“Commandment one” was, “Thou shalt not eat of it (The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil)” (Gen 2:17). But of every tree of the Garden, thou mayest freely eat.” (Gen :16).
Look closely, though; the “commandment” did not forbid
eating of the Tree of Knowledge per se but the command was the liberty
to eat of every tree but that one specific tree. The command certainly forbade,
but it encouraged more so. God gave the first two humans freedom.
In the New Testament, the freedom to eat is also given. God
told Peter in a dream, “What God has cleansed, thou shalt not call common.”
(Acts 11:9). A Voice from heaven said to Peter, “Arise, Peter, slay and eat” (Acts
11:7).
His dream was about “unclean animals;” animals that Jews
were forbidden to eat. Therein was a command as well, “What God hath cleansed,
thou shalt not call common.” The Jews had been forbidden many things because
they looked at the negative. God had granted Peter liberty to eat of anything
but…
Later, at the Council of Jerusalem, the “but” was provided. The
results of the Council was this:
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:18-20).
Christian “liberty” is to eat of anything that God had made
clean. What God had not made clean were four: things offered to idols, fornication,
strangled meat, and from blood. Rather than the one thing they could not eat
(strangled meat) look at all the things they had the liberty to eat! (The blood
was assuredly abstention from killing the innocent as the Herodians had tried
with Jesus.)
What is more, that was the rule from the beginning: “Known
unto God are His works from the beginning of the world.” It was the same in the
beginning as it was in apostolic times. The inference is that Adam and Eve
focused on what was forbidden rather than what was allowed.
The Jews did that with all the commandments. Even the Ten
condenses to one: Thou shalt not strangle God. “Strangled” in the Greek
is pniktos and means that the air supply — the breath of life — is shut
off. Hence, strangling God would mean the converse of God’s actions in
the beginning, to wit: God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul.”
Look at what Satan had done to Adam and Eve; he strangled
them by choking off the breath of life, and they began to die. Their “oxygen”
had been depleted, so to speak. Sin had strangled Adam and Eve.
Rather than eating of the Tree of Life or any other tree for
that matter, they in effect ate of the tree that strangled the breath of life out
of them that God had breathed unto them, All that because, rather than focusing
on what they could eat, they focused on the one thing they could not eat. That
is why sin chokes the life out of people. People look at the Ten Commandments
as choking their lives. but look at all the millions of other things that they have
the liberty to do! (To this day, “No Trespassing” encourages people to trespass
because they desire to be where they should not be.)
Why did God forbid that one tree? They would die if they ate
from it! [i]
Why did God forbid Ten Things? They would strangle God so to speak. They would
cut off His Will, and His Will is that none should perish! [ii]
God provides the breath of life. To keep safe from the choke-hold that Satan
has on God’s creatures, God explained the one Commandment more thoroughly — do
not partake of things God has not made clean. He has not made clean idols
and such things listed in the Ten Commandments. Blood is among them! So is strangling
others by various means: lying, stealing, coveting, and so forth.
Rather than things that are forbidden, the Ten Commandments
should be considered all the things that people may do. They are “Ten Prescriptions”
for Eternal Life. Rather than things forbidden they are prescriptions
for a long life. The Fifth Prescription even says that! [iii]
All those years, Jews were in bondage to the Devil because they
looked at the Law as oppressive. All the while, unknown to them, God is a
permissive God. Most things are allowed, but Christians who desire longevity, even
eternal longevity, would do what contributes to long life.
Now examine the second commandment in scripture: “Noah;
according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Gen 6:22).
What did God command? He gave a long list of instructions. All
those around who saw him working, scoffed at Noah. Perhaps even those of “righteous
Seth” saw works as foolishness. That is because they would focus on the work
that Noah chose to do. Sure, God commanded (tsavah in the Greek), but it
was not really a “command.” He was “charged,” or “appointed” (Strong’s Dictionary),
to do God’s Will for him.
