The Collective of Death

The Collective of Death

6/3/17

The word death comes to each one of us in a varying amount of ways but in the end, all reach this point and our fate is sealed.  In many settings, we gauge death as a single event and one that cannot be changed upon reaching that point, but unlike the common thought about death, this word has a beginning stage, a middle state, and an ending formality which constitutes the entire process of death.  The same can be said of our spiritual aspects of our existence another placement that we deem almost unimportant for we think of this aspect far less than the physical.  God understands our fear of death and has already provided an excellent escape plan if we only listen and obey His Word, simple as that.  Our only problem is that we would rather place our own emotions and feelings before the truth, which creates an eternal lie and sets into motion the collective of death.

The furthest idea in the minds and hearts of parents is that their child will die and leave this world before they do.  I have this fear every time one of my girls leaves the house and this fear crosses my mind and then plays havoc with me for seems like forever.  I thank God every day that all of my girls are still with us and hopefully with God’s grace they will live to be a ripe old age.  On the other hand, having dedicated myself to the medical field, I have been witness to many incidents where children left their houses and did not return and a sound that still rings in my ears and haunts my inner being is the sound of a mother cry when she learns that her child is no longer alive.  No one can explain this grief and the amount of pain that parents and especially a mother feels when this nightmare occurs.  I wish that I could say that I was in a position never to have to deal with a death of a young person again, but it reared its ugly head once again this past weekend and struck a family that we personally know.  So why would we assume that God has a different perspective about our lives and how He would deal with our wrongs?

I asked my wife the other evening about the word death and how she would interpret it if I said: “you will surely die”?  We all know that our minds can handle only a certain amount of incoming messages and information at a given time, and while that amount varies the information does go into our brains and stays there for our lifetime.  When we bring up this information we can then process it thoroughly and get the meaning of what the stored information was originally meant.  Whether we reject that information or use it to our advantage is strictly up to us, along with how we interpret the information in the first place.  All of this comes as a process and not just an immediate base that automatically can be referred to as fully understood.  As with this phrase “you will surely die”, my wife said that she would believe that death would immediately come and then life would be over.  I admit that I would believe the exact same way and would convey things in that manner to others as well. 

Tragically, of course, we do hear about certain people dying in traumatic venues and what seems like a normal and healthy individual being snuffed out in a blink of an eye.  While this type of death comes quickly we cannot forget that there are countless other ways that our lives physically leave this world, but most importantly and the main portion of our existence is our spiritual life.  Just as many scenarios are present in this category as in the physical but the spiritual is eternal and last so much longer than the physical, a collective in all of itself.

Many of you already know which direction that I am taking with this phrase because it is a “famous” one that those who have read the Bible have heard about before.  It is also used by some who do not believe in God or His Word and use it as a physical justification to live out their lives as they see fit for them at some point know they will die and no longer be around.  It is easy to get caught up in the simplicity of this verse and while doing so miss out on all of what God said in this verse, for it is a process that God was talking about and not just an immediate effect; a detail that Satan used in his deception code to both Adam and Eve and another detail about how a ½ truth can ruin someone’s life.

In Genesis Chapter 2 we have the foundations and origins of the existence of mankind and a direct conversation that God has with Adam.  Even with this short time frame mentioned, we can see that God is very direct and yet at the same time clear about His instructions to Adam.  Genesis 2:16-17 states the following: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  A powerful set of verse and would strike fear into anyone’s heart if spoken to them. But how does this effect Adam because up until this point Adam had no idea of what death was or what it meant to experience such a tragedy.

This brings us back to the question that I posed to my wife a few evenings ago when I used the phrase that God used when He was commanding Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and one can imagine that Adam understood that something would occur if he did eat of this fruit and that the word death would mean that he would cease to physically exist if he did such an act.  This is feasible to believe because there are poisons that are either manmade or in their natural state that if we come in contact with can end our life within a few short minutes so this sudden death can be thought about when we study this verse.  Adam and Eve cannot say that they did not know what God was meaning here for God explains Himself through the communication settings each day with them.  We do know they conversed each morning and while their conversations are not recorded it is safe to say that they were told of the auricles of God and many of the events that took place at some point before.  Many people understand this quick and sudden judgment concept of God for I have heard many times in my lifetime that they believe that God has a big pencil and eraser watching every move we make waiting for us to do something wrong so He can erase our name from the eternal book.  This is simply not the case.

We also have a very specific detail here that should have caught Adam and Eve’s eye as this time frame unfolded, and maybe it did or maybe it did not but I know it should have been picked up upon and dealt with as the setting unfolded.  But, to be fair, it was not until a few days ago that God dropped this detail into my heart which explains a bunch of things about what occurred those days in the Garden of Eden, which has a direct response to our lives today.  It is easy to group God into one gigantic category and place Him on the table with the label “Life”.  When we look at Him in this manner it would be easy to just leave it there and describe Him to others as such, but God created us curious hearts that wish to know specifics and through these specifics learn about our existence.  There is nothing wrong with this philosophy, in fact, God tells us to ask Him questions for it is His desire to use the gifts that He gave us to answer such desires.

