His
Only Begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him need not perish but may
everlasting life; so why do some of us choose to disobey our Father and miss
out on enjoying sharing – or worse – experiencing that eternal salvation?
Are
there times when our actions have caused us to miss out on God’s blessing
before? What can we do to ensure that we continue in obedient faithfulness to
God?
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, God: Creator,
Governor, and Preserver of All Things. Presented to Swift Current Salvation
Army, 26 Feb 2012. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/02/genesis-1-4-god-creator-governor-and.html
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