RAISING OUR LAND. (EPISODE 4 - THE REAL PROBLEM)
RAISING OUR LAND
“Thus says the LORD, In an acceptable time have I
answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve
you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate
heritage…”(emphasis mine)
Isiah
49 vs 8 (Hebrew Names Version of The Holy Bible)
EPISODE 4: THE REAL PROBLEM
The world is in pain. People are in pain. Everyday people wake up to the same problems. Addiction, Poverty, Groping, Depression, War, Diseases, Accidents, Deaths and so on: are but a few of the issues people carry with a smile plastered on their faces. I remember speaking to a friend some years back who was of the opinion that it was unfair to bring children into this world, because all they may end up facing is pain. When you listen to the news this days, and you here something like "oh there was a bombing in Aleppo and thousands of people are feared dead, most of them women and children", people are sympathetic, but after maybe five minutes of remorse, they remember there own problems: rent is unpaid, landlord has given me quit notice; child is on the way and am out of a job; child is sick and I can't afford to take her to the hospital, my kids were sent out of school today because I can't pay there fees; my parents are late and I am left to fend for myself and three siblings - how do we survive?; Nobody loves me, maybe I should just kill myself, after all no one will notice if am gone; I just lost the love of my life, we have been married for ten years - high school sweethearts - he died of cancer, no one could help him, I have five children to fend for - what do I do? ... we can go on and on. Those with money, throw their cash at the problem, but money can go only so far, it cannot solve all problems. Some
say "oh there are some 'powerful men' that control the world's economy
and profit a lot from people being impoverished or at war" while this
may be true, I put it to you that even those 'power brokers' have
problems, some even more grievous than those they have enslaved - so there is nothing to look forward to trying to be them. Religion is the next aphrodisiac for some people, and truth be told, religious leaders have exploited a lot of people by playing on their emotions, but guess what, even those leaders have problems. So how do we get comfort from all our pain and frustration?
I believe that in other to solve a re-occuring problem, one must try to understand why the problem is there in the first place, what is the source of the problem. Where there is a leaking water-carrying
pipe, the whole floor is bound to get flooded with water. In an attempt to save
both water and floor, one must not put effort on only mopping up the spilled
water and ignore the leaking pipe; rather one must find the source of the burst
pipe and then fix it, and then clean up the spilt water or if possible do both
concurrently. The Nigeria situation and even the world at large seems to be one
where most aren’t looking to identify the source of the problem, instead ‘mopping’ seems to be the order of the
day. Even those who attempt to find the ‘leaking pipe’ do so in the wrong places. As someone rightly said, “we
are treating the symptoms and not the disease”.
We have seen in the previous episodes how God created the earth and everything in it for man's pleasure. This God that planted a garden just for Adam to reside in comfort cannot possibly enjoy seeing his creation in pain. This God that desires that people prosper in the work of their hands, who when He finds one being productive, He does all that is needed to make that one even more productive; cannot possibly desire that His creation lives in poverty. I have seen poverty in some of the worst cases in my work as an urban planner, and even though I am not responsible for it, I feel pain at seeing people live in such squalor. Now imagine how God feels at seeing the world the way it is. So what is the root cause of the world's problem?
As a Christian, there is only one Book
that shows what truly happened at the beginning of the world. That Book is the
Bible – The Written Word of God. Upon careful study and meditation, one will
find in it, the reason why the world is the way it is and the necessity for the
redemptive work of Jesus Christ, our redeemer. The following paragraphs will
reveal that which I discovered during study and meditation of the bible,
seeking to understand: The problem with the World. Lets go back to the 'Genesis'.
The relationship between Man and the Earth goes as far back as the beginning of the world. The bible records that man was made out of the earth, and it also shows that the earth's productivity is dependent on the labour of man. Their relationship
became even more interesting after Man sinned by listening and obeying the voice of
his wife over the voice of God, and eating the fruit of the tree he was told
not to eat. This disobedience led to what is popularly called the fall of Man.
