You Shall Surely Die

You Shall Surely Die

6/17/16

This portion of Scripture is one that strikes fear in many and controversy in others, but whatever the case it is a phrase that all of us eventually succumb.  While this phrase was not initially in our vocabulary it was introduced from a perfect state to govern our physical existence and to frighten us.  It is a gainful phrase from our enemy and one that our holy Creator despises.  Yet, humans tend to keep this phrase at a distance and ignore it until its grip takes a personal hold and even then we forget about what occurs next to the loved one, acquaintance, state or nation after the fact.  God does not want us to understand the reasons why death (consequences) comes upon us but while this thought looms over our physical beings it does not have to rule us, for He has provided us with the precious alternative to death, eternal life.

This past week was a terrible one in terms of loss of life in this country.  No matter what the circumstances may be death never comes easy for anyone especially when a loved one is present in these facts.  But death is a fact that no one can escape and one that we all need to be prepared for at all times.  It is easy to get caught up in the attitude that “I shall live forever” but while this is a common theme in our lives we must never forget that the breath that we just took could be our last.  Have you really thought about the words “you shall surely die” and what they mean to our lives?  The concept becomes startling if one understands the origins of the phrase, both before death was introduced into our existence and after; yes, there was a previous existence where death was not a part of our creation and if we grasp this truth then this phrase will hit home harder.

In previous articles, God has demonstrated His unique and holy order in which all things exist including our own Creation.  In Genesis 2:15 God’s Word states that He placed Adam into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  In other words, the Garden was Adam’s dominion and it was his responsibility to maintain the order that God intended it had.  It was not until the next verse (Gen 2:16) that God began His explanation of obedience according to spiritual and physical consequences yet He demonstrates here the perfect order of Creation because if God had not created the earth and all of its splendor before His commands for human obedience, things would have been totally in disarray after the fall of mankind.  But as we see, God’s perfect order comes shining through and all created is affected by the will of our lives.

Genesis 2:16-17 gives the command that has far reaching consequences to each one of our lives and ones that are still in effect today.  If one wishes, you can compare this one command not to eat of a single tree to the law of tithing, because God gives us so much more than we need to live on but only asks us for a smidge to give back to Him in return, but how many of us fail to even do this on a regular basis with a loving heart?  Right, not many of us follow this truth.  Anyway, God makes it vividly clear that Adam could eat from every tree in the Garden of Eden with the exception of one and with this exception He brought a command that if not followed would have dire consequences.

This specific verse, Genesis 2:17, brings into light a conversation that humans should understand concerning the relationship between God and man at this point in our existence.  As Job stated further down in God’s Word, Job understood that God would not destroy him for any unknown sin that he may harbor and since God is a complete God this means that He and Adam had talked about God’s enemy and the desire that he had to destroy Adam’s life.  God makes His laws very clear to every one of His creations and it is not God’s choice to abandon those laws, it is strictly ours.  This means that God had spoken to Adam about a condition that was foreign to Adam and one not familiar with him according to his present living status.

How can one say that God meant business with this command and that it was totally our choice to disobey?  By the time Genesis Chapter 3 rolls around this phrase of “you shall surely die” has been spoken by three created beings yet the phrase is only mentioned by One Creator to one creation.  But by the time mankind falls, it has been said by God, by Eve, and from our enemy Satan.  Now, Scripture does not mention where Adam mentioned this phrase to Eve but one knows that he must have because she used it and if Adam did not say it to her the only other source would have been God shortly after her creation.  Either way, she knew about the command and understood what God was saying and meaning.

But it was the concept of death that Adam and Eve must have struggled with or did not take too seriously because they disobeyed the command anyway, thus setting into motion a process that they did not understand until that moment.  Up until the time God passed His judgment on their lives for the disobedience that they chose to accept, Adam and Eve only had heard about death and really did not have any direct knowledge or contact with this process.  Their bodies functioned with precise accuracy and had not flaws that inhabited their attributes.  Every aspect of their lives and existence (dominion) was in a perfect state without flaw, so death or any other conceivable option of their existence was mentioned to them and not experienced.  It is difficult to fathom why anyone would wish to test the waters of the unknown when the guidelines and commands had already been put into place.  It was this process that proves that both had already come to the conclusion that their trust and faith was not completely in God, but in their surroundings.

How great a concept the term death and its explanation from God must have been to Adam and Eve, yet over time that fear and trembling of the possibility faded and then died; an ironic twist to such an eternal truth.  It has been a common theme of the world to question God when disasters occur, when wars break out or when the human race just acts plain ridiculous but as God has shared with us before it is easy to accept His ways when times are good and rolling in the fast lane, but difficult when things do not go according to the plans we believe God should have.  Don’t you think that at some time after sin came into our existence that Adam and Eve had some sort of conversation relating to this truth?  You bet they did!

We must consider the implications of what God said to Adam when He declared this law into effect because it was one that if disobeyed had a grave consequence that followed.  It is easy for our minds and hearts to understand the punishment of such acts when we already know what to expect but to receive a result to which we have no idea can be difficult to accept; thus, more likely to be a stumbling block in our future.  It is also easy for us to reprogram our thoughts concerning such commands because through our humanness we tend to exaggerate the results and consequences of what has been warned about with this exaggeration operating in both directions.  How many times have you either said to yourself or out loud “they really did not mean that”?

