"Where Are You?"

[dave c]

simpletruth #138ao Revisited 08SEP10 salicart@msn.com

HOSEA 10:12—Part Forty One: “Where Are You?”

by rev. dave c

Hosea 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you (NKJV).

As Deuteronomy 4:29 exemplifies ["But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. (NKJV)] the Bible repeatedly exhorts us to seek God. Furthermore, we are frequently assured that if we will seek Him, we will find Him. Interestingly, Scripture doesn’t say that only those who were predestined to seek Him will find Him, or conversely, only those who were predestined to find Him will seek Him. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28; NAS). "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened” (Lu 11:9&10; NAS). “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink” (Jn 7:37; NAS).

In thinking about the Creator’s relationship with us, it occurs to me that the first evidences of “seeking” occur very early within the story of humanity. Beginning with Genesis 3:6 we read: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called [qara’ (#7121)] to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself" (NAS). So much is suggested by so few verses describing events that resulted in thousands of years of dire consequences for all of humanity—for you and for me, right here and right now. Satan used precisely the same methods to tempt Eve as were used to test Jesus in the wilderness after His baptism (Mt 3:13-4:11), and as delineated in the Epistle of First John (2:16).

Romans 8:12...Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come (NIV). While the first couple didn’t physically die the moment they disobeyed, their sudden ability to see the nakedness of their sin indicates that they had lost their covering of righteous innocence. They had died spiritually and the law of sin and death entered into the world of Man. Just like you and me today, Adam and Eve tried to conceal their sinfulness from each other through their own futile ingenuity and the ineffectual work of their own hands. Furthermore, just like the spiritually unregenerate of today, when they sensed the presence of the Lord, they tried to hide themselves within their material and rational environments.

Romans 8:15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ (NIV). We must remember that God’s call to His creature was not because He couldn’t find Adam, for God is literally everywhere all of the time—He sees all and He knows all. While there is a certain sense of irony in the Almighty calling out because He knew that Adam could no longer see Him, I believe we have in this verse the Lord’s first intimate reaching out to the lost and fallen. “Adam, where are you? Look around you...what has happened to your world? Look inside of you...what has happened to the person I created in My image and in My likeness? Adam, Adam...understand what you have done.”

Romans 8:18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (NIV). Let us take a fresh look at John 3:16 beginning with verse 14: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (NAS). “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” God the Father loves the world so much that through the gift of God His Son He called, and calls, out to all of humanity, “Where are you?” Our answer to that call is a matter of life and death today...and for all eternity. Amen.