Friday, October 19, 2007

A study in Genesis - After The Fall


Genesis 6:5-6 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

If there is one thing we can say about the Bible in the way it presents man it is simply that it never presents man as righteous. There may have been men whom the Lord commended such as Enoch and Noah but man as a whole lived down to his fallen nature. In this passage we are around 1,550 years after the fall of Adam and things are in an un-alterable mess. Why is this so?

Answer: The natural man has taken over completely. Look at verse 5. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually". It does not say every thought was evil. It says every imagination of his inner man was evil continually. There was no break nor letup in his unrighteous imaginations. He had unbridled lust! He had reached the bottom of the gutter in his downward spiral to hell. He had reached a point where there was no self control over his baser desires and instincts. He was as any brute beast that knows only to fulfill it's desires. Sadly this is where much of the world has arrived again.In Genesis 8:21 God had this to say about man immediately after the flood when mankind received a second chance: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;". Man is true to his nature. It is only when a man is filled by the Spirit of God will he be something other than what his nature dictates. Jeremiah proclaimed one time " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) Paul wrote; "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" (Romans 3:10)

When we look at the world today and think things are worse than they have ever been we may not be entirely correct. God paints a picture for us of the condition of man from the beginning to the end and as a whole it does not change. From the fall of Adam the corrupt nature has fought the righteousness of God and will continue to do so until we lay this body down or God calls time and brings and end of sin.

Think on this for a moment about the nature we inherited from our first parents and then every parent since. Those of us who have children have had to correct our children is that not so? From the earliest years we saw a tendency toward self centeredness is that not so? Have we not seen the tendency to tell a little lie as they grew older? Have we not seen them have the tendency to take something that was not theirs? Who taught them that? Have you ever had to stop your very young children from fighting? Isn't it true you never taught your child disobedience and yet they have that tendency? Why is it written "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) From man's earliest years he has a tendency to go contrary to God. Now think of one more thing on this vein. Aren't they much like you were?The truth of the matter is yes and children need training because it is not natural for them to be obedient all the time. Our children need the same correction and training we received. You raise your child without correction and see what you wind up with. They will break your heart. Even with correction many times children bring sorrow to their parents but without correction they will almost certainly be lawless and uncontrollable.

Man reached this condition before the flood and it broke God's heart. In verse 6 we are told that it repented God that He had made man. God turned from His creation and determined to destroy what He had made. This is a hard thing for us to understand. We wonder why God did not intervene at earlier stages and correct man. We can see how He marked Cain and banished him. We can see how God barred Adam and Eve from the Garden so we are left to wonder why God did not destroy individuals and not let sin accumulate. Perhaps this passage in Isaiah is relevant to the why.

Isaiah 46:8-10 Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. 9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

God had a master plan from the beginning. In His sovereignty God had determined to let sin run it's course knowing full well what He would do even before the world was created. God had decreed in Genesis 3:15 the warfare between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. God had shown in prophetic manner in Genesis 3:21 the sacrifice of the innocent for the sinner. In Ephesians 1:4 we find the Church was chosen in Jesus before the foundation of the world was laid.

Yes the sin of man grieved God and caused a change of direction from God to man and His creation but the sovereignty of God had decreed that He would allow things to take it's course for the purpose of the greater plan of His coming in flesh to pay for the sin of man.

We will leave this passage of scripture with the following; that while it may not give us the details of why, it will certainly show us that there are certain things we will never know for sure this side of eternity.

Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

All we can add to this is; Amen!

Poetry Corner



After The Fall

After the fall
That affected us all
Fresh mercies were given-
New heart for His call.

We had lost the image-
We resembled death,
Instead of sweet life
Willed by God’s breath.

He helped us to stand
He made us anew
Eternal Love
carries us
All the way through.

We felt the dew of Heaven
Rain on us all
Drenching our hearts
After the fall.


Deuteronomy 32:2
My doctrine shall drop as the rain,
my speech shall distil as the dew, as the
small rain upon the tender herb,
and as the showers upon the grass:


Julie Pisacane © 2007