But we tend to forget that life is not just made up a single and gigantic package but that it comes as a process and one that has to be experienced in order to fully understand.  Life can end abruptly even before life reaches the outside world while other examples of life can live to be over 100 years with every second of life represented in between those times.  Life is full of adventures and experiences and it is these specifics that bring forth the true nature of life.  God, Himself is the definition of life and He is infinite in all areas which means that our feeble and limited minds could not accept all of His information at one time, it has to be slowly and methodically installed, then we can present a living definition of Him to others.  Adam must have known this process about God in the amount of time he had spent with God, for if God had given Adam the ability to absorb all of God’s definition at once there would be no reason for God to have any further communication with Adam, a detail that if left out would not accurately define God and ultimately prove Him and His existence to be a lie.

At the beginning of Genesis Chapter 3, we have the introduction and a brief characterization of Satan, the one who is out to challenge God’s perfect creations in order to get back at Him for the lust of perversion that Satan chose to harbor.  We find that verses 4-5 give us the clue of how Satan operates and how through these operations half truths are given in order for him to advance our demise.  Genesis 3:4-5 states: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  What a tantalizing statement and one that would surely peak curiosity if one had been told this bit of information.  But it is this verse that defines Satan and his character, for he understands God and His Word well enough to effectively twist God’s words around enough to make them sound like a lie and not as bad as it might seem if disobeyed.  God did know what would come about if Adam and Eve disobeyed a detail Satan left out while wooing Eve.

Now, back up a few paragraphs and this is where the concept of you shall surely die comes into play and where Satan uses his manipulative wording to undermine God and trick Adam and Eve into changing their lives forever.  See, when Lucifer decided that he was going to try and rival God he understood that God represented life eternal and therefore could not destroy what He had created.  Since this is a true statement and one that Lucifer knew existed, he tried his luck against God and failed miserably, thus issuing into existence an establishment of hate and progression of this hate at any cost for he now understood his eternal fate a powerful tool that Satan continually uses in order to watch us unknowingly fall before the eyes of God.  Satan knew that since he was not extinguished from existence but that his fate was already sealed that the same type of setting would take place if mankind would follow suit, hence a half truth told to Eve which she believed instead of God’s command.

We continue with the story about Adam and Eve when after their choice to disobey becomes reality and it becomes clear that the effects of sin have an immediate resound to their lives.  Genesis 3:7 states that their eyes were opened and that they knew they were naked.  They had to make clothes for themselves to hide such knowledge and to cover themselves, a provision that had been divinely completed up until that moment in time.  Both Adam and Eve knew exactly what had occurred and while they still were able to breathe something about their existence had changed.  I have no idea how that moment must have felt for them but it must have been a monumental moment because their bodies that had lived in perfect harmony with God Himself now was filled with another source of energy that did not measure up to the previous pure standard.  This is proven through this single verse for if they did not realize such a change in their bodies they would have never felt like they needed to cover themselves or even understand that they were naked at all, proof that what God said to them and stated as a fact was indeed a huge phase change and one that would occur over time and not just a quick end.

If we continue with Adam and Eve their death comes in many forms as their lives progress, a process that is never easy and one that only finds pain and suffering.  Being kicked out of their home place and then having angels with flaming swords guard the entrances so that their return can never occur again is a horrifying thought but it occurred and Adam and Eve had to face the consequences and the death of their home.  Look at their lives for the remainder of their years, yes there were good times for Eve gave birth to children which began the process of life on earth outside the Garden of Eden.  Yet, death again entered into their lives when one of their sons killed his brother, a first of its kind and a grossing lie of what sacrifice really meant.  The stories go on and on, not only in the lives of Adam and Eve but everyone else who the Bible gives account, even today death is a gruesome and sometimes torturous event that we have to endure, a result of a half truth believed so long ago.

While death can either be a sudden event or a process that occurs over time, the end result is still the same a final physical end to the presence of our life as we know it.  But we are not created in such a manner to which this physicality of ours ends when we draw our last breath.  When God created mankind He did so in such a manner that even though our physical may end our eternal shall always be present and alive.  The genius of this truth is that it is while we are physically alive that we have the opportunity to choose our Creator as our personal Savior and to study the wonders of His existence.  He communicates with us and through this communication never gives us any directions that do not line up with His Word, an all-encompassing source of wisdom that brings life into everything we experience if we just include Him in our lives. 

We are stuck with the fact that death shall always be a part of our personal world as long as we are here, and while we may fall for the lies of the world we also have the opportunity to shun theses lies and live in the truth and light of eternity defined.  We may have to endure the collective processes of death, but we have a grave robber who gives us life abundantly.  It is this process of the death process that we need to understand and to do our best NOT to adhere to its laws, or even invite its laws into our lives.  It is of dire importance and an importance that God continually stresses to His people that we understand the pitfalls of such a collective and to shun away from this trap as soon as we notice it approaching.  The only way that we can avoid enhancing this process is to study God’s Word and to live within its eternal definition constantly seeking further information to help others along the way as well.  God is the only way, the only provider that can protect us from this collective of death that pursues to engulf our lives thus ending any hope of eternal peace and happiness.

