God provides for His subjects
The conclusion of the whole matter according to
wise king Solomon is to, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this are
man's all: For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret
thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
And
according to the prophet Micah, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and
what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with your God? (Micah
6:8)
From
the beginning of creation God created man to be His subjects. Man was supposed
to look upon God as his Creator, his Provider, his Sustainer, his Healer, his
supreme King and Lord.
At
the beginning God provided Adam with everything. It is written, “The Lord
planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom he had formed.
And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the
sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: Now a river went out of Eden to
water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads” (Genesis 2:8-10).
This
period of time epitomized the 23rd Psalm which reads, “The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside
the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of
righteousness for His name’s sake.”
But
as soon as Adam and Eve rejected the authority of God over them, by being
disobedient to God, and choose to believe the devil, and partook of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, which God instructed him not to eat; Adam had
to start defending, and providing for himself.
Partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, gave Adam the power of worldly wisdom to choose for himself what is right and what is wrong. For, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6).
It is at this juncture God said to Adam, “Because you have heeded the voice of you wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17-19).
What has eluded the minds of most people is that, when Adam disobeyed God, and obeyed the devil, he cut himself off from God’s sovereignty, and placed himself under the sovereignty of the devil. For it is stated; “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slave whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness” (Romans 6:16).
Therefore,
regardless of what we are going through God promised to provide for His
subjects and so we have received the consolation saying; “Let your gentleness
be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:5-7).
This
is indeed a time of trial for the people of God who rather exercise their faith
in the power of God than in the wisdom of men.
No comments:
Post a Comment