Deja vu all over again and again!

     One of the most powerful weapons Satan has in his arsenal is division. The first record of division is with Adam and Eve. The object of their scorns should have been themselves but Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed Eve. The unity of Holy Matrimony was divided right then. Marriage was the first institution under attack, and outside of our relationship with God, is the most holy of relationships. What's more dividing that relationship was just an outcome of separation from God:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39)

    That's the apostle Paul speaking. Division is Satan's ploy to separate us from God. Note that God will never be separated from us, but we can separate from God. Hence, we never need to worry about God but only ourselves. Satan doesn't even try to make God hate us but can only make us hate God and others. That's why the Greatest Commandment and the one like unto it are so important; hatred is the mechanism of division and love is the bond of communion.
     Adam and Eve left the Garden. Satan had cunningly implemented the division. They walked through the gate out of the Garden but we know that God still loved them so (John 3:16). They suffered the consequences of sin but were still loved by God. Even in their time of troubles, Adam and Eve never abandoned God; they merely failed Him. The danger lies in the abandonment of God. That is apostasy, and that is Satan's goal. Apostasy is the unpardonable sin wherein mankind is separated from God and division is complete:

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Heb 6:6)

     With the division of men from God, those persons become reprobate, committing blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. That final act of division is violating the Third Commandment - taking Jesus's Purpose in vain. In other words, the ultimate division is denying that Jesus died for us! That is Satan's "Great Omission" - to try to have mankind reject God's own sacrfice for ourselves. It is the ultimate hatred; hatred of God's authority and sacrifice.
      Not to be outdone, Cain and Abel were divided secondly. Look at the order: (1) division from God, (2) division from Holy Matrimony, and (3) division from each other. Hidden in scripture is the division between Cain and his parents - the Fifth Commandment violated. If that one is not clear enough consider Ham's sin when he humiliated Noah as he lie in s drunken state unclothed.
    You see, the Fifth Commandment doesn't have stipulations such as honor your parents provided they are without error or honor your parents if they not do stupid things or honor your parents even if they punish you too harshly.  We are to love our parents even with all their imperfections. How can we do that when our parents may even be cruel? Because God even loves us when we are!
    Noah's type of division was familial. The family was so divided that we still are! Ham is the father of the dark races, Shem of the brown races, and Japheth of the white races. Not only was Noah's family separated for perpetuity but mankind was as well. The division of families and races came about because Shem failed to honor his father. It is also to be noted that neither Ham nor Noah honored their Father in Heaven; just when sin had been washed clean from the world, righteous Noah got drunk. He did what the line of Seth did when Cain's line tempted them.
     Neither Noah nor Ham can blame Satan. It is merely his law of sin. Who was to blame? Noah and Ham! Why then were Shem and Japheth punished? Because they tried to cover Ham's sin themselves. They should have let God handle that.
     Many years later, Lot and Abraham were divided. What was the attraction that split them? Lot saw Sodom and Gomorrah and wanted to live in sin while Abraham was sanctified - set apart - in the countryside. Sanctification is choosing to live in safety so that Christians aren't divided from God:

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes 5:23).

    God does not create division (chaos); he does created unity. Sanctification is unification with God on the basis of truth (John 17:17). Sanctification is separation from the world but it is not division from it; Christians are to go unto the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). We are to take the world out of us but not take us out of the world! That occurs when we crucify our flesh by setting apart ourselves with God (Mat 16:24).
     We're not through yet. That is "deja vu all over again" and again. (That comes from a misstatement by Yogi Berra.)  There was division among Abraham's sons Ishmael and Isaac. That division still exists to this day as Isaac is the line of the Jews and Ishmael of the Muslims. There is no need to describe the hatred which still exists because of that brotherly conflict! What went wrong? Sin! Abraham depended on Sara's handmaiden to fulfill the promise God made to Sara.
     Who is responsible for that extreme division? Abraham. He was deluded by Sara who volunteered Hagar and came to resent her own sin. Sara is the cause of the Judeo-Islamic conflict that we still have today and sin is its root cause. Although Abraham is credited with righteousness as was Adam, they still had to suffer the consequences of sin.
     Division continued: Next it was with Jacob and Esau. It was the Edomites (Esau's line) who fought the Hebrew people as they entered into the Promised Land; the Edomites in defiance of God's will! Division never ends! Throughout the centuries, nation has been divided against nation. Empires came and went because of selfish interests. There has always been one constant: God's chosen people have always been persecuted. That applies to both Jews and Christians.
     The ancient church was divided early on into Jewish and Hebrew branches because the Jews just would not accept the Messiah on whom they waited. Then the Roman church was divided into the Catholic and Orthodox faiths (western and eastern branches). With the Reformation, the Church was further divided, then the protestants began to split into denominations. Then the Restoration movement split the Church even more. Now even Mennonites have been divided into nearly 1000 factions; even down to black bumper Mennonites!
     Not to be forgotten was the division of the Kingdom of David (God's Kingdom) into Israel and Judah. They even had a divided priesthood! In only a few hundred years both Israel and Judah were gone and ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were lost to oblivion! In 1948 Israel was united again to prepare for the mother of all battles - the Battle of Armageddon.
     Division is at a crescendo right now. In my lifetime, I have never seen such hatred. I'll be honest: I have trouble with hatred. It's not because of my own selfish interests but I hate hatred so much that I hate! The only way to love my fellow beings is for them to conform to my standards. That seems narcissistic, but my standards are God's Laws and His will, the way that I understand them.
     Yes, sometimes I struggle with hatred. We all do! If we say that we do not, we are liars. I find it discomfiting when others disagree with me. I hate their way of thinking but mankind's inclination is to hate the person. That is original sin; try as we may, original sin, or a hateful nature, is hard to overcome. How can we love our enemies when it's so difficult to love our friends? People minimize the importance of love. Even a minimal amount of dislike makes love less than optimum. We are to love others as God loves us; that is optimal. We can't even love superficially it seems!
     I am in the process of writing a book on the mob; not the criminal mob but people with a mob mentality. If we look at revolutions anywhere and everywhere, most places revolution has come about by mob rule. I believe the United States is in jeopardy at this very moment because of hatred. The mob seems to always win out because truth matters little to them, and intimidation is their warfare. They are very principled to the law of sin; much more so than Christians are principled with the Law of God.
    Scripture looks into the future. For a time, the mob wins out. My daughter asked me, "What happens?" I forewarned her, "We lose!" Of course, in the end, God lives on, Satan dies, and the world lives and loves in harmony, but until then, there will be greater and greater division. Life is a tribulation, and in the end, there will be great tribulation!
     Why did I not mention they most onerous division: when the mob killed God. That will be in my book. Mobs seem to get their way, but dying was God's Purpose for coming in the flesh. The mob never seems to know who is in charge. That's what makes mobs dangerous! However, God is always in charge.