Luke 23:32 Two other men, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. 33 When they came to the place called The Skull, they nailed him to a stake; and they nailed the criminals to stakes, one on the right and one on the left. 34 Yeshua said, “Father, forgive them; they don’t understand what they are doing.”
They divided up his clothes by throwing dice. 35 The people stood watching, and the rulers sneered at him. “He saved others,” they said, “so if he really is the Messiah, the one chosen by God, let him save himself!” 36 The soldiers too ridiculed him; they came up, offered him vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 And there was a notice over him which read,
THIS IS
THE KING OF THE JEWS
Do you understand what you do?
I’d say that most of us don’t. We can see the effects of some of our actions and decisions but then again, not really. Our lives consist of our pure intentions and other people’s horrible actions. Realizing most people operate their lives in this manner, we can see how the earth is filled with conflict.
Selfish people encountering selfish people.
Why is it that each of us filter life through our intentions and others’ actions? Let’s go to Genesis to maybe hunt down a few clues.
We all know the story of the fall of man.
The serpent comes out and tricks the innocent woman into eating what she shouldn't, then the woman tricks the innocent man into doing the same.
Genesis 3:8 They heard the voice of Adonai, God, walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, so the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Adonai, God, among the trees in the garden. 9 Adonai, God, called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I ordered you not to eat?” 12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Adonai, God, said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate.”
Victims. And accusers. Can you see it?
“My intentions were pure (victim), and their actions were evil (accuser).”
This model of living our lives dates back to when it all began. And it will continue on until Yeshua sets up His Kingdom here on earth. Actually, it will even go well beyond that.
The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate.”
“Tricked” here literally means:
H5377 נָשָׁא nasha' (naw-shaw') v.
1. to lead astray, i.e. (mentally) to delude, or (morally) to seduce
Deceive, Debt.
And what happens when the Adversary is released from the pit?
Revelation 20:7 When the thousand years are over, the Adversary will be set free from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for the battle. Their number is countless as the sand on the seashore; 9 and they came up over the breadth of the Land and surrounded the camp of God’s people and the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. 10 The Adversary who had deceived them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Tricked again.
Think about this. It’s been 1000 years of just rule in the earth and righteousness is the standard. You have protection from your enemies and plenty of provision. The simple instruction is to just look around and see that you have the perfect life.
However, just like in the Garden, the serpent will deceive -- again. And the people will fall for it -- again.
Why?
Because we are convinced there’s more. A perfect life is not good enough.
Will the people at the very end understand what they are doing? Well, yes and no. They know they want more but they do not understand the cost to get it. Sounds a bit like us, huh?
No matter what you have, there’s always more. For some reason, our focus in life is always on what we don’t have instead of what we do have. Contentment is incredibly elusive.
In our culture, it isn’t uncommon for the father to be removed from the home for 20-30 years. Just long enough for the kids to grow up and move on. (note: this isn’t just physical removal from the home.)
The goal is obvious for us men: to “provide” for our children and our wife. But all we seem to provide are tools to make disconnection a little easier -- disconnection from us, each other, and worse still, God. Of course, despite all of their wants, what they really need is you. I think we know this on a cerebral level, but there is clearly something more going on.
As for the wife, it also doesn't help when she places these expectations on the husband:
“Make us a perfect home and perfect family. Oh, and make sure we have plenty of money.”
But money doesn’t make for a perfect life, does it? In fact, it tends to make things worse.
If you were to sit and think through what really constitutes a perfect life, it would probably look something like this:
How much money do you need for this to come to pass? What kind of power do you need in the community or at work to have a home like this?
“Yeah, but food, clothing, and shelter aren’t free. We live in the real world so we have to go out and work to bring in the harvest, right?”
Depends. Do you understand what you’re doing?