Let’s take a moment to consider how very alike we all are. If it were not for such things as books, movies, the internet and music we might not discover that isolated and distant from other humans. But with today’s technology we have the opportunity to observe that in many ways humans are, well human.
Observe a pack of children for very long and you will quickly recognize how petty and self serving we can be. We all came that way. It’s not a huge mystery. It’s just the truth. We want what we want. Period. In the most basic of terms we are prone to fits and will in many cases resort to physical violence to get our way. We’re all like that.
We have limited sight and limited insight. But, it didn’t use to be that way. Before the fateful Fall in the Garden when mankind traded a glorious existence with the God of Light and Love for a little taste of evil, we walked in God’s presence and communed with Him. We thought like Him because we knew no other thoughts. We felt like Him because we knew no other feelings. We wanted what He wanted because we knew no want.
That all changed. In a moment’s time new thoughts, new feelings and new wants were imparted to us – just as name of the tree had suggested. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had allowed us to have dawn upon us another set of feelings, thoughts and wants – evil ones.
Now, in the most simplistic of Sunday School terms we recognize that evil is a bad thing. We’ve been taught about the miniature devil and angel that whisper in our ear. We might even had made the leap to the conclusion that this miniature devil and angel are our own conscience, two parts of ourselves, one good, and one bad, that vie for our attention and submission, that seek to control our actions. Which beg us to choose between them. We also probably have figured out that this is a fork in the road decision. We can’t go along the path with both of them at a given time. They are, in more big boy terms, diametrically opposed to one another. We have to choose.
But it didn’t use to be that way. It used to be simple. We use to only hear the voice of Good. We didn’t know about anything evil.
Now, we also tend to stop there with our thinking about this. I could go on about those who think that without moral delimma’s we are less than alive. I would suggest we are closer to dead. They will scream that to remove choice is to remove freedom – but no one ever really experiencing the miniatures talking to them is free and easy going – it is a delimma, and as such is a struggle and a burden.
No one can claim that having 400 cereal choices is freedom., can they? I mean, certainly there are more to choose from, but in the end I have to spend more time deciding, I have to buy more than one kind to please my family. I have more ways to eat unhealthily to resist. In short, it isn’t really freedom – it’s just different than it used to be.
But, the point I want to make lies in another direction altogether. We might recognize that the miniatures are supposed to represent our conscience, but what we don’t recoginize is that there is a third part of ourselves, nor what good and evil really are.
Let’s begin by thinking back in the story to the very beginning when God created light and the firmament, and the earth, and the sea. At each junction God pronounced upon what he had made this word: Good. And God saw that it was Good.
Okay – so “saw” in these verses is the word ra-a. It is a verb which means to see, to look at, to inspect, to perceive, to consider. But in the Hebrew there is another word present that is not translated into English because it doesn’t translate well. It is a word that roughly translated means Himself, God saw Himself that it was good.
Now, when we read the definition of saw above it would be easy to simply understand that the word means His eyes you know, saw it. But if we look closer at it, it could also mean He saw to it, He inspected it to make sure, to ensure, He verified, He saw to it Himself that each part of what He made was in the final analysis, Good – nothing but Good. Only Good. He wasn’t keeping it if it wasn’t good enough. It had to be completely and perfectly good.
Have you ever met an artist who states while you compliment their work that they like that painting or drawing themselves except for the eyes or the hands or some specific portion of the piece that they are not pleased with, that they wish they had done better, that came closer to their hope than it did? God wasn’t having any of that. His work was inspected and He saw to it, Himself, that it fit the bill, that it was in fact Good.
He saw at each progression of creation that it was Good. That man was good. That woman was good. The animals were good. The entirety of the earthly creation was Good and nothing but Good.
So what does good mean? It is the word 2896 in the Strong’s. It can be used as a noun or an adjective.
