Monday, November 2, 2020

Walking With Our Creator

 Sometimes, the best lesson is clothed in very strange dressing. In a list of rules for good writing, down the list a ways was this rule: Eschew Obfuscation. I had to look those words up. It was a perfect way to get the point across because it broke the rule in the making it, helping the reader realize how important it actually was. In fact, now it's the only rule I can remember from that list.

Scripture can sometimes be like that rule. There are times when, what we read, requires us looking something up along the way to understanding it. And then we discover that it's actually quite simple. Commentators on the verses below rarely fail to point out the clear picture the verses below paint of life before the fall of man.

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9 NASB

The verb for what Yahweh was doing is "to walk". It seems that part of the life of Adam and Eve they enjoyed in the Garden included these "walks" with Yahweh. So, part of what they opted against were these walks as well. Consider again what the temptation included:

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 NASB

"For God knows..." with the implication that He's been keeping this "secret" from them, afraid of them being "like Him". The seeds of distrust of Yahweh were dropped, and the two gobbled them up like candy. This distrust was why sacrificing the walk was valid in their eyes. Why walk with someone you can't trust? It's not safe.

Really, there it is, lying on the surface. The walk with our Creator is what was lost in Adam's choice. Yes, they also gained shame. Certainly, they died, and therefore we died. No question, we were cursed. But we lost this walk with our Creator that we have been consistently called to come back to. For instance:

Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:21-24 NASB (emphasis mine)

It seems that Enoch figured this out, and received a stellar-passing grade (see what I did there?). Even back before Abraham, before Noah, this "walk" with our Creator was possible to get back. Isn't that weird? You're not convinced? Fair enough, look at the New Testament interpretation of Enoch:

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:5-6 NASB

It seems that this one, in particular, figured something out in his walk with Yahweh that indicated acceptance. It wasn't that he was "perfect", but that he walked with his Creator. It wasn't some sort of sacrificial system, a pattern of mystical incantations, or prescribed practices. He walked with his Creator.

Permit me to eschew obfuscation at this point: Jesus came that we might, again and finally, walk with our Creator. Sure, Enoch figured it out before Jesus, but the effect required Jesus (see Hebrews 11:39-40). We want something, but what our Savior offers is a walk with Him. If that's what we want, bingo. But very often, we want something that, instead, is more like Him walking with us. 

So, when we ask, what do we do? How do we "please God", how do we "live out this Christian life?", and so on, the answer is "to walk with your Savior, daily". Micah 6:8, "walk humbly with your God". Ephesians uses the verb 7 times, including Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 NASB emphasis mine)

The simple answer, the clearest description of "what now", is, "to walk with your Savior". Suddenly "pray without ceasing" makes more sense. If you are already walking with Him all the time, talking with Him all the time is assumed. There are other benefits, like not carrying out the deeds of the flesh (sinful nature), and so on. 

So, let's get walking. 

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