LENT: Mar 28 - Genesis 3:19

God said to humanity …

“By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and

to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:19

 

Bad news: Life is supposed to be hard.

 

True fact: It’s a consequence of sin. Our sin. We shot ourselves in our own foot.

 

If you want, you can read Genesis 3 as God’s punishment. I don’t! No, it’s natural consequences to ourr own actions.

 

Think about it like this.

 

·         God lives in paradise.

·         And God created for us a paradise (see Genesis 1 and 2).

·         When we’re in paradise, we’re with God. (And vice-versa: When we’re with God, we’re in paradise.)

·         But sin is rebelling against God.

·         Sin is running from God.

·         Therefore, when we run from God, we run away from paradise.

·         And if we run from paradise, “bread” doesn’t grow on trees.

·         Therefore, because we have rebelliously run from God, it will require “the sweat of your face” to “eat bread.”

·         In other words, this is not God’s judgment, but a “natural consequence.”

·         We shoot ourselves in our own foot.

 

The summary of that is this: Life is hard because of us. And it will continue to be hard until … When? “Till you return to the ground.”

 

Sorry. Life is hard. And it will be hard until you die. You will work … or you will go hungry. That’s nature. And just like in the wild – where the weak antelope is the one that the hyenas attack -- the weak and poor and powerless suffer. It’s not judgment. It’s life lived in the wilderness of our sin and our corruption and our lack of generosity.

 

And if you have blessings, be thankful. But don’t think that you’re entitled to them, because you’re part of the problem. You sin. I sin. Even nice people, to one degree or another, make their own hell.

 

Is that depressing enough for you! This is how life is, and it will inevitably be this way “till you return to the ground [as] dust.” But that’s when the hope begins.

 

God so loved the world that he provided a way to conquer our sin and return us to a place where there is no mourning and crying and pain and death will be no more. Through the love and sacrifice of Jesus, we can be cleansed of our sin and return to paradise (heaven).

 

The point of life isn’t happiness or paradise. It’s returning to God. And guess what, we even can do that BEFORE we die. Not 100% … because on this earth we’ll always be entangled in the webs of sin, but we’ll see glimpses of more and more light and hope as soon as we repent (turn away from sin and turn to – run to – God).

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who is NOT depressed by this!

(Rather, it explains everything, and

inspires me to daily find the light!)