My students believe in sin. Some believe in sin so strongly they believe it cannot be resisted to any degree past several minutes, hours at most. This look at the subject is from December 5, 2010.
This morning before worship service, I was clicking through the television channels and I came across a man who was preaching in Israel. I've seen him before but I don't know his name or denomination. He was speaking on the topic of the jubilees set forth in the Law of Moses. He made mention of an ancient Jewish religious work I had never heard of, The Book of Jubilees, which is sometimes called Lesser Genesis. It is not considered part of the canon except by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and it purports to reveal secret revelations to Moses about, of course, the jubilees or fifty year Jewish celebrations. One thing the minister brought out was that The Book of Jubilees puts a time on the first sin committed by Adam and Eve. According to chapter four, the first sin came on the seventeenth day of the second month of the seventh year. WOW! I am no Bible scholar and have no idea of the authenticity of that source but, WOW! When I ask my students if any of them think they could go a week without sinning, none of them believe that is possible and most don't think they could last a day. The idea that the initial husband and wife could be sinless for that length of time is amazing to me, even with the reality that they lived in a much simpler, as far as we know, world. It makes me want to take a fresh look at the story of the first couple in the Garden of Eden. (Let me interject a little Biblical humor here. Do you know what question Eve never asked Adam? ANSWER: ''Is there someone else?'')
Tonight in his sermon, our minister, David Yasko, admits he struggles with feelings of guilt. So do I and so do many Christians. It's why I think the reference in The Book of Jubilees is so hard to get my mind around. Sin is such a constant battle for most of us that the idea someone could actually hold out that long is unbelievable and it makes me wonder why I am so prone to weakness. That's the voice of guilt speaking to me. I washed my car yesterday and it's clean as a whistle. But when I hopped in this morning to go to worship, the only thing I saw was the water spots on the windshield and the windows. This afternoon, I took out my ArmorAll Glass Wipes and attacked the spot problem. Now, my windshield and windows are spot-free but I'm left with streaks. I CAN'T WIN! I want my car to look like the day I picked it out but a perfectly washed Honda is out of my grasp. But, there is great news! In the sight of our Lord, even though I'm terribly flawed, I'm seen as flawless, streakless, and spotless, just like the day of my birth. I just wish I could see myself like He looks at me.
Applicable quote of the day:
“Guilt is the very nerve of sorrow.”
Horace Bushnell
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
2 comments:
That's funny, I said WOW! too. I like your blog here, don't mind if I follow along, do ya?
Interesting post. Never heard that before.
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