After chapter 3 of Genesis and the banishing of Adam and Eve from the garden, the great battle begins that will take us through the rest of the Bible. It is a battle for the heart of man. It is a battle of absolute good pitted against absolute evil. It is a battle of the Kingdom of God coming in full and His will being done.
The battle will manifest itself in story after story. It is seen in the constant struggle of God’s way versus man’s way. God has chosen and provided a way, the way for us to live. It is life in fellowship with Him. It is life according to His laws, His precepts and His plans. It is a life that surrenders and submits to His way forsaking all others. It is the way of being a part of His coming Kingdom.
Man’s way constantly struggles and fights against God’s way. It is the way of our own choices living life as if God did not exist. Or even worse, God is real but irrelevant. It is a way that the evil one, Satan, urges us to live by using temptation, doubt, and lies. Satan will constantly ask, “Did God really say?” He will consistently contradict God and God’s plan for our lives. He will enjoy seeing us choose our ways, our thoughts and our reason over God’s perfect plans and law.
Make no mistake. The battle is a kingdom struggle. There can be only one king and one kingdom in our lives. We cannot serve two masters.
In the next few chapters of Genesis (chapter 4 and following), we see this Kingdom battle unfold as brother kills brother (Cain and Abel, chapter 4), God sends a great flood but saves Noah and his family (chapter 6-9), and man tries to exalt himself on par with God (the Tower of Babel, chapter 11). The message is clear: choose God and His Kingdom and live; choose any other way and suffer the consequences.
One truth that emerges throughout this Kingdom epic is that there are no doubt hardships as well as joys when we commit to follow the way of the King. However, the consequences of choosing not to follow, of not becoming a part of His plan and His way for our lives, yield much worse consequences.
So, how will God begin making His Kingdom known and visible on the earth? Next time, we begin to answer this with the story of the call of a man named Abram…
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