I sometimes wonder what Mrs. Achan might have been thinking when the first stone of judgment hit her.
“How did I get myself into this?!”
“Why did I marry this man?!”
“I’m innocent!”
Poor Mrs. Achan! She, her children, and even their livestock all paid for a transgression that was committed only by their father. It’s a sad truth, but more often than not, our sins are not as singular as we would like to think.
Flashback to the Garden of Eden
This sin-sharing scenario isn’t new though. Achan was not the first person to be so generous with his iniquities. The first person who had the unfortunate idea was Adam. The Scriptures tell us in Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. The ‘one man’ being spoken about here is our ancestor, Adam. He opened a door for sin and death that swallowed up people he didn’t even know! Just like the Achan family, here we are today reeling from the foolish decision one man made!
“How cruel! How thoughtless and selfish! Why don’t people keep their sins to themselves and leave the rest of us to live out our own lives in peace?!”
I hear you.
But it’s not that easy a situation to remedy.
There’s No Way to Know the Outcome
There is no way to predict which sin we can commit that will not swoop our entire lineage, community, church, or country into bondage. As bad as Achan’s situation was, I strongly doubt he honestly intended to get his family in trouble, let alone the entire nation of Israel. It was just his little secret; his private fun. It’s not like he had involved his wife in it. She didn’t even know about what was hiding beneath the floor of his tent (Joshua 7:20-21).
Not like Mr. And Mrs. Ananias and Sapphira. They were both equal participants in their sin (Acts 5:1-10). They both ended up paying for it.
This also contradicts the belief that it’s only the leaders who get us into trouble. Ok. Achan was the head of his family so that counts, but he had no leadership role in Israel. He was just your regular Israelite family guy who attended temple services every week. Yet, the skeleton in his closet cost Israel an embarrassing and deadly defeat.
No, it’s not just the Pastor who is required to live a holy life. No, you don’t have to be a leader in the body of Christ to walk circumspectly.
So What About Repentance?
Repentance is good. The Bible is filled with admonitions to repent. But when we hear about repentance we often assume that there will be no consequences. The unfortunate reality is that by the time we repent, the damage has already been done.
David repented after his sin with Bathsheba. But the damage had already been done – Bathsheba was smeared, Uriah was dead, the child of adultery got sick and died, and judgment was upon David’s house. His sons would revolt against him as a direct fallout of what he shouldn’t have done with Bathsheba. But he had repented, so it was all ok, I guess. (#sarcasm)
Another king features here too. That is King Uzziah. He had a glorious reign in righteousness until he got proud and dared to enter the temple and offer incense. He became leprous as a consequence. He may have repented, but look closely at something else that happened.
In 2 Chronicles 27:2, Uzziah’s son, Jotham was reigning in his father’s place, doing what was right – except for one thing: he did not enter the temple. I’m not the greatest Bible scholar, but I suspect there is a connection between Uzziah getting struck with leprosy in the temple and his son’s refusal to go to the temple. Could it be that a seed of fear was sown by daddy’s actions? (I stand to be corrected if my surmising is not a true exegesis…or would that be eisegesis?)
Repentance doesn’t always make everything right. It will save the soul, but it will not spare us from needing to face the practical results of our sins, sometimes for a lifetime. Sadly, those consequences may include a whole lot of people.
I’m Not Trying To Scare You
It is not always easy to receive reminders like this one. We would much rather be given a comforting pat on the shoulder that makes us think everything is alright. But the consequences of sin are too real and far-reaching for us not to take things seriously.
We don’t just live for ourselves. The things ‘I’ do can end up having a ‘we’ impact. ‘My’ sin can become ‘our’ problem. Whenever we sin, even when nobody else knows, we open doors. These doors can become snares for the innocent people around us. This is not meant to scare you or discourage you. This is an exhortation that will, hopefully, help all of us to think more soberly the next time we are tempted.
It is interesting to observe in Scripture there are a number of times when there is a period of forty days attached to major events. The two most prominent of these might be the time Moses spent on Mount Sinai receiving the Law and the time Jesus spent in the wilderness while being tempted by the devil. In fact, we find nine different times when forty days are assigned to a biblical event. This is significant when you consider that 9 x 40 = 360 days; Jewish calendars in the past are represented by a 360-day year. We can conclude that these forty-day periods represent seasons of testing in the believer’s life.