I can almost hear Adam saying to Eve how he messed up and missed what God was really saying to him when God gave the consequences to him.  The immediate turn in their lives is hard to imagine but there was nothing that they could do about their current facts either.  Claiming to understand God without a true, willing, constant and intimate communication system in place is a condition that is ripe for severing and devastation.  In no way can we expect to understand God and His Will if we do not have a direct and constant desire to hear His words.  God shall never force Himself on anyone’s life and even though it is eternally agonizing to Him if we do not keep this communication line, He will allow us to make the choice to accept Him or to go it alone.

In no manner is God a “snap decision” type of Being, for when one has been around with no beginning He has had plenty of “time” to figure out every minute detail about everything; and creating everything just adds to the perfect equation as well.  This means that if we begin to intimately study God’s character when we are young and then pass away at a grand old age, we will have only scratched the outer edge surface of who He is.  It is through this truth alone that it is a dangerous statement that we make when we say we “know God and who He is”.  We may know some things and a few aspects of God but our finite minds would literally melt, shut down, and cease to function if God began to reveal some of His eternal knowledge to us.  Through this truth, it is also important that we understand that in order for us to keep in contact with God on this personal level we must continually study His Word and apply its meanings to our lives each day, without living through a personal fantasy when it comes to living for what “I” WANT TO HEAR AND LIVE BY AT THAT MOMENT.  God is an eternal God and One who cannot change His ways in any shape or form.

So, when God gives us an example of an issue or consequence we must always take into consideration of the entire picture of what He is saying, and not just what we immediately think.  This is why it is very important to continually to study the Bible in its entirety for each time we complete such a vital task the Bible will speak to us in a more detailed manner.  Currently, we as modern societies have drawn the conclusion that our minds know better than God and have determined that He is out of date and no longer a desirable source of information or guidance.  At the same time, our lives have been inundated with horrendous activities that have thrown our existence into question and darkened our future to the point where the light bills cannot be paid. All of this deals with the physical alone which is the lesser of the two sides of our lives in importance, and if our physical is messed up this badly then we cannot deny that our spiritual is worse off; they go hand in hand you see.

Our lives and anger towards each other and God shall continue to increase and deepen until we stop and realize that we have no chance of survival without God being first in our lives.  Having a limited and flawed leader – personal or congregational – cannot result in anything but damaging.  Humans have good intentions but seem to pout when they do not get their way which brings into light exactly what controls their lives as well.  All of these types of destructive behaviors we are watching cross our eyes each day and with each passing discourse we have taken up residence in the blame game, with ourselves being the victim instead of the perpetrator.  We have fallen so off and so low that we actually believe that when our ideas fail or are not accepted we are a victim against society, really?  Talk about a pride pedestal that needs to be swiped away from underneath of us; maybe we are beginning to see such a mantle being destroyed with the new movement of historical statues and spiritual guiding monuments being removed around our country, a prelude to what is about to become of us?  Yes, it is, to be honest.

It is not God’s desire to bring animosity and devastation to His children but when His children turn into creatures that are not looking towards Him they cease to be children and lower themselves spiritually to the level of animals.  This is exactly what our enemy wants us to become for when we do we voluntarily loosen our grip of the eternal sword and allow the enemy to mow us down with division and certain destruction.  We no longer can be effective for the true Kingdom of God and cannot complete what Jesus called us to do.  Getting a person or a group of people to attend church is not what Jesus expects us to do, He wants us to witness to the people and to tell them about His salvation and that they should separate themselves from the world not join it. Yes, it is a battle and yes it will not be pretty for we have allowed Satan to penetrate deep into our spirits and to weave his destructive death nails as the foundation of our beliefs.

Church, we are guilty of this sin as well and it is a hideous setting when we promote this activity instead of conquering it through the spirit.  We cannot spread the news of the true Gospel to a dying world when we are sharing needles and then injecting ourselves with the same poison that we are supposed to be getting rid of then laying down and dying right along with those who are in need.  We are the only ones that God has to use when it comes to sharing the true light and to stop the spiritually dying portions of our lives.  We can all agree that there is nothing good about a death process and how it represents the wrong side of eternity.  It is so important that we understand God’s Word well enough that it takes away every selfish detail that we harbor and places God’s truth as the first line of defense and offense.  All throughout Scripture, God teaches us of this collective of death and it shall lead to our eternal death if we do not adhere to every single letter of His Word.  We as humans may never fully and completely understand each letter that lives in the Bible, but if we directly pursue God’s Word He is just and faithful to forgive through our obedience a guarantee that no article of the world can provide.

God does love us but He wants us to obey His Word on every aspect and to include this obedience in our daily lives.  Repent, Church and allow God back into our hearts for if we do not our lives as we know it shall quickly change for a cause unworthy of why we were created.  I honestly believe that if Adam and Eve had not become complacent with their physical settings that things might have been different for them and for our lives today, but as we all know that is not the case and because we have the same abilities as they did we follow almost identically with their choices too.  We can change this course before it becomes irreversible, choose God and His Ways and drop the world and its collective death sting.  Understanding God through His Word and not ours is a beautiful aspect and truth about wisdom and a practice we all need to do better.

DLB