Embedded Hope

The Stand-In

"But they didn't die!"

At the end of the day, Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, freaked out when they saw they were naked, had their frightened and guilty calling-out, and been banished from the Garden of Eden.

They were also still alive.  In light of God's warning, "In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die," this is a curious phenomena.  How did they do the forbidden and seemingly get away with it?  Granted, they had lost their innocence, their immortality and paradise in one fell blow.  But they were still ambulatory.

Skeptics stick this in their arsenal to help justify their doubt.  Atheists use the passage they don't believe to refute the passage they don't believe.  Believers defend the outcome by saying that God meant "you will surely die spiritually".

But there's another critical bit of the story tucked in there that starts as an echo at the beginning of history and reverberates up through time until the actual, thunderous shout up on a pole somewhere in the messy middle.

After the hungry couple ate their historic meal, they were appalled to find themselves naked.  It hadn't been an issue before the mind-altering chemicals of the fruit had taken effect, but now they knew Good and Evil, and being guilty and exposed was too much to handle.  They bolted for the biggest, nearest suitable leaves they could find.  And they got to work making aprons.

It didn't work.  In another revelation of historic relevance, the work of their own hands wasn't enough to cover the shame and take away the fear.  When they heard God coming to join them for their customary afternoon walk, they scurried deeper into the trees.

God called to them, too merciful to leave them wallowing in their hidden shame.  Cue the questions, excuses, blame shifting, and pronouncement of the consequences.  Things wouldn't be so good anymore: sweat and thorns, a greater helping of babies and pain to go with them, returning to dust, eating of said dust by and confiscation of legs from the other offending participant, and promises of a particular Seed of the woman with bruising and crushing to come.  It's a fascinating story with mythical proportions and real-life nearness and grit.

"But what about that dying bit?"

Well, this is where that echo is heard.  As a final act of mercy before banishment from paradise (and a too-easy shortcut to eternal misery), God took the skins of animals and covered the embarrassed couple's shame with something the Judge (and therefore the guilty) could find acceptable.  It can be reasonably assumed that God didn't leave the contributing animals running around, muscles, bones, and teeth exposed to the world.  The animals, innocent of wrong-doing, died.  And apparently, their death at once substituted for the death of the guilty couple at the same time that it dealt with their shame.

The Bridge to Another Road

It was on that pole near the middle of the story that the original shout was heard as Jesus, the innocent Lamb of God gave up his life to be the permanent stand-in for guilty humanity.  He died our death and his innocence is given to us.

But the story doesn't end in death.  By all rights, it should.  But God goes beyond deserving.  He passes through consequences and brings hope.  Embedded in the curse of Knowing Good and Evil was the very end of that curse.  Once the Innocent One sacrificed his own life and "skin" to the deadly consequences earned by the rest of us, that system would be ended for everyone who participated by simple trust in that  culminating act.

Having so thoroughly vanquished sin and death, the Lamb was raised to life again, forever free of the already-paid consequences of Knowing Good and Evil.  But the Lamb doesn't come alone.  Every one of those who participate in his curse-ending death also will participate in his life-giving resurrection and stand forever in a whole new realm.

It's a life beyond Knowing Good and Evil, forever out of reach of its deadly judgment.  He lifts us above that and welcomes us into his very heart.  Pure Love and Acceptance is now ours.  A new road lies before us, a vision quite vague to eyes still veiled by this inherited flesh.  But it runs off into the eternal distance, and what lies out there defies imagination.

The Deadly Knowledge

"Be Like God!"

The warning was genuine; its prediction accurate.  What they didn't know would hurt them if they came to know it.  History is the truth of this statement told again and again; first one way, and then another.

Our ancestors took hold of a Knowledge meant for someone greater than themselves, and it produced a fatal change in them.  That Knowledge is embedded in our very being now, written into our genetic code and passed irrevocably from one generation to the next.  Anyone with the capacity to reason can't avoid the drive to wield it.  And all humans who use it are subject to its deadly effects.

The essence of that deadly Knowledge is judgment.  To distinguish between good and evil (bad) is to judge.  And we can't seem to help judging everything we see:  "That's a good book!", "This is a bad egg", "What an evil look she gave me!".  

Think about how many times a day you use this ability.  On your way to work, the traffic is particularly heavy.  How do you feel?  Someone else gets the promotion you deserved and needed.  Is it all the same to you as if you'd gotten it?  A whole bunch of someones beat you to that particularly coveted sale item and cleaned out the rack.  What do you say?  Your child comes home from school in tears because of the harsh words of a teacher.  What string of judgments led to and stem from this event?  Can you possibly make it through a day without making an assessment of good or bad?  Try it!