The First Season
The first of these seasons is found in Genesis 7:4-5 in reference to the predicted flood: “For after seven more days,I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.” Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. God is instructing Noah that his entire world is going to completely change, including the destruction of everything and everyone Noah knows. Our intimacy with God is directly related to our willingness to give up everything for His higher purpose.
The Second Season
“When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. “The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. “It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ “The Lord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people. ‘Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ (Deuteronomy 9:9-14)
When God called Moses to Mount Sinai, the people trembled at the sight of the mountain smoking, with fire and quaking, a picture of God’s judgment. In Exodus 20:18-19, All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.” The people needed Moses to do something they were afraid to do themselves: approach God directly. God’s answer was to provide His Law, the Law of Moses, that would redefine life for every Jew for more than 1,400 years. This second season was the search for perfect justice. But would they accept His challenge?
When Moses came down off Mount Sinai to deliver the Law, he found the people, led by his brother Aaron, worshipping a golden calf. As a result, he smashed the two tablets. The very first of the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20:2-3, is “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” A relationship with the God of Israel is the worship of Yahweh only. This rejection of the Law is a picture of the rejection of Jesus as Messiah at His first coming (John 1:11). The perfect justice of God, the Messiah would need to be postponed until a later time.
The Third Season
In the meantime, God called Moses back to Mount Sinai again in Exodus 34 for forty days and nights and in Verse 28, So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. Moses was intervening on behalf of the people to make atonement for them before the Lord so that He would not destroy them (see Deuteronomy 9:14). God’s answer was to reinstitute His Law. The third season was God’s call on Moses to intervene on behalf of His people. There are times when He calls the believer to be an intercessor.
The Fourth Season
The fourth of these seasons is found in Numbers 13 when the Lord instructed Moses to choose twelve representatives, one from each tribe, to be spies to enter the promised land in secret and investigate the land. In Numbers 13:25, this represented a period of forty days. They would return with an account of the fruitfulness of the land as well as the obstacles the people would face. Of course, ten of them said that the obstacles were too great while Joshua and Caleb had the opposite recommendation. It represents a season in the believer’s life when he must face the future with an eye on the ability of God instead of the greatness of the dangers ahead. The people sided with the ten and they were delayed in inhabiting their promised land for another thirty-eight years.
The Fifth Season
The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So, he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” So, He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing [whisper]. (1 Kings 19:7-13)
Immediately after the great victory that Elijah experienced on Mount Carmel, it became clear that Queen Jezebel and King Ahab would be after Elijah for his life. Instead of operating in his faith as he had done previously, Elijah became afraid for his life and ran. There are times when even the most fervent believers have times of doubt and allow fear to reign instead of faith in God. In the midst of that struggle, God strengthened Elijah supernaturally to traverse the desert forty days to get to Horeb [Sinai], the mountain of God. God was reminding Elijah of His covenant with Israel. The fifth season represents the times when even the most ardent believer must be reminded of the foundation of his faith. These reminders do not usually come by some incredible display like a fire or an earthquake, but most often through the sound of a gentle whisper, the voice of God heard inside by man’s spirit.
The Sixth Season
When King Saul and the people were being challenged by the giant Philistine, Goliath, in the Valley of Elah, as stated in 1 Samuel 17:16, “The Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days and took his stand.” This challenge represents the times when the believer faces a formidable difficulty with no clear solution to the problem. The sixth season is found in learning to wait on God for His supernatural provision, even when it represents a stone thrown by a teenager, even if it takes forty days.
The Seventh Season
Jonah was commanded by God to go to Nineveh and warn the Assyrians to repent or severe judgment from God would come upon them. Jonah had a problem with this and instead headed in the opposite direction. Of course, God had other plans and, after spending three days and nights in the fish, Jonah finally agreed to fulfill God’s wishes. In Jonah 3:4, Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” God was giving Nineveh forty days to repent. And they did! This is the seventh season of testing. Jonah had a problem with a compassionate God offering forgiveness to such a wicked people.
