Imagine, sitting in the cool of the evening on the porch of your lakeside cabin, nestled among a virgin forest of blue spruce and ponderosa pine; a gentle breeze whistling through the trees and overhead, a full moon illuminating shimmering waters below and within your lodge, embers upon the hearth waiting to be stirred with more of its fuel cut, stacked and seasoned.
Yes, far away from “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in” (Mark 4:19) and entanglements with “the affairs of this life” (2 Tim. 2:4) with which the most of people are occupied, you are contented with a certain tranquility – a tranquility that six millennia ago, also pervaded another serene environment … in Eden, and at a time, when Adam and his wife Eve, after giving a day’s labor in the exercise of stewardship over all that their Creator had committed to their trust, looked to the cool of the day and toward fellowship with Him Who had, on the sixth day, issued them the command to subdue and to have dominion over all He had made (Gen. 1:28).
But the Reality
But then, on a day, when they ought to have been serving and guarding the garden (Gen. 2: 15), they’d permitted themselves a respite from the day’s assignment and been drawn away of their curiosity to the one thing forbidden them: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9, 17) which now, had become transformed through the tempter’s subtle cunning, into something, good, pleasant, and desired (Gen. 3:6). And of the cool of the day? And the Voice? Yes, the Voice, calling to them from somewhere, in the Garden possessed an ominous tenor, exacerbating the shame, the guilt, that had quite overwhelmed them. And just now, the Voice, declaring, Words:
“… greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception … cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns also and thistle shall it bring forth to you … in the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return …” (Gen. 3:16-19).
But not until the Voice had said, “lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Gen. 3:22) and afterward, “drove out the man to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24), did the gravity of their trespass – “for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17) – impact the man and his wife.
And since that day until this present time, the species have been caught up with sundry cares and affairs that distract (1 Cor. 7:35) and draw them away (James 1:14) from giving attendance to the Sovereign over all. But ask any if they should like an “intermission from life,” and most would reply, “If only …”
An Earnest Expectation
But when once a man has wandered through the woods and forest glades; heard the birds singing sweetly in the trees; looked down form mountain grandeur; heard the flowing brook, and felt the gentle breeze on a warm spring day, then is that which is innate of his created nature aroused and he, wanting to find that peace which passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7) – a peace come, when man is settled in his rightful place of dominion, no longer abusing this world intended for his employment (1 Cor. 7:31); no longer subject to the dominion of that over which he ought to have subdued.
And while the uncertainties of life toss him to and fro, and carry him about, the whole creation with earnest expectation groans and travails in pain together, waiting … yes, waiting ’til man should recover his first estate; waiting for the adoption, to wit, his redemption, and manifestation as the sons of Elohim (Rom. 8:19, 22, 23).
WOW! Think about it – the earnest expectation of the whole creation awaits men, their manifestation as the sons of Elohim and if sons, then heirs! All the created order henceforth, has been looking to that time, “when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Sovereign … the times of restitution of all things, which Yahweh has spoken by the mouths of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19, 20) – the restitution of Genesis 2 Edenic humankind, when male and female served and guarded the Garden (Gen. 2:15); when male and female exercised their Yah-given right to subdue and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth (Gen. 1:28, 2:19).
Yes, that time in the beginning, and prophesied to return, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lay down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them; when the cow and the bear, and their young ones shall feed and lie down together and the lion, shall eat straw like the ox; and the sucking child plays on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child puts his hand on the viper’s den (Isa. 11:6-8).
Conclusion
Meanwhile, “… the earnest expectation of the whole creation waits …” for men, transformed by the renewing of their minds (Rom. 12:2); their re-creation in the image of the First Begotten (Rom. 8:29). Who wouldn’t want to hasten that day? He Which testifies these things says, “Surely I come quickly.” So Be It. Even so, “Come, Master Yahshua,” Revelation 22:20.
-Elder John W. Reece
© 2021 Yahweh's Assembly in Yahshua
2963 County Road 233, Kingdom City, Missouri 65262
View us online at: www.YAIY.org
Call Toll Free: (877) 642-4101
Main Line : (573) 642-4100
2963 County Road 233, Kingdom City, Missouri 65262
View us online at: www.YAIY.org
Call Toll Free: (877) 642-4101
Main Line : (573) 642-4100