We were talking about Adam and Eve last night at church for a little bit and I had this whole message that I just wanted to yell out at everyone. I kept seeing in my head how the authority structure that God left for people was changed and it actually created the devil’s kingdom on earth. Before that there was no demonic kingdom. The same pattern comes up throughout history and in our time this is something we can easily identify and easily deal with.
So here’s how the picture looks. God delivered a message to Adam. Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To stay under God’s authority and in His Kingdom, Adam needed to listen to God and not listen to someone else. Adam was left with the responsibility to tell Eve the same thing, don’t eat from that tree. To stay under the authority of God’s structure she would need to listen to Adam and God.
The serpent came along and told a lie. It’s good to know good and evil, you won’t die. Now Eve had to choose who’s authority she would put herself under. Was the serpent right or was Adam? She chose the serpent over Adam and put herself under the authority of the demonic kingdom. She didn’t die immediately either and so she was confused. She began to believe the serpent more and more as she saw the world differently. Of course, no one has seen her in several thousand years, so she did actually die. But because it wasn’t immediate, because there was time to repent and turn back to God, because of mercy, she didn’t die that day, that minute.
In her new found ignorance, with a new religion the knew both good and evil, in a kingdom that had the power to defy God without immediate consequences, she went and showed Adam her truth. Now Adam had a choice, to stay under the authority structure of God or to obey another. He chose to obey his wife and chase after a woman, instead of obeying God. Now the serpent was the leader of all mankind and the woman had authority over the man. Man no longer listened to God but chased after the woman and kingdom of darkness was formed on the earth.
Now the devil had a kingdom and it came through submitting to his will. Adam and Eve didn’t turn against God on purpose. They loved God, in fact they were pretty ashamed of what they did when God came to talk to them. But they listened to something other than God. It wasn’t like they were leading their own rebellion, they were sheep, following the voice of a stranger. The rebels of today are no different, they believe that they are leading their own way, knowing good and evil and choosing to just be good people. But they are actually placing themselves under the authority of another voice.
This same trick was used many times in history, draw men after women to get them away from God. It’s in the Bible stories of Samson, David, Solomon, Nehemiah, Moses and Aaron, and many more. Jezebel was a full embodiment of the enemy kingdom taking over a nation. But what did God do when the enemy kingdom was formed? How did He choose to deal with it?
He made blood sacrifice to prevent the death of all mankind and to prophesy of the coming of His Word as a perfect sacrifice. He also foretold how world history would work out. He said the seed of the woman would crush the seed of the serpent. That’s Jesus Christ defeating antichrist in the end times. He gave pain in child birth to remind women, with every new child born in the world, of sin and the coming messiah. He sent men to work to remind them to listen to God and not chase after women. He sent thorns and weeds to remind men every day of the destructive nature of sin. Letting the weeds take the garden would kill them all, just like allowing sin to take over their lives. It had to be removed over and over again forever. He said by your work and sweat you will eat bread. Jesus is that bread and by working to provide food for their families, men contributed to the coming of Jesus as women did in child birth.
Both of these would become known as labor. It was the burden of mankind to bear until the final fulfillment of the destruction of the seed of the serpent. And so we continue to labor today. But when we see the enemy kingdom taking over a land we see the breakdown of this authority structure and the desire to put away the labors that God commanded. We see men and women listening to another voice about another way and believing they were taking charge of things by their own will. But it’s folly to listen to the stranger and oppose what God has made us to do. His will is that we follow the seed, Jesus.
Jesus is the new Adam, the last Adam according to the Bible. And God’s people are all His bride, Eve, the mother of all living in God’s Kingdom and in eternity. Jesus proved Himself worthy as one who stayed under God’s authority even unto His own death. We must stay under the authority of Jesus even unto our own death. Jesus did His labor and provided the bread of life. We must do our labor and painfully birth new eternally living people into His Kingdom. We are the mother of all the living, bringing the new birth to those who would be saved. May God open your eyes to His plans and may God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 