Friday, October 19, 2018

Foreknown


 
Man lives in the confines of time, but while God appoints times, He is not confined to time. All of our perceptions, even about most of scripture, are built around a measured past, present, and future, but God is not limited in this same way. 
As I read the Word, however, sometimes I get the feeling that I am being shown glimpses of an eternity beyond the yesterday, today and tomorrow timeframe that we automatically relate to scripture. An example of this occurred during my reading of the following verses:
"Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck (soul). I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God...But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, in the acceptable time; O God in the multitude of Your mercy, hear me in the truth of Your salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut its mouth on me....Draw near to my soul and redeem it...My soul waits for the LORD more than those who watch for the morning- yes, more than those who watch for the morning...I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up (rise, depart, spring up) out of a horrible (noise, tumult, like a house crashing down, roar, destruction, waste, desolate, be in ruins, to cause to be desolated) pit (well, cistern, dungeon, lowest sepulcher of stone-root meaning: declare, make plain, letters on a tablet), out of the miry (mud, dregs of wine) clay (damp dirt, root meaning includes: demon, dirt to be swept away, destruction as being swept clean) , and set my feet upon a rock (a fortress, a refuge, a stronghold of security), and established my steps (follow the footsteps of God, go straight, be happy, be blessed, prosper)."   Ps. 69:2, 13-15, 18, Ps. 130:6, Ps. 40:1-2
As I read these verses, I strongly felt that these words of David's could have been spoken  by Adam to God in the midst of a desolated, empty, void that was in the beginning (Gen. 1:2) before the work of creation began. After reading the verses above, does anyone else feel that way?
I began to picture God, having heard Adam's cry, pushing back darkness, and speaking light, establishing mornings of hope and new mercies where there had been no mornings. We know from the Word that God established these mornings even before the sun was created (Gen. 1:5, 14-18). For whose benefit did God break out these supernatural mornings? Perhaps He did so in answer to a soul crying to Him from an abysmal, dark emptiness. The message of hope that these mornings would carry to such a soul would be, "I hear you. I'm coming. I will save you." God divided and restrained flooding waters until the dry land appeared. Later, God formed the man and blew His breath into the man's nostrils, and man became a living soul. The term "living" also includes the idea of quickening, reviving, repairing or restoring life. God then fastened a garden (enclosure, root meaning: to defend, to cover, surround, protect, hedge about) to the earth, and placed man in it to provide him with protection and security. This coincides in meaning with what David said, "He set my feet upon a rock". 
This impression of God's rescue of Adam that I had while reading these verses from the Psalms would, if accurate, make the account of Adam's subsequent fall even more pathetic. God re-formed and recreated out of vast void and desolation to answer the cry of Adam's soul, yet Adam rejected His will after he was rescued, revived and safe. This similar falling away could also apply to many believers as well as we choose our will over His.
You may say that I am taking a giant leap from scripture into interpretation or impression, and I agree that I cannot prove my impression with specific scriptures. However, I can prove a scriptural precept and foundation which could include such a scenario. According to scripture, a spiritual place of foreknowledge exists in God that is more profound than even Einstein's physics of time and space. If you will bear with me a little further, I promise I will establish this foundation, and it is that foundation in truth that is most important, rather than personal "impressions":
-David is not just a psalmist, but a prophetic and Messianic messenger. One thousand years before the birth of Christ, David revealed the words that Christ would speak (Psalm 22), and many events that that would relate directly to Christ. If David had an intimate spiritual knowledge of the Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45, Rom. 5:14before He became flesh, why couldn't David have intimate spiritual knowledge pertaining to the First Adam? Both Adams were connected to each other as "types" (figure, image: see Gen. 1:26, root meaning: wound, beat, smite, strike). Similarly, scripture also calls Adam "the son of God" (Lk. 3:38).
Is it possible for God to know a person before they are physically born or created? Absolutely:
- David wrote that God knew him before he was born: "My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them."   Psa. 139:15-16
-God knew Jacob, and his descendants, all of Israel, before Jacob was born (Isa. 44:2, 24).
- The prophet Jeremiah was known by God before he was born, even before the womb: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."  Jer. 1:5
-The priesthood tribe of Levi was known by God, and offered tithes to God, generations before Levi was actually born, while his generation was still in his ancestor Abraham's loins (Heb. 7:9-10).
- WE were known before we were born, even before the creation- not only known, but called to salvation:
   "...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love...being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.." Eph.1:4, 11(also see Rev. 13:8)
    "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."  Rom. 8:29-30. This is also why scripture can say that we were already crucified, buried, and raised with Christ, when He was crucified, buried, raised and living again (Rom. 6:3-8).
    "...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."  1 Pet. 1:2
Regarding my impressions of Adam and his pre-creation cries to God as being the impetus of the startling creative work of God let me pose the question:
If God knew David, Jeremiah, Levi, and all of Israel before they were born, and knew and saved us even before the foundation of the world was established (and we were in Adam), why could He not also have known, heard, revived, and rescued Adam in the same manner?
I understand if you do not think that my impression concerning Adam is scripturally accurate, nor is it right for anyone to hang their faith upon any "impression", but upon the Word of God only. The speculation regarding Adam is not even the main point of this entry, which is the foreknowledge that God possesses, especially concerning our lives and purpose. This view of Adam as the impetus of the creation work of God that we read in Gen. 1 was only valuable because of the impact it had upon me, and the impression it made on me, to start me on a search that taught me something about the awesome magnitude of God our Father, and the depth of His omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, power and knowledge in eternity. It helped to illustrate for me His driven, unconquerable love to rescue and save us from before the foundation of the world. Its personal message to me is the assurance that He knew me in eternity and heard my cry, and moved heaven and earth to save me. I hope it has a similar impact for you.
 
Our Father knows and declares the end from the beginning.

"Morning Has Broken"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rifby1tVE8








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