In Jonah 4, Jonah laments over a plant God gave him to be shade from the sun, that it died. The Lord used this issue as a teaching lesson for Jonah, that everyone deserves the compassion of a longsuffering God:
Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:9-11)
The Eighth Season
Directly after the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, Jesus was tested by the devil in the wilderness. He would be tested in three aspects of His ministry: provisions of life, God’s power, and His providence. The eighth season of testing involves the spiritual warfare that attacks the believer in relation to basic issues of life. In each case, the answer to the test is the Word of God: It is written.
Provision
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'”
Power
Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'”
Providence
Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'”
Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. (Matthew 4:1-11)
The Ninth Season
The ninth season of testing is found in Acts 1:3 as Jesus is preparing for His ascension. He has been with His disciples for forty days since His resurrection, preparing them for the church age when He will be removed, and replaced by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, who will guide each believer into the truth. Jesus promises His disciples that, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” As each believer transitions from a religious life to a spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, his life will be tested in every area to trust God for every provision, as he consults the Word of God for strength and understanding.
Though I knew the biblical phrase “time, times and half a time”, I had only looked into it long enough to leave thoroughly confused. However, in response to my lesson on Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy, one fellow student of the Word wrote in the following:
“How do you explain the utilization of time, times and half a time (three and half years) by Daniel, James and John the Revelator?
“Revelation was written after the literal 70 weeks yet the author makes mention of that period (3½ yrs) as either happening or will happen. Is it allegorical or literal?
“Is it the latter part of the 70 weeks or a separate prophecy?”
By Sani’s questions, I realized folks might have been taught there was a connection to Daniel’s 70 Weeks and the “midst of the week” in verse 27. If you want to skip the rest of this lesson, I’ll simply tell you right now: I’ve now studied it out and I can safely say—while there’s no direct connection between Daniel’s 70 weeks and the three “time, times and half a times” we find in the Word—there is overlap! If you want to learn more about what “time, times and half a time” actually means, stay tuned.
Imagine being visited by an angel and receiving a promise foretelling a future king who would liberate your people and usher in an entirely new kingdom—a new way of life—free from the crushing burden of sin, shame and guilt. Amazing! But then this promise turns dark, tainted by war, desolation and the end of all you’ve ever known.
Oh, and did I mention this prophecy is wrapped in an exact timeframe so your people can know when all this is going to go down?
Welcome to Daniel’s 70-Week Prophecy.
TAKE-AWAYS FROM THIS LESSON
This prophecy gives a precise timeline
Announces the arrival of Israel’s Messiah
Predicts the Messiah’s death
Predicts the destruction of temple and Jerusalem by an army
Jesus reminds His first-century followers of this prophecy to warn them of the impending 70 AD judgment (Matthew 24:15)
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:20-22)
When God created the garden of Eden, He made it a perfect place to live. After creating man, he empowered him with ability to exercise dominion over the garden and everything in it. The Lord gave Adam great freedom in fulfilling his responsibilities, with one exception, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from ityou will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) As we know, this one prohibition created an opportunity for sin (Romans 7:7-12) and Satan used it as a means of deception and mankind still lives in the consequences of Adam and Eve’s decision. According to Genesis 3:6-7, When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise [sakal – to act with insight, prudence], she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.
Curses
As a result, not only did God curse Satan, Adam and Eve, but He also cursed the ground. According to Jamieson Fausett and Brown Commentary:
In the rich and smiling garden of Eden the vigorous and prolific soil yielded a spontaneous produce, and the industry of man was confined to the easy and pleasant work of checking or regulating the luxuriant growth of vegetation. This state, because anything we are told to the contrary, would have been perpetuated but for the disobedience of rebellious man, who, with the solemn warning of the penal consequences still ringing in his ears, transgressed, and with the loss of his innocence forfeited the happy place of his primeval abode. The awful curse of an offended God fell not, however, upon Adam himself, as it did upon the serpent, but upon the ground ‘for his sake;’
It therefore would be necessary to expel them from Eden, so that their sin might not be immortalized. In Genesis 3:23, therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. Cherubim were stationed at the entrance to keep mankind from his paradise, for a time. Adam and Eve must leave paradise for a corrupted (cursed) world. Man would now face the results of Adam’s sin, illustrated in the life of his son, Cain. Without a provision for sin, Cain would commit a heinous crime by murdering his brother out of jealousy. The Lord addressed it with him in Genesis 4:7, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master [masal – to rule, reign, have dominion over] it.” Of course, Cain was not able to rule over or master his sin. By inheritance, we all face the same challenges.