Man died immediately after eating the fruit, for the law said he would (Gen 2: 16 – 17)
…The law? Yes! Before now, I assumed
that the first law God gave man was that stated in Exodus 20. It recently
dawned on me that this is not so, and that the actual first law God gave to man
was in Genesis 2: 16 – 17:
“And
the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Disobeying the law means the entrance of
Sin into Man Romans 5: 13 “For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is
not charged when there is no law”; the wages (consequence) of Sin is death (Rom
6: 23).
Another law in Exodus 20, among other
things, showed that man could not please God or save himself by keeping the
law, because man could not keep the law in his dead and corruptible state.
What is this death? Man obviously didn’t
die physically after breaking the law, so we know this death does not mean immediate bodily death. I believe
strongly that this death means:
(1) The immediate cease in communication
between Man’s spirit and God’s Spirit: because it was only after the fruit was
eaten that we see ‘The Voice of the Lord’ searching for man to commune with,
for the usual communication link – God’s Spirit to Man’s Spirit – had been
disrupted(Gen 3:7&10);
(2)The emergence of a Self- conscious
state that did not exist before: for they became suddenly conscious of their
nakedness and attempted to cover themselves as they were now ashamed (they were
not ashamed before in Gen 2: 25, before they ate the fruit). Also, man was for
the first time, afraid, and he hid himself from God’s presence probably due to shame,
fear and guilt – all these are signs of a Self- conscious state.
(3) Shut access to the fruits of the
Tree of Life which makes Man’s body live forever, for man was cast out of the
garden. Gen 3: 22 - 24 shows God driving man out of the garden to keep his body
from the fruit of the tree of life or from living forever.
(4) The dominating power of man over the
world, which was Adam’s at that time and which made him the god of the world,
was stripped from him and given to him that caused Adam to fall – Devil. For in
the book of Luke 4:5-7 “…And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain,
shewed unto him all the Kingdoms of the in a moment of time, And the devil said
unto him (Jesus), All this power will I
give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to
whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be
thine.” But we know the devil is a liar and a deceiver, so let’s not take
his word for it. Let’s look at Jesus’ response in verse 8, “Jesus said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Jesus disproved the part that was
untrue - worshipping another god besides God, and so we can safely assume that his
silence on the devil’s ownership of the earth at the time, is acknowledgement
as truth (The devil uses ‘truths and facts’ to deceive those who do not know and/or
understand it). Else, Jesus would have said – the kingdoms of the earth do not
belong to you, and you cannot give what you don’t own.
However, there is a fifth definition of
Man’s death which has more to do with the relationship between man and the
earth. This is when God said to Adam: “Cursed
is the ground for thy sake (Gen 3: 17).”
‘For thy sake’ means as a direct
consequence of man’s actions.
In a Mathematical sense, the
relationship between Man’s body and the Earth is ‘Man’s Body => Earth.
Meaning the existence of an equivalent relationship between both parties;
causing the effects of action on one party to have similar repercussions on the
other party. The cursing of the ground means really the curse of man’s body and
all that sustains it. For out of the ground man’s body was made and unto the
ground man’s body will return. All the other definitions of man’s death touched
on the non-physical aspects of man’s make-up. However, this aspect of death
touched on the physicality of man. The Curse, just like the blessing was to
Adam, is like an energy that attached itself to the earth, which produced other
curses shown in verses 17, 18 and 19 of Genesis 3.
“…in
Sorrow Shalt Thou Eat Of It all the days of
thy life; THORNS ALSO AND THISTLES SHALL
IT BRING FORTH TO THEE; and thou shalt Eat
The Herb Of The Field; In the Sweat Of Thy Face Shalt Thou Eat Bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return.”