Was Noah charged to build a huge boat or was he charged to
save mankind? The scoffers saw his work as foolishness because it was to build
a ship to save them from a flood when it had never even rained before! That
seems irrational, does it not? But Noah was not even worried about the rain because
he had seen God.
Rather than look at the Great Storm ahead, he looked at the
Great Peace after the Storm. It is found out later that Noah had gone the Way
of God and built an altar to the One who saved him from perishing. [iv]
That was the first altar ever built to honor God, and the last “altar” so to
speak, was the Cross. All the others since have been to honor the Cross. Even
Noah’s Ark was a foreshadowing of the Holy Cross because it saved mankind.
Rather than all the work that he should do, Noah
looked at all the things that God would do. Rather than looking at the Ark
as empty, he saw it as full. Rather than seeing the world as ending, Noah saw
it as just beginning! Rather than seeing life sucked from the Earth, Noah saw
life preserved for a new Earth. All that hard work was not seen as “works” but
opportunities. All those “Commandments” are not chains but opportunities
to please God!
The first command was not a command at all, but a Way to please
God. The second commandment was not a command at all, but a way that should please
Adam’s kind. The first and second commandments were the Greatest Commandment
and the one like unto it. [v]
Noah was fulfilling the Great Commission, that in simple terms, is fulfilling
the Greatest Commandment. How could the Greatest Commandment be operationalized?
By “good will toward men” (agapae) and desiring that none should perish.
Noah left the door open for all who would enter in. Given
the chance, few walked the way nor entered the unguarded gate. (They would see
Jesus on the other side of the flood).They chose to perish because they did not
see Jesus on the other side of the sea of glass. [vi]
They looked only at the water, but Noah saw unto Heaven. He saw God the other
side of the crystal sea!
If only they had seen God, they would have seen Jesus. Like
the Greeks who requested of Philip, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” [vii]
all they needed to enter the Ark was to ask of Noah, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”
Then they too would have kneeled at the altar that Noah built.
Soon, though, Noah sinned. He drank “blood” it seems. [viii]
He lost his sobriety and vigilance and Ham saw his nakedness. That was what
Adam and Eve had tried to cover. They had affronted God somehow, — likely by misusing
their pudenda. Now, Noah had displayed his for all the world to see.
Noah drank the wine that Jesus offered years later:
And he (Jesus) took
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink ye all of it; For
this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the
vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” (Mat 26:27-29)
Noah had built the Ark for mankind and an altar to God because
God appointed him to do so. He was worthy of building the Ark and building the
altar, but he was not worthy of the blood of Jesus. Why so? He did the forbidden
thing. He was naked in front of others. He could have drank wine or about
anything else but he did what Adam and Eve had done. Just what had they done?
Exposed their flesh to sin. Noah made Ham sin. Apparently, Ham scoffed at Noah.
Here the man who had been vigilant for all those years he then a mess!
Noah, after adoring God with an altar, strangled God by becoming
non-vigilant. Satan could have devoured him right after God saved him from
perishing. [ix] He
strangled God and drank the “blood,” unworthily, of Jesus.
Not only that, but he ate meat the first time. [x] Noah,
after the world was cleansed from sin, began to do the things forbidden at the
Council of Jerusalem. He even fornicated against God because now, he was as
God, doing whatever pleased him. All his work had been futility!
God, however, did not forsake Noah because, just as we do not
fully understand the wrong that Noah did, neither did he. God did not account
sin to Noah but to Ham because it was Ham’s seed that was cursed. Noah was
faithful but wine had made him unwary of the wiles of Satan who had made it through
the flood. How did he do that? Because of his haven in the invisible world. Perhaps
incorporeal Satan, became real again through Canaan, who like Cain before
him, was cursed.
Did I get this all right? Perhaps not. I wrote what God
would have me write. But I can still misunderstand such things myself. As such,
consider what I wrote, and test it by scripture. The intent is not to forbid
wine or insist on obedience to the many laws, but to do what God would have you
do? Ostensibly, all that is needed is to see Jesus and walk His Way
as the Greeks did.
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