The Coming Flood
According to Josephus, Adam had been warned by God of two judgments, one by fire and another by the violence and quantity of water (Antiquities 1.2.3). God never told him which one would come first. It would be 1,656 years from creation until the flood, a time where the corruption of sin became more and more consuming. It ultimately resulted in a deeper corruption, brought on by demonic forces and documented in Genesis 6:1-8:
Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons [ben – offspring, descendants] of God [Elohim] saw that the daughters of men [adam – mankind] were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
This passage suggests that there was a further attempt to immortalize man’s sin through a demonic attempt to pervert mankind in an even greater way, an organized conspiracy among evil forces to corrupt mankind and the animal world, such that the promise of Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel,” would never be fulfilled.
Testaments of the Patriarchs
According to the legend found in the Tamud of the orthodox Jews and the Essene community, all of the patriarchs from Adam to Aaron (thirty-seven or more) were prophets and all wrote testaments for their posterity. According to the Book of Enoch, chapter 6:1-5, it is reported:
And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: ‘Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.’ And Semajaza, who was their leader, said unto them: ‘I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.’ And they all answered him and said: ‘Let us swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.’ Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.
According to chapter 7:1-6,
And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another’s flesh and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.
The Purity of Kind
Hebrews 11:7 gives us further definition of this reality, By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Humanity was warned of the upcoming judgment, but only Noah, his wife and three sons, and their wives would be delivered from this judgment. The lesson to be learned is that God intends that mankind would keep each of his “kind” pure. Noah was instructed in Genesis 7:14-15, they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. So, they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. This principle applies to mankind as well, as Ezra 9:1-4 conveys:
Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. “For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.” When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.
Ezra was instructing men to remain holy, to be set apart and not to intermarry with anyone not of his kind. In Ezra 9:12, ‘So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’ Peter helps us understand further details of this intended corruption in 2 Peter 2:4-9:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
A Scattering
It took more than two hundred years since the flood for the third judgment of God to visit mankind. It came in the form of a scattering of the people and a confusing of their language, as reported in Genesis 11:1-9:
Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So, the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.
In this passage, the people were organized in the land of Shinar and conspired to build themselves a city which would have a towerwhose top will reach into heaven, to demonstrate to God that they could do it without God, to establish a name for themselves. It reminds me of Lucifer’s declaration in Isaiah 14:14, I will make myself like the Most High. Genesis 11:4 tells us that they were concerned about being scattered abroad, so they understood this was contrary to God’s will. In Proverbs 18:11, A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own imagination. It teaches that man’s abilities apart from God produce only an imagination of strength. When men come together to conspire against God, it reflects a spirit that is uncontrollable, according to Proverbs 25:28, Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. When man operates outside of God’s authority, he sets himself up for judgment. The Lord had to scatter the people while confusing their languages; He will always come against unholy alliances. In Psalm 127:1, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.
A Man of Promise
The immediate conclusion to this problem would come through a man named Abram, later named Abraham by God, who would receive promises from God of blessings and also a charge to leave his home for a new land, a promised land. It would be there that Abraham would begin to realize the promised blessings. The solution to the corruption of mankind is a walk of faith, choosing to believe God for His promises as revealed in His Word. In Hebrews 11:9-10, By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. When the believer follows the leading of God by His Holy Spirit, he is trusting in God’s provisions for life instead of his own resources.
The promises God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob redound to the new covenant believer as Paul defines in Romans 4:13, For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. When mankind places his trust in God’s promises, he walks in God’s righteousness with all of its provisions for life. Moses spoke about Israel being separated for an inheritance in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. When man allows God to define the boundaries of his life, he becomes the Lord’s portion (heleq – possession).