What were the consequences of this statement from God?  Well, it was two-fold because while Adam and Eve did not physically die at that moment a certain portion of their existence did which must have come as a complete – and real shock – to their lives. The Bible states that immediately their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked.  The pure existence and holy state had left them and they now were subject to the natural environment that they were living in; thus, creating an entirely new condition of said existence not equal any longer to the original creation status that God had begun.  It was this portion of their lives that had died on impact and they then began to understand what being separated from God through death meant.

One very important detail to understand here is about the concept of death and what it means to our existence and what it means to God.  Up until that moment, God had not created ANYTHING that had the word death associated with the beings and other living things.  Even though Lucifer and 1/3^rd of the angels fell from heaven, their existence was not terminated, changed, yes, but not terminated.  Which means that our creation and in the manner in which we were formed changed that setting.  Satan understands that our spirit can never die but it can be permanently separated from God in such a manner that it represents an eternal death for if a created being is permanently separated from its Creator then it is a death.  Think about that for a bit.  It also places into practice the law of obedience and what it means for our existence.  Think about that for a bit as well.

This brings up the old adage of which came first, the chicken or the egg.  God’s law of obedience was established before death was a part of our lives which means if our standing changed in any way, everything up to and including death as a punishment would be a possibility in our lives but as long as we obeyed God’s command first, no harm would seek our destruction. Through humanity’s disobedience, we have allowed our lives to be subject to God’s judgment as He sees fit, for according to the laws in which He created and established He must abide by those laws.  Satan knows this!!!!  And it is this order of life’s creation that he has effectively lied to us in believing that we have the ability and authority to override God.  Imagine what Adam and Eve were thinking when they were drawing their last few breaths.

It is through the law of obedience that God established with mankind and through the choice to disobey God’s law of obedience that gives God the authority to act according to what He has put into place.  Does a person who believes in God really believe that God wished to destroy mankind during the days of Noah?  No, but according to the hearts of humanity at that time, God had no choice invoke the same conditions on those people in Noah’s days as He did to Adam and Eve.  It was the human’s sinful progression of the heart, through satanic manipulation of God’s Word that we believed that proves a scary prediction to come to pass.

The question that we now must ask and then address is this: are we facing similar conditions of disobedience today and if so what type of consequences can we expect to occur?  From the beginning of the book of Genesis, we see that God created a perfect place for a perfect creation.  At some point in time, God’s perfect creations decided to rebel and to disobey His one command (law) that governed them.  As time has progressed and as we study God’s Word, we notice that every time mankind has done things our own way, we have messed things up according to God’s laws and He must step in and put us back on the correct path.  This judgment could include death and it is this truth that one really needs to be careful about when we use the phrase “only God can judge me” because when you claim this law from your mouth, Satan has you right where he wants you.

Everyone who is reading this article I want you to do something real quick.  I want you to take a nice long and slow deep breath, hold it for just a second and then let it slowly go.  Repeat that process once again.  Now, the breathing process that you just completed means that each one of you are alive; duh, huh.  Well, that also means that no matter what kind of physical condition you are in you are NOT dead.  So, it also means that since you are alive and not dead then all you know is life.  Therefore, why would anyone wish to be taken from this life we know – only know – and replace it with a process we have no idea about? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about staving off that permanent separation status the best we can?  And when we reach that point where death enters into our physical time frame, why not laugh in the face of our enemy because we know that we have defied his intentions for our life and have proclaimed God’s laws true and alive in our lives.  We know that each one of us will depart this earth at some point in time, so why not break that eternal cycle of death and live freely in peace, health, holiness and any other word that can be used for the presence of God.

Church, this is what we need to be teaching those who do not know or understand about God.  God is not here to condemn us but to provide an escape from this world and the death it brings.  There is a war that is being fought for your eternal placement, one that our enemy wishes to keep hidden from you until it is too late for you to choose otherwise.  We do not have to live under the law of death but be eternally free in Christ through His Covenant.  God cannot violate any covenant that He has established only humans do this.  But at the same time God allows us to repent and to turn from our ways and when God sees the true turning around of our hearts, He states that He will come running to you and welcome you back into His presence.  This is what the Church needs to be teaching.  It is true that God is all about love but we cannot honestly say we love God until we obey His commands first.

Church, put your situation and condition in the shoes of Adam and Eve and transcribe your heart into the position that Adam and Eve were in the few moments immediately before they allowed sin into their existence.  Then, place yourself into their shoes immediately after they sinned.  Now, ask yourself which position are you following today?  Leave the self-intentions out of the equation and honestly, ask yourself this question.  The answer is quite clear and unless we fall completely under the blood of Christ we have no option to die and to buy the lie from our enemy instead of allowing what has already been paid for to cover us.  Stop mocking God’s laws and once again purify your hearts and faithfully embrace God’s laws.  How important is this simple and short phrase in the Bible? 

It is this important: our eternal enemy used this title phrase with one added word in it and through the sly developed relationship between them convinced the perfectly created beings to lose their lives.  You could even say as a comparison of today that Adam and Eve were life-long church goers, grounded in the Word of God yet did not take it seriously enough to use the Word as their protection instead of a justification tool.  Our physical time on the earth is limited due to our playing around with God’s laws, our eternal death is irreversible as well and eternity is an unmeasured amount of time to be separated from our Creator with NO hope of ever returning to His protection.

DLB