Old Testament: Disobedience

I once heard a sermon - I don't quite remember when, right offhand, but it might have been Art Lum - that explored Adam and Eve's sin and the way that God confronted it.  In Genesis 3:9, the scripture says, "Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'" (NASB)

This pastor's point was simple - since God's omnipotent, why would He ask where Adam was?  Didn't He know already?  The short answer was: yes, He did know where Adam was, but He was giving Adam an opportunity to confess and repent.

In a similar way, God gives Cain the opportunity to redeem himself.  In 4:9a, God asks Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" to which Cain responds, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

The painting I found today to illustrate this is poignant.  Even as Cain runs away from the body of his slain brother, you see the illustration of God reaching out.  Some might interpret this painting as God reaching out with the Finger of Death (tm) to smote (or at least seriously discipline) Cain, but God gives Cain the opportunity to confess and is reaching out to his beloved creation.  Cain gives a cavalier answer, and God responds with the truth - that He already knew, and that Abel's blood called out from the very soil.

It's humbling to think that the master of the universe reaches out to us in such a manner in order to give us an opportunity to explain and restore the relationship.  It's even more so to realize that the price for the sin has already been paid.

On a slightly different note, I was also struck by verses 6-7.  After Cain's offering was rejected, Cain was understandably upset.  But God said to him: "Why are you angry?  And why has your countenance fallen?  If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it." (Gen 4:6-7, NASB)

God rejected Cain's offering, but it's never said why it was.  I don't happen to think that the problem was with the offering, nor with Cain himself, unlike some interpretations I have heard.  These two verses seem to imply that the danger was not with offering a poor sacrifice, but instead was sin entering in after not doing well.  It was the reaction, not the offering.  Cain's reaction was a murderous anger toward Abel, the brother he thought was favored by God.  Cain didn't master the sin, and it crept in and took over his will.

The conclusion I must draw is that fighting sin is a choice that requires action.  If we are passive about it, it will creep in, slowly and insiduously, until we find ourselves no different in action from anyone else.  Cain ignored the warning, and it's easy enough for us to do so as well.  That being said, there is enormous freedom in the Christian life, and while we shouldn't be passive, we also shouldn't be insular or so overprotected that we make ourselves into the equivalent of the overprotected bubble babies of today.  (In the world, not of it, etc.)

New Testament: Obedience
In somewhat marked contrast, Joseph is the erstwhile hero of Matthew 2.  It's amusing to me that Mary gets all of the credit during Advent and Christmas (okay, sure, she's important), but Joseph is somewhat ignored for the survival of Baby Jesus in his first few years.

What gets me is this: Joseph has a dream in which he's told to get up, pack the mother and child, and head out to Egypt immediately.  And what does Joseph do?  He gets up, packs up the fam, and heads to Egypt int he middle of the night.  Later on, Herod slays the male babies in Bethlehem under age 2 (serious insecurity) and at some point in time, dies.

Then Joseph gets another dream that says, "Get up, take the mother and child to Israel," so he packs up the fam and heads back to Israel.  And then, he gets another dream that says it's too dangerous in Judea... and yes, we get the point, Joseph gets up and heads to Galilee.

As repetitious as this is (God says do this, Joseph does it to a T), it stands in marked contrast to much of the other behavior that we see elsewhere in the Bible.  Joseph may not have many references in the Bible, but it's apparent that when it came to things of importance, he made the choice to obey God.  God may have chosen Mary, but He also chose Joseph.  (And for the record... I'm not so sure I would trust any message I get when I'm unconscious.  Joseph must have trusted God a lot.)

This is in contrast to Jonah, who ran off in the other direction... but that's another reading and another time.  In reflecting over the past decade or so, I've had Jonah years and I've had Joseph years.  Lately, they've been more Joseph than Jonah.  One of my most exciting Joseph years was in 2005, when I quit my job, moved in with Joy and Carol, applied for jobs, took a job not as a software engineer but as a quality engineer, and started talking to a mild-mannered software engineer who I had just found out was moving to Texas (and started dating him some months later).  Each one of these instances was precipitated by some kind of prompting that was unusual in my eyes.  Trust me, I don't like to quit a job when I don't have another one lined up, but Someone Else had a better idea.

The years since haven't really put me at as much of a personal crossroads as in 2005, but it comforts me to think that when the rubber meets the road, I can and will take that step of obedience.

Thoughts?

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I forgot to mention that I got married about six weeks ago.  Yes, I'm taking a new last name. :)  More about that in my livejournal.