“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered, this only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.” (Ecclesiastes 7:27, 29, NIV 1984).
My Musings – “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31, NIV 1984). “All,” of course, included the man a woman Adam and Eve. “Very good,” naturally, because “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26, NIV 1984). That’s what you call making “mankind upright.“
But then, we went “in search of many schemes.” It started with just one scheme, Satan’s scheme. “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” (Genesis 3:5, NIV 1984). So, they ate, in direct disobedience of God’s sole prohibition. “And all their unborn children die as both of them bow down to Satan’s [scheme],” (Don Francisco). And if we ever get the notion that things might have been different, had it been us in the garden, well, we need to think again. For it wasn’t long before “every inclination of the thoughts of [mankind’s] heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5, NIV 1984). That’s what you call going “in search of many schemes.“
God destroyed that generation in the flood. “Only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water. (1 Peter 3:20, NIV 1984). With them, God began again, but not anew. For the flood did not wash away the sin nature from the hearts of the survivors. So, “just as the world of that time was deluged and destroyed…the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:6–7, NIV 1984).
And we know that time is near. For just as it was in the days of Noah, “there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (2 Timothy 3:1–4, NIV 1984). Kinda sounds like “every inclination of the thoughts of [mankind’s] heart [will be] only evil all the time,” doesn’t it? Regrettably, we seem to be moving in that direction at an ever-accelerating pace.
My Advice – Between the deluge of the past and the fire in the future, something amazing happened. “The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:14, NIV 1984). And we all are in need of a Savior. Because just like Adam and Eve, “we all, like sheep, have gone astray [in search of many schemes], each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6, NIV 1984). Something amazing? That’s what you call amazing grace.
But just like God provided Noah the plans for an Ark to save the few, He had made plans for the Savior to save “all who [receive] Him, to those who [believe] in His name.” (John 1:12, NIV 1984). Through Christ, and only through Christ, “God [can make] mankind upright” again. So, stop going “in search of many schemes.” Go in search or Jesus.
The Brew Is A Musing 