Evil Multiplies

This post is a summary of how sin multiplied as shown in Genesis chapters 4- 12: 1-3... 2 Chronicles 16:9, Hebrews 11: 8-10

When Adam and Eve decided to eat the fruit; it was a decision to not trust God and believe what He said. Once they ate the fruit, evil entered into their hearts and marred the goodness God created them to have, when He made them in His Own image. And when they had their first two sons evil was passed along to them as well, in the attitude of the heart. Every human being has a choice... will I trust and follow God or do things my own way? 

Along with evil came great tragedy and sorrow, Adam and Eve's son Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain was then banished and Adam and Eve were left with no sons. Imagine their grief. They had no idea of the consequence of that fateful decision to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. However, God in His mercy allowed them to have another son; Seth. When Seth had his son Enosh, it says that "..men began to call on the name of the Lord." Genesis 4:26 NKJ

Even though Adam and Eve and their descendants could not live forever, they did live for a long time... in fact one man live to be 969 years old... Certainly long enough to get into a lot of trouble. As evil spread evil it resulted in the deep darkness that we saw in Isaiah in our first Advent post A Great Light will Shine.  But, God was always searching the hearts of the people he created, hoping to find a person whose heart was loyal to Him, who wanted to walk with Him.

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, 

to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him." 

2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJ

But as people multiplied, sadly so did wickedness and evil:

"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth... for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord... Noah was a just man,... Noah walked with God." Genesis 6: 5-9 NKJ

God was sorry that he even made people decided to destroy every living thing on the earth. But in searching their hearts He found one man, a just man, who walked with Him... Noah. So God decided to save him and his family. He called Noah to build an arc and to bring a male and female of every animal on the boat. Then He flooded the earth, so that every creature that had the breath of life died. When the waters receded, God made a covenant with Noah, giving them commands and instructions. He promised that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. Then He gave the rainbow as a sign of the covenant He made with Noah.  :)

God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. From Noah's sons descended the nations. The nations and the people who made up the nations are listed in chapter 10 of Genesis. But, people being people, as our pastor says, "people, people, people," they look after their own interests more than looking to what God wants to do. They got busy, very busy. They built the tower of Babel:

"Come, let us build ourselves a city, 

and a tower whose top is in the heavens; 

let us make a name for ourselves..." 

Genesis 11:4 NKJ

Kind of sounds like New York, a great city of many towers. Oh and the tallest ones came down. Hmm.

Anyways, God still had a plan to find someone with a loyal heart, who He could pour His grace and promise through. In the very next chapter of Genesis we meet Abraham.

"Now the Lord said to Abraham:

'Get out of your country, from your family... 

 to a land that I will show you. 
I will make you a great nation. 

I will bless you and make your name great... 

and in you 
all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" 

Genesis 12:1-3 NKJ

Check out the contrast of the attitudes between the tower builders, who were self seekers and Abraham, who was a man of faith in God. In Hebrews it says this about him:

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called 

to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. 

And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 

 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, 

dwelling in tents... for he waited for the city which has foundations, 

whose builder and maker is God." 

Hebrews 11: 8- 10 NKJ

Genesis 11 and 12 gives us a contrast, a picture of what it looks like to follow God or follow our own self interests. Abraham's life was opposite of being a modern day American. I need reminders like this, because we live in a culture of American Idol, Hollywood, and materialism surrounds us. It is natural in our culture to become builders and try to make a name for ourselves, instead of seeing ourselves as sojourners just passing through this life, "waiting for the city... whose builder and maker is God." Heaven, the Kingdom of God is our home.


Tomorrow more on this great man of faith, Abraham and how God would use him to pour out His grace.