'Appreciating God's Love'
A) Adam and Eve Driven Out
Gen 3:24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Over this hundred years, I believe that every time Adam and Eve walked past the tree of knowledge, each of them must be delighted for they had kept His command. Their obedience had made their beloved Father extremely happy resulting to their blissful fellowship and a strong and unbreakable bond of love between them.
God would have forgiven Adam and Eve, had they confessed and repented of their sins.
God is also a God of Justice
Psa 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth go before Your face.
God is love and He is full of mercy and forgiveness, but He is also a God of justice.
Justice for Non Repentance
Jer 44:4-5 However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, "Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!" But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.
Because of Adam and Eve's refusal to repent, God had to drive them from the garden of Eden just as He drove His unrepentant Israelites from His house.
Hos 9:15 "All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from My house; I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious."
B) Why is sin so horrific?
Even though Adam and Eve had over a hundred years of blissful fellowship with God, yet, for the sin of eating the forbidden fruit, God drove out the unrepentant Adam and Eve, and let them die by preventing them from eating the fruit of the tree of life.
Sin is equivalent to Excreta
To God, sin is so horrific, nauseating, revolting and foul that it is unbearable. God abhors sin just as man abhors human faeces or excreta.
Horrific Raw Excreta
The Aborigines still sleep in stilted bamboo huts with attap roofs in the most remote part of the Malaysian jungle. The air coming up from the ground through the bamboo floor between the gaps keeps the hut cool.
Twenty years ago while sleeping in the Aborigines hut, I was awaken by the horrific, foul and revolting smell of raw faeces. Someone had just pass motion under our small stilted bamboo house.
The foul, nauseating and stinking smell of the raw faeces came through the bamboo floor. It was unbearable and it was really torturous. I thank God that He allowed me to suffer such horrific, foul and nauseating smell, that I can now understand the horrific and revolting sin to Him.
Must Bury the Raw Excreta
Deu 23:12-14 "Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you.
Our Lord instructed the Israelites to bury their unholy and foul raw refuse or faeces in their camp. As He walked in their midst, the sins committed by His people will be as horrific and revolting as the smell of raw faeces.
Out of His love, God ensured that everyone can sleep soundly and peacefully in the camp, when the foul and revolting raw faeces were buried.
C) Baked with Human Waste
Eze 5:9-11 And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. 'Therefore, as I live,' says the Lord God, 'surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.
Israel was so sinful and abominable that God was ready to allow the enemies to annihilate Jerusalem and the temple of God, which they defiled with detestable things. For God to move in the midst of the extremely sinful and abominable Israelites, it was just like Ezekiel eating cakes baked using human waste - revolting, nauseating, foul and horrific.
Eze 4:12-13 And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight." Then the Lord said, "So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them."
We thank God that when we repent of our sins, the blood of Jesus cleanses them. God can once again joyfully fellowship with us.
