The Suffering of The Father, Part #2

Earl Gillespie

The Suffering Of The Father

Part #2

When God finished the creation, He looked at what he had done, “saw all that He had made, and it was very good"  It was prior to the creation of man that an epic battle took place in heaven, the devil infected a third of God's children and caused them to rebel against God.  Jesus referenced this battle when he said he saw the devil cast upon the earth and like a bolt of lightning he struck the earth. The earth became void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  In Peter's vision he saw the earth standing in and out of the water and all life was gone.  The spirit of God was wounded as hovering over the watery grave of God's creation.  God said he did not create the earth to be void and dark therefore he began a restoration process,  that began when He spoke the words, "Let there be light".  This glorious process concluded six days later when God said, "Let us make man."  Man was created in the image of his creator thus he was embodied with certain attributes that allowed him to relate and understand his creator.  Freewill, and attribute of the Godhead was embodied within mankind, because man was supposed to think and act in the name of his creator.

To allow the communication aspect of the God to proceed uncluttered, we must conclude that God was neither speaking to the church nor was he speaking to the Jews.  Who is speaking and who is being spoken to is important in rightly diving the Word of truth.

Through the exercise of free will, the devil was able to manipulate man's actions.  The line between what God is doing and what God allows became blurred.  What had been very good had now become extremely bad. In fact, things had gotten so bad that God’s patience had run out. Man had surpassed the limit of God’s tolerance despite the fact of how enormous God’s love is. Eventually even God reaches the limit of how much He will take.  Only six chapters later God said, "I will destroy man".

Genesis 6:7, “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for I am sorry that I have made them.” That pronouncement of doom was not abrupt or sudden. God had waited for repentance, but repentance had not come. Now God says, “I am sorry I created man.” Enough is enough. 

Revelation 2:21, “And I gave her time to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”God had given Jezebel time to repent, but she was unwilling. It was not that she could not repent, but she would not repent. Jezebel had become the signification of an apostate religion.

God’s decision to Flood the earth pained Him to the very depths of his most precious heart. God does not enjoy condemning man. Negative judgment, condemnation and destruction are God’s “strange work” and “His alien task”. Isaiah 28:21, “For the LORD shall rise up as on mount Perazim, he shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his awesome work; and bring to pass his act, his alien act.”

In Ezekiel 18:22 God rhetorically asks the question, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? The answer is no. God is pleased when his children turn from their sins and live.”

2nd. Peter 3:9 God does not want “any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 1st. Timothy 2:5, “God wants all men to be saved.” God’s holiness, his righteousness and his purity demands that, at some point in time He judges unrepentant man. This judgment comes because that is who and what God is. God is holy. 

The book of Job again gives us some insight to how the people were thinking before the Flood.  Job 22:12-17, “Is not God in the height of heaven?” “And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!” “And you say how does God know? Can he judge through the dark cloud?” “Thick clouds are a covering to him that he sees not; and he walks in the circle of heaven.” “Have you marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Who were cut down before their time, whose foundation was swept away with a flood:” “Who said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do to us?”

Somehow, the people had gotten the idea that God could not see them and that He would not or could not do anything to them. Many people think this way today, because God does not respond to our manipulation. They may never verbalize it in those terms, but their actions indicate what they really believe. God does see us when we slip into a bed of fornication. He knows when we lie, cheat, steal, and lust. He knows when we create confusion. He sees us when we reshape his word. It pains Him when we lie about him. How do we think God feels when we say such things as, “I cannot go to Bible Study tonight because I have to go to work tomorrow?” Have we created a false God?

We are familiar with the story of the Children of Israel clustered at the base of the Holy mountain, sing and dancing, claiming the golden calf was representative of the God that brought them out of the land of Egypt. 

He sees it all. His eyes far surpass even a laser beam. For again, Gen. 6:5, He not only observes what man does, but he even knows what we think. He judges even the motives and intents of our hearts. 

In 1st. Samuel 15, we read how God commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites. Yet Saul in his own “wisdom” spared King Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle for sacrificing to God. What was God’s response? He was horrified. He was grieved. Our sin grieves the heart of God. It hurts Him to his core. Sin brings grief to the Holy Spirit. The pious prelates have downplayed the seriousness of sin. God, please forgive me for my sins as I go my way and sin again is not an acceptable plea for forgiveness. Sin is serious stuff in the sight of God. It breaks our fellowship with the Father. It brings agony to His heart and if we do not seriously seek, forgiveness it will send us to hell for eternity. 

Here we have one of the most severe warnings in all of Scripture. This is a warning specifically to Christians. Hebrews 6:4-6, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” 

1st. John 1, makes it very clear that forgiveness continues to be available to those who are striving to walk in Christ. We are not talking about merely stumbling. This is not referring to the ordinary shortcomings and failures that go with human weakness, but if we totally give up, just quit trying, renounce the whole system (apostasy). Then it becomes impossible to go back to repentance. The impossibility here is not with God with Him all things are possible. The problem is instead with us, because eventually, a person loses his/her ability to repent. If you continue and continue and continue in sin--you eventually become callous, cold, and unresponsive to the message. It is not that God would not forgive, if we would repent, but eventually we reach a stage that we just will not, actually cannot repent.

If we ever reach this point, then it is over for it is over for us. If we ever get this far from God then we have actually turned our lives in totally the opposite direction. We in effect agree to crucify the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace to our eternal damnation.

We are not told exactly how to tell when a person has reached this point, and likely as humans we will never be able to fully know. However, this much is certain, in a clearly public sense for all to see and know it is obvious that they no longer regard Jesus as the Savior who died for their sins. They openly oppose Christ and the Gospel. They return to an open lifestyle of immorality and cause the gospel to be disgraced. Whatever it is, it is clear to see that their rejection is so extreme that it as if they were nailing Jesus to the cross all over again. 

Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!

Continued...