All that we see in the world today is in
my opinion, a product of this curse. For instance: “(1)…thou shalt eat the herb of the field” announced the introduction of sickness
and diseases on the earth, for man will now have to depend upon herbs for
healing rather than just for food. Also, “(2)…in sorrow
shalt thou eat of it”
announced the introduction of
all that causes anguish and pain to man on earth such as war, pestilence,
natural disasters and so on. “(3)…In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” announced the introduction of hunger
and poverty as a product of toil and groping. And “(4)…thorns also and thistles shall it
bring forth to thee” announced the introduction of evil in the
application of wisdom, such as in science and technology, where the same wisdom
that can be used to create instruments for good health, is used to create destructive
viruses or the same wisdom used in making a farm tool like the cutlass is the
same wisdom used in creating the Machete, a weapon of war.
This curse of the ground which
includes the above mentioned 4 curses is in my opinion the ‘leaking
pipe’ that has caused and is still causing a lot of sorrow, anguish, pain,
discontent, corruption, and many other woes in the country today. It has to be
fixed! Genesis 5: 28 – 29, is further proof of this as it shows Lamech,
expressing the condition of the earth in his son’s name, Noah, saying: “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of
the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” The people at this age were also
looking for comfort because of the effects of the curse, his pain described the
effect of the curse: “…In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” for he was specific about ‘the work
and toil’.
The Prophet Zachariah also prophesied
about these four curses indirectly in Zachariah chapter 1, see:
“In
the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, The LORD
hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus
saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will
turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.”verses 1 - 3
Now, the people of Israel were in
bondage and captivity, they no longer had possession of their land because of
their sins. But God being merciful called upon His people unto repentance,
where upon their obedience, He will turn unto them; See:
“Therefore
thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be
built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon
Jerusalem. Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through
prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet COMFORT Zion, and
shall yet choose Jerusalem.
Then
lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. And I said unto the
angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns
which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” verses 16 - 19
Now we see the introduction of the four
horns which scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, but these four horns only
came after the people sinned against God. These four horns also caused the
people great discomfort (it is said in verse 21 that no man could lift his head
– that is no man could be prosperous – and it is also written that the lord
shall yet comfort Zion.) just as Noah and those of his generation also faced a
massive problem of discomfort (like I earlier mentioned this also had to do
with the works of their hands – prosperity) due to the curses which were upon
them. It is for this reason that I believe that these four horns are
representatives or types of the four curses, because both came onto the earth
due to Man’s sin and both caused Man discomfort.
The World is in pain. People are in pain. And all the pain in the world can be traced back to the Curse on the earth due to the deceptive work on the devil, which led Adam to Sin. This is what we should be angry at. The Devil is who we should be angry at. He stole our comfort from us. God has got it back for us.
This is not to say the earth has become
absolutely evil. No! What the curse did can be compared to Jesus’ parable of
the yeast in Matt 13vs 33: "… like
yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all
leavened." In its addition to the earth, the curse acts like the
yeast, over time, if left unrestrained; it corrupts the earth in totality.
Another narrative to describe the nature
of the earth after the curse is one which is made on my blog,
www.ladismusing.blogspot.com; titled “One Rotten Egg”.
So what do you do when your three measures of meal has been
corrupted by the yeast, throw it away
right? Well, thank God for his wisdom is far beyond our wisdom, else He would
have thrown the world away. Instead, He sent His Son, to come and create the
opportunity for the whole world to become free from the yeast of sin and stay
shielded from the rampaging curse.
Now that we have seen from scriptures the real problem of the world that needs to be fixed, Tomorrow, Saturday, 12th of November, 2016, we would take a look at how God dealt with Sin, Death and the Curse in one single SUPREMELY genius move.
#Hint: Jesus is our Saviour.
Thank you for reading.
I pray that anyone facing any challenge right now which is so frustrating and painful, and looking like it is without remedy, I pray that that person receives strength to stand and that God preserves you and shows you in clear terms the actions you need to take to turn things around in your favor in Jesus Name. Amen.
Please, do not lose hope, for Jesus said we should be cheerful, for He has overcome, and since He has, so have we.
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