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The world we live in is upside down from God's order. What we think of as "normal" is actually twisted and altered from what God designed it to be like. It has been corrupted by sin--in other words, the reality we live in is a "lie" because it does not line up with God's truth. What we think of as "normal" is actually backwards from how God designed it to be.
Let me illustrate this by looking at a couple of aspects of the original design. Genesis 2:4b-6 tells us,"4 ...When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. 6 Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land" (NLT).
God's initial design did not include weeds, thorns, thistles, etc. The earth's soil was fertile and the only things that grew in it where those things God had designed for our benefit. We did not have to work or toil in any way to prepare our food; it was simply provided for us by a loving God who wanted to take care of us. If Adam or Eve was hungry, all they had to do was to pick fruit off of one of the trees in the garden, and it sustained their body wonderfully. At that time, fruit was completely nutritious and provided everything that our bodies required for perfect health.
Thorns, thistles, weeds and the like came into existence as a result of sin. You know the story: God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil, and they disobeyed Him. The result of their disobedience included the curse in Genesis 3:18-19: "17 Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat of it:" cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."
The curse of sin literally brought physical changes into our world, pulling it out of God's perfect plan and contorting it. The elements of the curse that God spoke over Adam included:
The curse put our physical reality out of order from God's initial plan for us. From the moment of creation, God loved us and wanted to take care of us; that is why He created the garden for us to live in. That is why He gave us the tree of life, so we could physically live forever with Him.
Sin made all that go away. Genesis 3:22-24 tells us, "22 Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever-- 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life."
God's desire to take care of us has not changed. Our physical reality has been distorted by the curse of sin, and it shouts to us that we have to take care of ourselves because God won't take are of us anymore. But the blood of Jesus has broken the power of that curse, and it puts those of us who belong to God back under His provision.
Jesus addressed this in Matthew 6:30-32, where He said, "30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."
In short: even though our physical reality has been altered by the curse, the blood of Jesus reaches down to restore God's original plan of order in our lives. However, if we want to tap into God's provision for us, then we have to choose to live in God's reality (the spirit realm) instead of in our physical reality.
Let's look at another aspect of God's original creation order from Genesis 2:4b-6: rain. We tend to think of rain as normal--that is how God waters the plants, and rain is our primary sources of drinking water. But rain did not exist in God's original design. Genesis 2:5-6 says, "For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth...but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground."
The earth wasn't watered from above, it was watered from below. God's original way was better, because the only thing that got wet was the vegetation. God's original way of watering things was comfortable and convenient for us.
But that all changed when man became so wicked that God wished He had never crated us. Genesis 6:5-7a tells us, "5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.'"
Fortunately for humanity, there was one family who were "righteous," e.g. who had hearts to obey and honor God. That family was Noah, his three sons and the four wives. God commanded Noah to build an ark so his family wouldn't drown in the coming judgment. Once the ark was finished, then God created rain to carry out His decision to destroy His creation. Genesis 7:4 tells us, "For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made."
When the rain drops first started to fall, people had no idea what it was, because they had never seen it before. They had never heard of drowning either, but they soon got a chance to experience that first-hand.
[I have a personal theory about why God destroyed the world that way instead of just instantly striking everyone dead. I believe He choose something that was a bit slower so it gave people time to consider what was happening, so they could repent and turn back to Him. At that point, the judgment had begun and God was not willing to spare their physical lives from death. But I believe He wanted to spare their spirits and give them eternal life, if they would just repent and turn to Him. Noah had preached what God was going to do before the flood started. The water level went up over a period of time, giving people time to think about what Noah said and to repent. The bible does not record whether or not anyone actually repented as the flood waters rose. But I do believe the reason God did it slowly was in hopes that some might repent and end up in Heaven with God.]
We don't know why God choose to use "rain" to destroy the world, but we do know this for sure: rain was not normal; it was not part of God's original creation plan. God introduced rain in response to our sin and wickedness, as a form of judgment. Now here is the interesting thing-- after the flood was over and the water subsided, God did not go back to the original system where mist came up from the ground to water the earth. God allowed the new plan to remain--the one caused by our sin and wickedness.
Once again, our physical reality was marred by sin, and things were turned upside down. Now water fell from the sky instead of coming from the ground. Sin caused our physical world to be 180 degrees out of alignment with God's original plan. We are so used to our physical reality that we think of rain as normal--it feels like it is the original plan/design; but it wasn't.
The same is true of sickness and disease. They were not part of God's original plan either, but our reality has been twisted by sin and we tend to think of them as normal. But they are not normal, and they are not meant to be a part of a Christian's reality.
We will look at this more in our next lesson.