SIN MEANS BREAKING GOD'S HEART!
Someone once said: "Almost everyone knows the difference between right and wrong; some people just have to make decisions." Never was this truer than in the case of Adam and Eve. The God who made them and fellowshipped with them instructed: "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) Decisions, decisions! They opted to disobey their Father’s instructions. The rest has become our history.
While Adam and Eve didn't have a "manual" at their crucial moment of decision, we do: the Bible! Yet we choose to ignore what is BEST for what we humanly see as GOOD. Like that couple in the Garden, we are without excuse! And we are not without the consequences! To deliberately disobey what God has told us, will always end in regret. We need to know the truth and obey it."Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:22-25)
Ultimately, disobedience (sin) hurts not only the perpetrator. It hurts the heart of the Father, whose way is far better than what we settle for. The tragedy is that this kind of "fall" is totally avoidable. That’s why God chose to warn us through this written record."Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come." (1 Corinthians 10:11)
The Fall is described in Genesis 3, a chapter that I think is especially sad for God. The crown of His creation - the man and woman with whom had shared such intimacy, had to be removed from their place of peace and fellowship with Him simply because they chose to disobey their Maker! Furthermore, in the case of the Israelites of the time of Jeremiah and Hosea, we can see that they had seriously hurt God’s heart by refusing to repent and turn back to Him! God was terribly sorrowful for the sin of His people. And God is sorrowful when we sin!
The Word of God tells us clearly "do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by which we were sealed for the day of redemption." (Ephesians 4:30) The Spirit of God can be grieved! God is sorrowful when we reject Him and sin against Him. When we willfully forsake His way to walk somewhere else, due to personal passions, wills and ambitions. When instead of bowing down to Him and say “Your will be done and not mine” we move ahead carelessly and without fearing Him. The Spirit of God is not indifferent but sorrowful in such cases.
May the Lord help us learn from the mistakes of others and avoid sin at all cost! May the Lord help us live in fear of Him, in humility and obedience to His Word always! Amen!