The motives that caused Babel to construct its tower still exist today. Prophesy tells us that when Anti-Christ appears, he will use his authority to establish a one-world government (see Revelation 13) and most of the world will go along with him. Peter tells us that the provisions of God are available to all who believe. In 1 Peter 2:9-10, But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. This has always been God’s plan for man to overcome corruption.
So, there’s this story. A story saturated with love, hope, and a glimpse into a paradise experience that transcends what the human mind can fathom even with a lifetime of thoughts. One that many have heard, and some even believe. A story of such unique craft and design that instead of inciting appreciation for the design, it somehow encouraged a sense of doubt and disbelief. And this doubt, this disbelief, is what makes this beautifully written story so full of tragedy. And to know that this story is not a story at all, but our reality, is what makes tragedy so real for us today.
The creation of the universe has to be one of, if not the greatest displays of power that is contained in one being. God, in His infinite wisdom, superiority, and with His ubiquitous nature, carved out every single detail of this world, even those details that exist in the tiniest, most inconspicuous spaces. The stars are aligned according to the words He spoke. Fish swim. Dogs bark. The sun revolves. Water flows. Mankind exists. And mankind, the man that God created for His pleasure and through His unlimited power, is the same man who did not believe that everything he needed was so lovingly and eloquently presented to him without him having to work or ask for any of it. This man wanted more and because of the inquisition into the things that he was not prepared for, he got what he was not looking for but all he deserved. This is the story of why we experience tragedy today.
If you remember anything about Genesis, the creation of man, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you probably remember God’s command to not eat, that wretched woman—Eve, an apple, and a snake. When God created the heavens and the earth, before man was even formed, God had already prepared and groomed everything for him. God provided food, water, light, animals, celestial bodies for navigation, greenery, and everything that man would need (in a perfect world) to thrive and survive. And after God put everything that man needed in place, He brought man into this world. But not only that, He gave him a “help meet” to walk alongside him because God knew that the perpetuity of humanity needed this woman. And God also knew that eventually we were all going to need each other. But just like everything came together for man and woman, because of man and woman, everything falls apart.
The Fall of Man and Change of Heart
As we fast forward through the creation story, we see how Eve was deceived by Satan, through the serpent, by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because she ultimately did not believe God. It wasn’t enough to have everything that she needed; she wanted to be like God. And from there, we see how Adam followed suit in eating of the tree and how his disobedience to God’s command brought doom and gloom into the world. There were cursings passed out to all parties and humanity was now the fruit and mirror of a sinful man. We all would now be born with a sin nature, just like the one our earthly father now had. But thank God through another man, “who thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation…” (Philippians 2:6–7, KJV), we were given a way out. But not everyone takes this way out, and this is what causes devastation and anguish to those who inhabit the earth.
We don’t have to go back far to see just how evil man’s heart can be. There have been more mass shootings in the US this year alone than there have been days. If you rewind back just recently to Chattanooga, Georgia, and Texas, you’ll see the result of an evil heart. If you venture back a little further, but not too much, to New York, you’ll see the heart of another. But even if we temporarily place a veil between us and what is happening around us presently, we can go back 11 years to 9/11 and we’ll see vile hearts dripping with the blood of those made in the same image. And go even further back 100 years and you’ll see that the proportion of change to things staying the same is almost equal. If you look inside schools, you’ll see evil hearts preying on innocence. And if you look inside churches, you’ll see that evil doesn’t have a preference. But if you glance over at Matthew 24, you’ll see a discussion on the signs of the end of the age. You’ll see how tragedy and adversity will be the beginning of “birth pains.” Jesus, in Matthew, tells us that, “many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” And because of the “increase in lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.” And this cooling down of the heart is the agent of our pain. But believers knew this would happen. We expected this. But just as you watch a loved one suffer at the hands of a terminal illness for years, when the day comes that they take their final breath, are you ever really prepared? Do you ever really know how to respond to all of the calamity and affliction? Do you really expect for that day to come that you hear that a lone gunman walks into a school and takes the lives of young, innocent children? And then you ask yourself: If this is what we should expect, is this our new normal?
