THE GARDEN OF GOD
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TODAY
If someone could understand the mysteries of government, they could understand the workings of Yahweh. Everything Yahweh does is governmental. His laws and His ways are all expressions of government. Government is an outward representation of the spirit behind any creation, whether it be the government of natural creation, the government of the family, or the government of men that brings and holds them together.
All that Yahweh does is according to government. Even the coming of His Son to bring salvation to all men was an issue of government – a legal redemptive deed that restored mankind to the Father.
Nothing takes place apart from government. Nothing takes place apart from divine order. Even corruption and degradation operates within the realm of His government. Even though it might be a temporary act of lawlessness, it fits into the ultimate scheme of eventual order. In time, lawlessness proves the sovereignty of law, as all things must in time give themselves to law and order.
And, it is important to realize the Satan as well knows and operates within and utilizes these structures, not only in order to gain his attempted advantage, but also in his effort to usurp or tear down or even destroy the government of Yahweh, and to likewise destroy man. If Satan can destroy man, he can usurp Yahweh, whose focus is on man.
This is presented here in order to lay the groundwork to understand that life and the history of man is not just some haphazard make-its-own-destiny undirected happening. Instead, if we had eyes to see and understood the mysteries of government, we would see that there is order and purpose to this entire matter of life and man and nations and even the spirit world, the latter being inseparably intertwined with the former.
Everything that happens is governmental, often having roots that go all the way back to the beginnings of man in the Garden, or to curses and blessings that were made on individuals and peoples many, many generations ago, or even within our own recent history, even down to our own individual lives. Even as our human bodies are created and maintained and function according to the government of God, much of which we now know is laid out in our genetic code, so lives and nations and races all function according to the genetic coding of the established laws of Yahweh, including blessings and curses.
How could anyone deny that our lives today are dramatically influenced and even controlled by the acts of others before us? From the beginning of man in the Garden, all men since that time have been under the curse that came specifically on Satan, Eve, Adam, and the ground. It is entirely impossible to escape that curse, despite what one might will. One can temporarily alter or escape that curse by ordering one’s life so as to give it some reprieve, but given a change in time or circumstances, that curse will prevail.
For example, the woman was cursed to bear children in pain. Today with the advent of medicine, women can be relieved from that pain. Some women may even never experience the pain of childbirth. But that does not change the curse. Allow that woman to delay too long in getting to the hospital, or place her in a remote location, and despite the otherwise available options for pain-free childbirth, the reality of that curse will be made evident.
Or, one can manicure their yard and make it a completely soothing invitation for the bare feet, and not leave that environ all their lives, and never know that the land brings forth thorns and thistles. As long as they remain in that small environ, they temporarily escape the natural curse of the land; but, let that man go hunting or fishing or vacationing into the wilds of nature, and the curse will quickly prove itself still intact.
Or, a man may get sick with a terminal illness, whether it be cancer or heart failure or whatever, and escape the curse of death by chemotherapy or even a heart transplant; but though a battle against the curse of death may be won and a slight reprieve from it gained, in time that curse will exceed that man’s ability to resist it and still prevail. Just because someone can experience temporary remedy or relief or even deliverance from a curse, does not mean that the curse does not exist. And remember, the curse is a governmental act, and in time government/law prevails.
Of course there are many other examples of curses in the Bible. And though we today might find this idea offensive, it is nonetheless true and affects us every day and every moment of our lives.
The second curse found in the Bible did not take long to come about either. This was the one placed upon Cain for killing Abel. This curse occurred in the very next chapter after the curse of Satan, Eve, Adam, and the ground. In Genesis 4:1-16 we read of a curse that affected men of that heritage undoubtedly all the way to this day. Later in the Bible we read of such men as the Rechabites, or Moses’ wife and in-laws, or Jael and her husband, all who were Kenites (or Cainites) and continued to be wanderers.
And if curses are not already a preponderance in the opening verses of the Bible, within the same chapter we see a curse set forth by Lamech, a great-great-great-grandson of Cain, wherein he set forth a penalty eleven times worse than that of Cain.
The next curse per a man and his descendants was that against Canaan – Genesis 9:20-27. Most interestingly, the offense was via Canaan’s father, Ham, for exposing the nakedness of his father, Noah. One can look at this and object in modern mentality – “That’s not fair!”, but the unseen and unacknowledged fact is that Yahweh performs all things governmentally, and this curse had a governmental pattern that exceeded the limits of natural sight and reasoning. (This is why it is so important that Yahweh bring a people into immortality in order to effect His pure kingdom. Natural man entirely comes short of understanding the ways and laws of Yahweh. Decisions and judgments are not made on the immediate alone, but on the much larger picture of what Yahweh is doing.)
This should give you some idea of the relevance of curses; and if one thinks that these specific curses and others like them are of no affect today, then they are choosing to be blind to reality. They are like the man who never goes out of his home and says – “There is no curse on the ground!” This naivety applies to the “name it and claim it” mentality of Christians who claim and “confess” that they are delivered from all curses. I invite them to walk through a briar patch void of their clothing and footwear and maintain such confidence.
There is no way we can examine all the curses today that affect men. Not only is it beyond our assessment, but even beyond our ability to comprehend how it all plays out. That ability lies with Yahweh alone. But there are a few curses we can see.
Of course the obvious one is the curse in the original Garden. But let us look at some that are more relevant to today. And in addressing these, we need to note that these curses, like the one from the original Garden, span back thousands of years. Just because thousands of years may lapse, does not mean that a curse, or even a blessing, runs out of time. In fact, these curses and blessings were set in motion to affect man until the very end.
In Malachi 1:4 we read – “Though Edom says, ‘We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins’; thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom Yahweh is indignant forever.” This prophecy/curse applies to the Edomites. But who are the Edomites today to whom this applies?
History tells us that around 126 BC, the Edomites were conquered by the Jews and were absorbed as a people within them. The historian, Josephus, wrote “that they were hereafter no other than Jews.” This is the reason King Herod was half Jew and half Edomite.
So who then has taken on this curse of Malachi 1:4? Who is it who will “return and rebuild up the ruins”? It is the ones who bear the heritage of the Edomites – the Jews, who conquered them in 126 BC and after 1945 AD began to return and with violence and brutal tactics took over the land, and since 1948 have begun to “rebuild up the ruins.” These facts and this curse cannot be ignored; and were it not for Yahweh’s mercy which He extended in 1996, He would have fulfilled the rest of that curse and destroyed them.
Of course the longstanding promises that have to do with the Arabs, going all the way back to Ishmael and other peoples in that ancient land, still apply as well. This is all within Yahweh’s mind and plan and government. They have rights in that land area as well.
Thus we see just one more example of the destiny effected by government, as well as the complexity of His administration of that government.
If we had eyes to see, we would understand governmentally why all the affairs of mankind have unfolded as they have. We would understand why the Chinese remain under Communism, why Communism even exists, and why the Russians were under Communism for precisely seventy years, the same number of years the Jews were in Babylonian captivity precisely 2,520 years prior. We would understand the governmental factors that have directed the history of the various ethnic groups – the Asians, the Arabs, the Caucasians, the Africans, etc. Each group of these various peoples clearly would possess blessings and curses, some going back to the beginning of time. But our finite minds are not capable or worthy of understanding the wonder or all the workings of these mysteries; for even if we understood their existence, we would not have the wisdom or knowledge to effect or remove them.
Continue to page 2 of The Garden of God – Today for THE CURSE OF 1920