One of the things that I have noticed over the past few years of studying the Bible, reading, particularly about the Pentateuch, and listening to sermons is that there is a clear theme in Scripture of contrasting grasping with receiving. This theme starts in Genesis 3 and continues through to the New Testament. Throughout the Bible we see the pattern of God leading his people in the path, the often painful path, of maturation so that they might grow up to be the kind of people who are prepared to receive what he has for them. However, we also see a pattern of those same people rejecting the path of maturation and attempting to grasp at those things that can only be properly had by bestowal, or more accurately, divine investiture.
To illustrate, let us take a brief survey of some of the major events in which God’s people have failed to rightly obtain what God had for them. We start in the Garden. God placed Adam and Eve in a glorious garden-sanctuary where they enjoyed blessing and unobstructed communion with Him. God also gave them a task that would mature them. (The need for maturation does not imply sin, hence Jesus.) Had they done as they were told and matured in the process it seems likely that God would have eventually granted them access to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That’s why it was there. When they were mature they would have been made like God and invested with the knowledge necessary to be wise Kings and Queens. (The knowledge of good and evil is associated in the Bible with ruling. That is why it was what Solomon asked for.) But instead they opted for the option that promised instant gratification. At the serpent’s suggestion they grasped at the fruit rather than waiting for God to give it to them. Continue Reading…