CALLED, ANSWERED, AND FINISHED

This day, focus on one saying of the king, in the parable of the Son’s wedding. The King would be God the Father, and the Son Jesus. It is about the wedding of Jesus, the ‘Bridegroom,’ to the ‘Bride,’ the Church. The king said about the wedding, simply, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Mat 22:14).

There are many passages in the Bible that refer to the calling of God to the sinner, but my personal favorite was His call to Adam after sin, “Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Gen 3:9).

Note that Adam had just sinned, and God was still nearby! That was by grace that He was nearby and called the sinful Adam. Adam explained to God that he was afraid and hid himself. The reason that He was afraid was because of the sudden realization that he was naked, although he had always been naked. Because they put on aprons of fig leaves to hide their nakedness, which they had apparently misused, the man’s sin was exposed. He had had carnal knowledge, it seems. Their ‘nakedness’ was their craftiness showing — their subtilty that was like the Serpents. They seemed to always have had the nature of the Beast, but sin revealed the nature in them.

Just as man would call a dog or other pet, after sin, God called Adam, “Where are you?” Where are you hiding? What are you hiding? Adam and his kind — the two of them — were hiding their new nature. It had gone from glorious to coming short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

God called the two of them because they were both of Him and were Adam’s kind. Referring to the key verse, “many are called.” In fact, they all were called, albeit there were only two of them.

Both the man and the woman adama answered the calling of God, Adam confessed to eating of the forbidden tree and likewise the woman confessed (Gen 3:12-13).

God called and they answered truthfully; they confessed that they were sinners. It seems that they both had an excuse, and the woman admitted that she had been deceived and Adam that the woman had passed on that deception to him. After all, she ate and did not seem to die, so Adam ate as well. Neither understood death! Death is coming short of the glory of God and with sin, the two had become inglorious, or decadent.

Because they hid from God, they were ashamed that they had not heeded the advice of God. They felt something inside that they had never experienced before — shame.

We all have sinned. If you are not ashamed, repentance will not be forthcoming. Repentance is necessary for the remission of sins.

Speaking of drinking wine to remember Him by, Jesus said, “This is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mat 26:28). It is not the water that was soterial but the blood of Jesus that is for the remission of sins — for deliverance. The coming short is the sinner made whole again as if he or she had never come short.

God had called both Adam’s and both had confessed their sins. God had grace upon them; they suffered the consequences of sin, but He covered them with grace, indubitably to withstand the wiles of the Devil, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them” (Gen 3:21). They would thenceforth wear death, perhaps to remind them that they were nothing but sinners safe by grace. That did not mean that the world would not endeavor to defeat them, but that they had God with them. They would wear grace as if it was a coat of the whole armor of God.

Albeit they were readied by God for the world, the two were still cast out of Paradise into a type of Hell. No, the world is not Hell but is a simile for it. Chapter three of Genesis describes tribulations that they and their seed would encounter before a return to Paradise of which death would be the door, or portal, to either Paradise of Hades.

The eating of the forbidden tree was supposed to be the marriage supper for Adam and the woman as they became one under God. An uninvited guest, just as in so many risqué movies, entered the bridal chamber and defiled the bride as Adam watched, “Adam knew (saw) Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, ‘I have gotten a man from the Lord’” (Gen 4:1).

She had not begotten another Adam but an ‘Is (Hebrew; pronounced eesh). As it turned out, the wedding with God to which they were called was disrupted by an alien guest that was unwelcome in the bridal chamber.

Now jump ahead many years. The seed of Cain multiplied, and it was revealed that they were not sons of God but daughters of men (Gen 6:2). Men is ‘adam’ in that reference, but they took for them wives (‘issa). ‘Issa, just like ‘Is, were other existences. Just as Eve made for Adam another existence, the wives became other creatures as well.

However, God called them all to the ‘wedding’ so to speak — the Ark. It was to be a huge wedding, even a Carnevale. All were invited and the door remained open for quite some time before the Ark sailed, then God closed the door.

Of all the sinners out there, most were so depraved that they mocked Noah even as he built the Ark for them. Even the animals had sense enough to get in out of the rain, but the depravity was so great that the multitude would continue in sin despite the wedding being rained out.

Only eight people of the thousands, perhaps millions called, would go to the ‘wedding’ destined to end in a new worldly Paradise where there would be no sin.

As it turned out, soon, as the Book of Jasher reveals, Noah took off the Garment of Adam and Ham stole it. Then Noah introduced sin into the new world as Adam had before. He had revealed his nakedness and sin was in himself all the time and would soon be exposed.

The point herein is that God calls everyone, for we are all sinners and most are self-righteous. Adam and Eve had tried that, and it failed; they had tried to cover their shame themselves with aprons of fig leaves (Gen 3:7).

Only eight people were chosen by God because none of the rest answered, let alone called upon the Name of the Lord who was nearby by the open door. Of the chosen eight, Ham was dismissed, and his seed cursed.

Because you are called and go to the wedding would be a great start, but the trip must be finished; it must be endured to the end.

Noah and his family thought some mountain in Ararat was the destination, but they were only part way there. The destination was a return to Paradise in heaven while remaining alive in the manner of Enoch and Elijah both of whom were taken to Paradise in heaven without experiencing death.

So many think that because they come to the wedding, even in appropriate wedding attire, the voyage is finished. They seem to never understand that ‘born again’ is not some instantaneous rebirth but a journey in this world until death do you part.