HOPE

The Bible introduces us to an ideal creation for God by God. It was the specific environment for humans to flourish in their fullness. Adam was created in the perfect Image of God. Adam had the attributes and character of God that allowed him to commune one with the Father. Adam was given 1 law. The ideal condition created for Adam lasted through one chapter in the Bible. The rest of the book became dominated with violence and decay and human depravity.
Even with these atrocities, God was and is currently at work in the fallen condition lovingly executing His redemptive plan for mankind. What is it about man that compels God to love man enough to redeem him?

Religious practices through out the course of human history has kept God confined in box with limitations set by our finite levels of thinking and understanding. The God of the Bible is working everyday even on the Sabbath to redeem mankind. Sometimes God works openly and sometimes behind the scenes. The most imperatively and marvelous work is done behind the curtains when the stage is closed and when the lights are out as we sit down in solitude confronting ourselves as the Holy Spirit convicts us. It is at this time the need for change in the deep dark closets of our lives is revealed. The hound of Heaven sets on our Trail. The results are always magnificent. We become transformed daily. His work is in motion. He is at work in a fabulous way. He changes us to reflect him through the image of his Son. We are set on the path of Christ revealed in culture. Christo Kia Cosmos.

Abel’s death was a traumatic impact to human history. That was the first time nature was exposed to a dead human. Adam for the first time experienced death in his own house. He saw and experienced first hand the weight and scope of his sin. The heaviness that Christ felt as he approached the cross was also felt here by Adam. The first time blood was shed. The first of many to die. The first human funeral. The first smell of human death. The first experience of human decay. The first time human’s decomposition was experience. The first time flies tasted and hovered over a dead human being. The first death. The first physical separation of mother and son. This to me is a type of Mary and Abel a type of Christ.
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One seldom considers the emotional guilt of Eve as a woman and Adam as a man to bring such tragedy to their home and human condition. How did Adam and Eve live with themselves daily knowing that their decisions resulted in the death of their son through the hands of another? How did Adam deal with the rejection from God? Can we imagine the guilt that Adam lived with? Did that guilt send him to an emotional cave where he did not speak to his family? What about Cain? How did he deal with his own issues? Did he blame Adam? Was it rejection from his father that ignited his anger towards his brother? As a couple how did they go through life and intimacy after the loss of their two sons to even conceive the idea of having another son.

Seth was the compensation for their suffering. Seth was the first seed of hope in human history. 'God has given me another son". That was Eves hope. The pain of loosing two sons was rewarded with a Seth. Here we see hope emerging from hopelessness.

A hopeless world, hopeless human condition has now being introduced to the concept of hope. We are now a people of Hope. The Hope of redemption, the Hope of salvation. The hope of optimism. The optimistic assurance that is God given is sealed; it is not subjected to the frailty of human condition. Eve’s optimism was foundational and based on Gods word.

Our hope, is now being Experienced through our relationship with Christ.

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