Opus 2025-217: Be Careful with Your Excuses

We were holding Wednesday night service, the pastor was out of town, and the guy who leads our singing was in charge of the teaching portion.  Early in what he had to say he presented this verse,

Genesis 2:17 (KJV) 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.

He then asked in passing, “Did Adam know what it meant to die?”  And then he went on.  I don’t know if he planned on the question or just threw it out.  It just started me down a rabbit trail.  I don’t know if this was a deep thought that he was still thinking about.  I don’t know if it was just the Holy Spirit putting some words in his mouth to make me sit up and pay attention.

It’s a good question.  Did Adam know what it meant to die?  There’s no indication that he asked for any clarification.  There was no sense of mystery or ignorance.  God made a statement.

Chapter 3 repeats the statement and the serpent denies that it’s true.  Again, there is no indication that they didn’t know what it meant.  Living in the garden, I would assume that leaves my fall off and decompose, but I could be wrong.  It could be that at that point there was no cycle going on of plants dying, decomposing, enriching the soil, coming back as new plants.  But at the same time, there is no indication that there was any doubt that this dying business was serious.

I can forward to this week in River City.  How often do we have people claim to not understand?  I always like that phrase that I first saw in pro-life advertisements, which goes, “Which part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?  The answer was rather obvious.  The guy putting pressure on the young lady understood exactly what “no” meant.  His purpose was not to understand, it was to be gratified.

I wonder how often I have played this game with God.  Nothing jumps to mind, but it seems unlikely that I have never tried to play the game.  I trust that as I go forward that if I don’t understand something I will look a little deeper.  That comes whether it’s a point the pastor is making, the logical position in a book, a passage of scripture or something having to do with our civil society.

God does not accept excuses.  Neither does the well gravity, or the second law of thermodynamics.  Take that into consideration next time you feel like making an excuse.

homo unius libri