As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
John 3:14 KJV
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Peter spoke in his inspired sermon, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of an “untoward” generation. Just a few verses prior, we’re told his audience was made up of devout men, Jews from all over the world. If the “devout” Jews of 33 A.D. were described as untoward, how might we'd be described today? How would our worldview and beliefs of God compare to theirs?
When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, it would appear they wallowed in every delicious and tantalizing thrill creation had to offer, for 130 years! It wasn't until their grandson Enos came to the realization that all the splendor of creation, without the Creator, was worthless! It was then, that men began to “Call upon the name of the LORD.” (Gen 4:25-26) Today, man is consumed with creating the illusion, that somehow, he is God, the entity for Whom the soul of man yearns.
It's perversion in its most literal definition! Untoward, taking the gifts of God, and manipulating them into our own god’s! I find I can sculpt, so I sculpt so beautifully that I am praised by man, and showered with gifts, but the hands that sculpt are empty and dirty, not fit for lifting in worship, so I exist, exalted yet empty! Successful, yet unfulfilled. This brokenness cannot be repaired! As God told Adam and Eve before they chose to disobey, the consequence would surely be death, and only death to the rebellion man did eat in the garden, can stir his soul again to Life. Our way has been perverted, it has become “untoward!”
But God sent another Adam, of the same untoward mold, but without having the inherited proclivity to sin! Jesus! Hundreds of years before He appeared, the prophet cried, “Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” This old familiar, untoward road has been provided with an Exit! A pre-death to satisfy the sentenced death of the garden. A Way off the untoward road, onto the Narrow Path that takes us back into the presence of our Loving Father!
This death is denial of the old way. The new birth is an all-encompassing reconciliation! God and man reconciled! As the children of Israel were saved from the poisonous bite of their serpents, when they looked to, and believed in, the serpent that Moses lifted up, even so shall we be saved from the Satan’s bite, when we put our faith in Yeshua, lifted up on the “Old Rugged Cross.”
Article by Terry Wright / Substack
With many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Acts 2:40 KJV
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Malachi 3:6 KJV
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
Romans 12:2 KJV
Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Isaiah 40:3a KJV
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