There is a traditional Jewish tale that God said to Abraham, But for me, you would not be here. I know that, Lord, Abraham answered, but were I not here, there would be no one to think of you.
Did you ever wonder why God created us in the first place? The answer is in the Bible, but admittedly is difficult to understand without much study and meditation. The foregoing tale may be more accurate than we realize. God created mankind for His purposes not ours. He wanted fellowship and mankind was created in a manner whereby we would be capable of fellowship with Him. The creation account teaches men and women to praise and serve Him as Lord over all things, totally sovereign.
In the beginning, through the Garden, God gave Adam everything that he needed to thrive: Food in fruit and I suppose vegetables of every description, work, in caring for the garden, responsibility, in having dominion over the animals, a helpmate and companion in the creation of Eve, limitations in the establishment of the forbidden tree, a Tree of life that would sustain life indefinitely if its fruit were eaten by Adam and Eve, and protection in a sheltered protected haven Eden, where God and man could enjoy the creation together, with God Himself as protector and teacher. A perfect setting would’t you say?
Not quite you might quip, the garden contained many trees, and all were very appealing, but one was forbidden. Would God set us up for a fall? Why was it there in the first place? Eating fruit from this tree would provide man with a knowledge which God Himself possessed and this was a huge temptation to mankind. How fair is that? The temptation was actually a limitation deliberately put in place by God to develop character and establish moral direction, and I believe was put there as a central part of Gods original purpose for creating us in the first place. Mans sin was trying to obtain knowledge in a rebellious disobedient manner independent of God. God created us because He wanted fellowship, but with true fellowship and it had to be without any challenge to His sovereignty. I believe that the main reason for limitations is that God wanted to give us freedom to exercise choice in order to give man a method of expressing our obedience and love for God. Surely He could create us as totally obedient servants who without free will would do whatever He asked as robots without blinking an eye. Who wants to be a robot and who wants to talk to one?
After the fall, God had compassion upon us and provided a way to re-establish fellowship. He sent Jesus, His perfect loving Son to die for us. Jesus is the second Adam, but unlike the first He did not succumb to satans temptation and was obedient to the end. His death paid all of our sin debt for being disobedient. Choosing Jesus is a free will decision that overcomes all obstacles to regaining our former glory and fellowship with our creator which fulfills Gods original purpose in creating us in the first place . . . (So there would be someone here to think of God and to love Him with all of our heart and soul and being, just as he first loved us . . . )
Psalm 8:3
When I consider Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars which
You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
and the son of man that You visit him?
April 5, 2016 – Click here to listen