I deeply apologize for the tardiness of this post. However, I really wanted to do this message justice and to do that, it took me all day long. I pray that it blesses you more than it did me!
Ezekiel 16:1-14 has always been one of my favorite passages because of the tenderness we find in it. We discover God’s gentleness with His precious bride and the romantic in me has always been in love with it. But today, as scripture often does, it fell on me with amazing freshness and depth.
“And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.” Ezekiel 16:1-5
When we accept Jesus as the Truth and allow Him to be our Lord and Savior, we are re-born from the Kingdom of Sin into the Kingdom of God and made new creations. This morning the Holy Spirit showed me that this is exactly what happened when Adam and Eve accepted the lies of Satan. The two who had been born into the Kingdom of God, were re-born into the Kingdom of Satan. They had done something that once done can’t be un-done. They opened a door to the darkness that they couldn’t shut.
My son is 11. He’s nearing “that age” when we’re going to have to educate him about certain things, you know what I mean. But we hesitate to do so yet because he is in such a blissful place of innocence right now. He can see things around him, or hear things around him that might make him wonder a little, but because he doesn’t know about them he doesn’t pay that much attention to them. BUT. Once we inform him of the “birds and the bees” his eyes will be opened and there will be no turning back. He will see everything around him in a completely different light. And after that conversation he will never be the same. He will never think the same way, he will never see things the same way because then he will no longer be innocent of these things and he will understand things that he doesn’t understand now. He will have eaten from the tree of KNOWLEDGE, and there will be no going back into that innocence he has now.
I believe down to the depths of my soul that that conversation with Satan is what opened their eyes. That while there was a physical fruit tree they ate from, it was the conversation they had, under the tree, with the father of LIES that was the forbidden fruit. It was under that tree they were introduced to Satan, pure evil himself. They swallowed his lies, his half-truths and over exaggerations and their eyes were opened to the fact that this world contains more than just good. There is evil too. And that day, in that bite of eye appealing fruit, they learned something that changed them. Their eyes were opened and they suddenly saw everything around them in a completely different light. After that conversation we would never be the same. We would never think the same way; we would never see things the same way because we were no longer innocent. Their innocence was shattered and could never be pieced back together.
The presence of God entered the garden and caught the trio red-handed. And this is the part that never fails to get me, God Himself performed the first animal sacrifice that covered the sin of Adam and Eve hiding their naked shame with animal skin. (Genesis 4:21) They were driven from the Garden covered in the blood of that birth into sin, covered in that shame that can’t be erased covered in those freshly viewed images of themselves that once seen can not be unseen. They were covered in all these things because they had removed their covering of God’s grace over them. They had removed the covering they had been born with and replaced it with this new birth of sin.
While God had originally formed them so lovingly and with such tenderness, their birth into sin was brutally harsh and abrupt. Satan, who didn’t care for them one iota, didn’t take the time to cut their umbilical cord, or wash the blood of birth from their bodies with words of tenderness and love. He didn’t rub them with salt to keep them healthy or wrap them in swaddling cloths to keep them warm. He didn’t pity them or have any compassion for them, he just watched as they were cast out of the garden into the open field because their new father (Satan) hated them from the moment they were born into his kingdom.
Boy, if that isn’t a great place for a BUT GOD, I don’t know what is!
BUT GOD “passed by [them] and saw [them] wallowing in [their] blood, [He] said to [them] in [their] blood, ‘Live!’ [He] said to [them] in [their] blood, ‘Live!’.” (16:6)
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be His name, refused to sit idly by and do nothing about Satan stealing and then abandoning His beloved children. They had been sold into slavery to sin, but He brought up for them a deliverer! He attacked every false god of Egypt and parted the Red Sea for them. He gave them the Law of Moses as a guardian to help them grow in their relationship with Him and to help them come to the end of themselves and realize their intense need for a Savior!
In the midst of the Garden of Eden there was another tree. I imagine that it might not have been much to look at from the outside; unassuming in stature and leaf. Yet we know that it contained the fruit of LIFE EVERLASTING!
While the forbidden fruit looked good for food, delightful to the eyes and would make one wise – the wisdom of the world is folly. It looks beautiful on the outside but is rancid on the inside. However, the fruit of Life [Jesus, in case you were curious] was said to “have no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him”. (Isaiah 53:2) The fruit of Life might not have looked like much on the outside but it is BEAUTIFUL on the inside, through and through!
Psalm 149:4 says, “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.” When we eat the fruit from the tree of the crucifixion, it’s our sins that die. When we eat the fruit from the tree of His stripes our diseases are healed, It was on that cross and through that empty grave that God spread the corner of His garment over us and covered our nakedness. He made a vow to us and entered into a covenant with us and we became HIS again! He bathes us with the water of the word and washes off the blood of sin. He anoints us with the oil of gladness through His Spirit and clothes us with the embroidered cloth. He shods our feet with FINE leather gospel shoes and He wraps us in the fine linen and silk of the royal priesthood. He adorns us with ornaments and expensive jewelry like a Beloved Bride. He places a beautiful crown on our heads and feeds us with fine flour and honey and oil; His Son, our manna from heaven, our daily bread. (Ezekiel 16:14)
Through Christ the lost have been found and brought back home to their Creator who loves us dearly, tenderly, sweetly and completely. Praise be to God!
Satan is doing everything in his power to stop us from carrying out God’s will. But he can’t curse what has been blessed by God. He can try, but he won’t succeed. Especially if we understand the way things work around here and remember WHO is in charge.