As you scan the waves of emotions of people in the world, you’ll see the saddened hearts of many who weep for the world we live in. We know what we want to see happen and why there is something that we need to do, but we don’t always quite know what to do. We’re tired but emboldened. Confused but sure. Angry but sympathetic. Stagnant but ready. Frozen but anxious. Why? Because every day brings about a new tragedy to mourn and a new plan to mount. The frequency of devastation has become so close, that it’s almost as if we don’t have time to adequately grieve. We can’t stop and properly mourn those in Buffalo because we must start over in grieving for those in Texas. So that begs the questions: Are we really grieving? Are we really mourning? Or are we just learning to cope? Have we been unintentionally “coping” for so long that we haven’t properly grieved ourselves into the right action? Have we learned a behavior that is now set to match our circumstances? Have we accepted this as “normal” and just don’t know it?
If you think back to the years of slavery and look at what we currently face today, you have to ask yourself: How far have we really come as it deals with the heart of man? Over 100 years later and we can write about the same things Black people were fighting against and afraid of back in the days of Emmett Till and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Is this because some have accepted this as “normal?” Or is the tragedy we face daily because we haven’t had the courage to attack the root of our problems instead of trimming the branches? Consider the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Have we examined the root of abortion and pregnancy and sought ways to attack this beyond “planned parenthood?” Have we gone back years to carve out and address what is at the core of racism and the history of systemic oversight and negligence that has gone unchecked? Have we done our due diligence to unearth the cause of Black-on-Black crime? Have we dug deep enough to reach the bedrock of the opioid epidemic? Maybe the answer to these questions for some is yes but the seemingly, never-ending devastation appears to suggest that for most it would be no. Is this because this is our new normal?
Hope for a Better Normal
When we look at gun violence, mass shootings, sexual abuse in the church, we often look at the instrument that the damage comes through instead of the subject that the damage comes from. Earlier I posed a question of how far we’ve come as it deals with man’s heart, and I believe that the lens through which we see tragedy helps to answer this question. When we hear of gun violence, we automatically laser focus in on gun control. But who holds the gun? When we hear of sexual abuse in the church, we turn our nose up at the entire church community. But who committed the abuse? It’s not the Church. It’s not guns. It’s not politics. It’s people. The people who hide behind the veil of the Church, the barrel of the gun, and the unbalanced scale of legislation. It’s people acting out what is in their malevolent hearts. And the only way to combat the corrupt, cruel, vicious hearts of people is with Christ. He is how we fight back against what is seeking to prevail as our new normal. This is how we respond. We respond to the heart by knowing that at the root of any evil act is sin, and sin is a heart issue. And in order for the heart to be changed, we must allow God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to fix the hearts of those who want change. We must see God as the one, true cardiothoracic surgeon, but we also have to understand that consent has to be given to lie on the table for Him to perform the surgery. And as the believer continues to work to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and people will consent to lie on the table, God will operate on their heart and prompt their repentance so that they can turn away from a heart of hate to one of love for those whom He created.
Most people will never forget how a global pandemic, in the form of COVID-19, took our world by storm. With so many advances in medicine, technology, and science, we were uprooted by an unseen, unheard of, unrelenting virus. Masks mandates were enforced, cities shut down, people were on edge, and it seemed like the pandemic would never end. But here we are. Many thought that the guidelines and restrictions enforced during the pandemic would be our new way of living, but we soon were on the other side of the pandemic, waving goodbye with caution, and going back to our everyday lives. So, what we thought would be a new normal for us turned out to be a pause in what we knew to be normal and a grappling of how we should take on a better normal instead.
And the same goes for the tragedy we see each day. Even though we are so frequently faced with catastrophe, we should not see it as something to get used to. Yes, we should take time to grieve the devastating loss of life. We should mourn, cry, scream, yell, talk to a therapist, but we should also have hope. Hope to walk through each day knowing and believing that the enemy is already defeated. And hope that Christ will fill the hearts of those who will accept Him. And through this acceptance, we may still mourn tragedy and loss, but we mourn it with the expectation that we will one day see our brothers and sisters in a better place, celebrating a better normal with an eternal, loving God.
Dr. Brittany Dodson is a licensed, practicing pharmacist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR, a Christian singer/songwriter, and podcast host of The Traditional Millennial. Learn more about Brittany at https://linktr.ee/brittanydodsonmusic.