As an adjective it means:
1) good, pleasant, agreeable
a) pleasant, agreeable (to the senses)
b) pleasant (to the higher nature)
c) good, excellent (of its kind)
d) good, rich, valuable in estimation
e) good, appropriate, becoming
f) better (comparative)
g) glad, happy, prosperous (of man’s sensuous nature)
h) good understanding (of man’s intellectual nature)
i) good, kind, benign
j) good, right (ethical)
As a noun it means:
2) a good thing, benefit, welfare
a) welfare, prosperity, happiness
b) good things (collective)
c) good, benefit
d) moral good
3) welfare, benefit, good things
a) welfare, prosperity, happiness
b) good things (collective)
c) bounty
Does that sound like a bad thing to you? This is not then Good as in good and evil, morals and all that is it? It’s about the good stuff. The things we all want. Pleasantness, benefits, prosperity, happiness. God saw to it Himself that everything He made was good. It was groovy. It was cool. It was benign, kind, glad, happy, the better stuff, the valuable stuff, the agreeable stuff. God saw to it Himself that it was Good.
It comes from a word that means to be joyful, be beneficial, be pleasant, be favorable, be happy, be right. Delightful. Wow!
And in the Garden was a tree known as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good… and evil. The word good here is the same word, 2896. So what about Evil? What does it mean. It means sinful right? Liars, and rapists and such right? Evil…?
Nope. It’s the word 7451 and it too can be an adjective or a noun.
As an adjective it means:
1) bad, evil
a) bad, disagreeable, malignant
b) bad, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery)
c) evil, displeasing
d) bad (of its kind – land, water, etc)
e) bad (of value)
f) worse than, worst (comparison)
g) sad, unhappy
h) evil (hurtful)
i) bad, unkind (vicious in disposition)
j) bad, evil, wicked (ethically)
1) in general, of persons, of thoughts
2) deeds, actions
As a noun it means:
2) evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity
a) evil, distress, adversity
b) evil, injury, wrong
c) evil (ethical)
3) evil, misery, distress, injury
a) evil, misery, distress
b) evil, injury, wrong
c) evil (ethical)
Did you hear that list? It’s all the crap we have to deal with in life. God didn’t give us that. We took it. We injected it into our perfect world. We diminished Good and watered it down with evil. We didn’t dismiss Good, but we did dilute it, in fact, it’s very, very, very, very, very diluted.
Now we look around and see misery, injury, calamity, we deal with unkindness in ourselves and others, we face bad lands, bad water, broken toys, stickers that hurt, injury, wrong. Things that are displeasing and of bad value. That’s what we were left holding after we bit into the fruit. We were introduced to Evil, unpleasantness, broken ness, struggle, distress, injury and misery.
This was the Serpent’s goal and still is. And when the fear struke and the vicous accusations began to resound upon their minds, their inner dialog now had two voices, one accusing them, injuring them, bringing misery and distress, they ran to hide their nakedness and became afraid of Him who had so painstakingly and lovingly ensured that everything they ever knew was nothing but Good.
And what were God’s first words? Where are you? You see, evil works to separate us from God, not just because He can’t tolerate sin as we preseume, but because we find it difficult to discern the light and love that He is because we see Him as injurous to us. We recoginize that He is bigger than us, that He is more powerful and that we are undeserving. But we always were.
What has changed besides our own disobedience? We can’t trust or believe that He is Good. We believe that EVERYTHING has some evil in it. We now perceive through faulty eyes that He is to be feared. We know now both good AND evil in our perception of everything.
But what did God say next? He said, Who told you you were naked? In that statement we recognize that God knew what had happened and who was really to blame.
Then He covered their nakedness – he assuaged what was giving them distress. He offered the antidote to evil – Good. Kindness, tender mercies. And He offered them hope in the form of a promise. He promised right there in the Garden that He would send SOMEONE to fix the wrong, the injury and avenge them. Someone to restore them to their previous condition.Ultimiatly that will be heaven, when God will “wipe away every tear” where there will be “no more death” or anything that injures….
The ultimate work of God on the earth throughout all of time has been this restoration. It’s what Jesus came to do. And it is what the Holy Spirit continues today.
Stay tuned for more on this most important topic.
