Wise words with...

Have you ever had to make a big decision? The kind of decision that can change history for generations? 

Very few of us are in positions of such responsibility that we make those kinds of decisions! So it is hard for us to appreciate the significance and weight of responsibility that goes into such choices.

"The serpent said.. You will be like God knowing good from evil." Genesis 3:4,5b "God said to Abraham.. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:1,3b

At our recent Secondary Assembly, the passage we looked at saw Adam and Eve faced with one of those decisions. This was probably the most significant decision ever made by humans - to reject God's good rule. This was also a decision that would have far-reaching consequences for everyone ever born and includes every ethnic and cultural group and people on every continent on earth. 

We see in the opening of the Bible that God's world was created good - in fact it was very good. So good that it is hard for us to envisage a world without flaws. Adam and Eve had every need met and every comfort provided. It was peaceful, plentiful and perfect.

But the decision to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was an open rebellion against God's directions, motivated by human desires. Firstly, the fruit was good for food and met the desire for the most basic human need to eat. Secondly, the fruit was pleasing to the eye in appearance and met the desire for things of beauty. Finally, the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom and insight. Ultimately, it was an opportunity for autonomy from God - for the freedom to make our own decisions and hence be like God and decide what is right and wrong.

The consequences of Adam and Eve's decision was death and judgement. In our world today we carry still the consequences of sin in a fallen and marred world and in our own lives and relationships. If that were the end of the story it would be a very sad story indeed!

However, God chooses to bless his world through one man and his family - Abraham. God makes the promise that in Abraham all nations on earth will be blessed. So, after generations pass, from that line will come Jesus who will die for our sins on the cross and be raised again in victory. It is by faith in Jesus, this descendent of Abraham, that we can be rescued and restored to relationship with God. It is through Abraham that God will bring about his Big Rescue.