I was thinking about the fall of man again, and I realized an important piece of the aftermath.  Notice that even though God curses Adam and Eve, he does not remove his initial mission for them.  He does not remove the mandate to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen 1:28)  God in his infinite wisdom decided that the original mandate should be maintained. 

I wonder how often in our lives, when we are met with failure, we decide that we are no longer able to pursue the things that God has for us.  Over and over in scripture we find that failure is treated more like an obstacle than a mission ending barrier. 

For the next several chapters in Gen, you get a lot of genealogies, ages, births, and some very strange items.  You have the first murder, Cain killing Abel, because of jealousy. (Gen 4:8)  One strange thing is that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken, he never died (Gen 5:21).  You have the “sons of God” desiring human woman and bearing children.  These children are referred to as the “heroes of old, men of renown? (Gen 6:4-5).   You have passages that seem to indicate that God walked among men in these days. 

That brings us up to another huge event in world history.  The Flood.  Anthropological evidence has been found worldwide supporting the fact that at one time the entire earth was covered with water.  The bible records this world wide cataclysm as the punishment of God on the people of earth.  Gen 6:5-6 says, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he has made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.”

That is a pretty rough verse.  It makes me wonder just how bad it was… you see later in Gen when Lot is living in Sodom and Gomorrah that things were pretty bad there.  I wonder how it compares to the state of the world today.  We have a great deal to be thankful for.  Yes we have some very bad practices present in our culture today,abortions among the worst,  but it has not reached the point of depravity that it has at other times in our history. 

Mankind was in bad shape at the time of the flood.  It would do us well to take notice and learn from the mistakes that they made.  One great comfort at this time is that there remain millions faithful to the God’s word.  Millions seek the truth and find that Jesus is the answer that they seek.  As evil grows and darkness deepens in many places in the world, the light is growing stronger and is shining into areas that have never seen the light before.  We have hope, not for a problem free existence, not for a stronger economy, or even for a Christian USA again. 

Our hope is in Christ alone.  The hope of glory. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12:1-2)

Chad