Where Are You?
When there are people who realized the necessity of work of God and that they are able to dedicate themselves to God’s will, God’s work will happen there.
Gen 3:6-9 records the scene where Adam sinned against God and fell. This is something we have read and learned a lot. Gen 3:9, God said to the man, “Where are you?”. First, according to the Bible, there is a Bible that translates this part as ‘He said to Adam,’ and the word used here is ‘Ha-Adam.’ You cannot have a definite article in front of a proper noun. Therefore, these words is not spoken to one person named Adam, but to Adam, the first man representing mankind, and are spoken to all fallen mankind.
Second, Gen 3:1-8 explains the process of falling and committing sin. And the first words God spoke after the fall were ‘Where are you?’. When your children accidentally break a cup or steal money from their parents’ wallets, we ask, ‘Why did you do that?’ Are any of you asking, ‘Where are you now?’
However, when mankind grew up and became self-centered and his relationship with God was severed, the first thing God asked was, ‘Where are you?’ Ultimately, it shows that the problem of the Fall is that Adam forgot his true position. Thirdly, this tells us that ‘where am I’ is the most important question in our lives.
Where is Adam’s true position, that is, our true position? It was the Garden of Eden before the fall, filled with only joy and light, the original world where there was no death, no tragedy, no darkness, a question and answer with God.
It was a place filled with the glory of God and full of grace.
However, the enemy devil and Satan were envious and jealous of this. In other words, the glory of God we have when we are in the right position is so beautiful and great that Satan was jealous.
So, Satan tempted mankind to leave their original position. Satan’s plan was to prevent mankind from maintaining their ‘right position’ by tempting them to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Knowledge of Good and Evil that God had told them not to eat.
And as soon as Adam left his position, as soon as he sinned, glory of God disappeared. If you deviate from the correct position, all glory will disappear in an instant and great shame will come. Adam tried to hide his shame by weaving a skirt out of fig leaves, but there was no way to hide his exposed shame.
Dear saints, where are you now?
At first, we put God first but as times goes by, as we have work, earn money, we started putting work first in our lives. Many churches teach that we can live as we pleased for six days and give only one day to God. You can spend all the money you earn, but you only have to give one-tenth to God. This is not what the Bible says.
What Bible says is that everything we earn belongs to God, but we also have to make a living, so giving one-tenth is recognized as giving everything. Although all seven days are the Lord’s Day, we are giving one day on behalf of all days.
What it means is that we should think of God while giving 9/10 of our money. Even during the six days of our lives, we must think of God.
Galatians 3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Belonging to Christ means all things belonging to Christ. It means we have nothing. Everyone, we must be careful not to allow materialism to encroach on our ideas.
In conclusion, ‘blessings’ come when you stay in your place.
- You must keep your position of duty
Galatians 6:4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have (reason for) boasting with regards to himself alone, and not in regard to another.
There are duties that God has entrusted to us. Are you carrying out your duties now? If you are carrying out your duties, you are those who keep the position, and if you are not carrying out your duties, you are those who have left the position.
- You must maintain your position of faith
Adam’s original location is the Garden of Eden, filled with the glory of God. The work of redemption is the restoration of the Garden of Eden, full of God’s glory, which was lost by Adam. The reason God chose Abraham 20 generations after Adam was to do this. The reason God gave the covenant of the torch and called the Israelites to the land of Canaan was to restore the Garden of Eden, filled with the glory of God. The reason He restored them back to Jerusalem after being taken captive to Babylon was to do this. The reason Jesus Christ was sent was to do this.
Therefore, it can be said that restoring the Garden of Eden, filled with God’s glory, is the ultimate goal and ultimate victory of redemptive history. This is why restoration is a victory.
Every soldier has his place. And those who desert their position in times of war are subject to treason.
Luke 15:20-22 contains the story of the prodigal son, who wandered a lot and decided to return to his father’s house. Upon returning to his father’s house, the father washed his son, fed him, clothed him in new clothes and gave him a ring.
The Father’s house is our home. I believe that being with the Father is our rightful place.
I pray in the name of the Lord that we, the saints, will always keep the correct position of our duties and faith and receive the blessing of being with the Father in the Father’s house.
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 