The thing about us humans is that we keep believing we'll ultimately save ourselves through this power.  We think the final answer is just around the next philosophical corner, just under the next religious bush, just over the next governmental hill.  The quest for the final scientific discovery that will put an end to all our suffering is irresistible.  And yet it's all the very same dead horse in different guises, and no matter how hard we beat it, we will never overcome the fact that the Knowledge of Good and Evil can only end in death. 

However, it's not surprising that we believe as we do, considering the origin of this Knowledge's entry into our race.  The Spirit that presented it to humanity in the beginning corrupted himself by his insubordinate determination, "I will be like God!"; and he baited the trap for our innocent forebears with the very same morsel: "You will be like God, knowing good and evil."

But it's a step off a precipice.  Judgment immediately separates you from me, pits us against them, puts God out there and Adam somewhere out of his sight, in hiding.  Judgment brings awareness of our short-comings and fear of punishment.  Fear brings self-consciousness, defensiveness and accusing misdirection: "The woman you gave me..."  It doesn't matter whether this awareness of good and evil comes from our parents, our conscience, Congress, or the Ten Commandments (God Himself).  

History's Lesson

We've just about exhausted all the possibilities.

Nearly every imaginable form of religion has been tried.  Does any one of them lead beyond the predicted end?

Practically  every brand of government has had its time in the sun.  Each time the same rottenness infects, spreads, overwhelms, and destroys.

Just about every philosophy has tested its strength against the prevailing problem.  They all succumb in the end, fading from fashion with a receding whimper.  Let someone else come and try.  And come they do, endlessly and in vain.

Only a little time remains.  We await the final, greatest challengers.  

First will come the might of humanity united in violent opposition against the Ultimate Judge, ruling ourselves in violent licentiousness, refusing to let anyone be God besides ourselves.  This comer will be cut short in mercy, lest it completely self-destruct the race beyond recovery.

Afterward, we'll see the strongest evidence of all that the initial warning was true.  Even when the government is perfect in wisdom, judgment, and strength; even when the philosophy is both true and crystal clear; even when the physical and social environment is rich and nourishing; even when the goodness of God incarnate rules and invigorates the earth, death is at the core of humanity, bound to the dislocated knowledge of good and evil indwelling us.

Christ will ease his grip to allow the enemy to reveal himself one last time.  Then comes the last end and the final judgment before the new beginning and endless glory.

In every age, and in every way, it always ends the same.  The Knowledge of Good and Evil cannot bring life.  It always and only brings death.  For humanity, that's as far as this particular road can take us.

Waiting for Humility

It was more than a year ago now.  More than a year since we started what feels like a long wait.


My family and I had served as missionaries for nearly eight years, pursuing our passion for the liberation of a people enslaved to lies.  We long to see them "know the truth that will set them free".


Progress had been slow, for us and for our team.  But we had made progress and were, in our estimation, finally getting into the ideal situation for the work to begin in earnest.
      
Then, at an international conference for leaders of our mission, I heard God say, "I want you to focus on prayer and follow my lead."

"What should I pray for first?" I asked.

"Pray for humility."

So I began praying for humility, and an African brother, unbidden by me but led by God, prayed that God would give us a spirit of waiting.

Within two months God took us away from the work we loved and gave us a brand new business to run.  It's not our deep passion.  It wasn't expected.  It's a place of waiting; Jethro's flocks, if you will.

It's a hard thing, waiting.  Like Moses tending his father-in-law's sheep, exiled from his people and from the pursuit of his dream for them, we look often toward the people He chose for us and for Himself, and we wonder when.

"When, God?  When can we go back?"

"When its time."  He can be so agonizingly cryptic and perfectly precise in His answers.

I want to go back.  So badly.  My wife and I both do.  But there is a deep conviction that God's plan is right, and that we are right to wait.  It seems our African brother's prayer has been answered faster than ours.  I'm grateful for that.  It would be unbearable without the "spirit of waiting" that he asked God to give us.

I fear at times that if humility is going to be the trigger for our return, we may wait ourselves to death.  Old age may come before a prideful heart is changed.  Oh, God, don't let it be that way!

But the first thing He told me was to pray and follow his lead.  Right now, waiting is following.

So here I am, waiting for humility to arrive.