The After-Effects of your Actions

One of the things I have been struck by in reading through the Bible again this year is the focus on genealogies, especially in the first eleven chapters of Genesis.  In the past, I would breeze through them because this was not my family tree.  I knew nothing about these people other than their names and how long they lived.  However, it dawned on me that if I, along with every other Christian, am a child of Abraham due to faith (Gal 3:7), then this is also my family tree.  This gives me lessons from my heritage.  Perhaps I need to pay a little closer attention to what even a name may teach me.

One of the themes that stands out in the genealogies is the effects of a persons actions.  Genesis 5 has a genealogy that runs from Adam to Noah.  These people had incredibly long life spans, which means many of them were still alive when God flooded the earth.  They were part of the enormously wicked and violent people in the world.  This demonstrates how the effects of Adam’s sin did not stop with him.  It spread to his sons, one of which was murdered by the other (Gen 4:6-8), and to his children’s children, who increased in pride and vengeance (Gen 4:17-24).  Eventually every thought and inclination of man was continually on evil (Gen 6:5).  The only two exceptions appears to be Enoch and Noah (Gen 5:22,29).  

After the flood, sin continued.  There was the incident with a drunken Noah and his son, Ham (Gen 9:20-25).  Sin didn’t stop there, but can be seen in the name of the following genealogy in chapter 10.  There is Babel, which is the origin of Babylon, and Nineveh, he origin of Assyria.  There is Canaan, the father of the Canaanite tribes, including the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, the Hivites, and so forth.  These are the Canaanite nations which God drove out and destroyed due to centuries of sin, which would have included violence, idolatry, immorality, human sacrifice, and a host of other sins which caused the land to “vomit them out” (Lev 18:24-25; Dt 20:16-18).

On the other hand, the genealogies also suggest that a man’s faithful obedience also has an effect on many in future generations.  There are far fewer examples of this, but they are just as significant.  Noah’s faithfulness found favor with God, which is why he and his family was spared from the flood, which preserved humanity from total destruction.  Abraham’s faith became a source of blessing not just for himself, but for all the nations of the earth (Gen 22:18). 

In spite of their faithfulness, they could not turn the overall tide of sin around in the world.  Ultimately, it was one man’s faithful obedience that gave the power to completely undo the devastating effects of sin for all people.  The book of Romans contrasts the disobedience of Adam with its after-effects and the faithful obedience of Christ with its results.  “For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19).  Only Jesus, who was without sin (Heb 4:15), could destroy the power of sin through his atoning work on the cross (1 Cor 15:3), and his renewing work through the Holy Spirit (Tit 2:15).  Through him, we can become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).

This is a sobering reminder that the effects of my actions, both good and bad, are not limited to me.  They affect people closest to me and even those who are generations away.  As I spend time reflecting on those times when selfish desires creep into my heart, it helps to try and see the big picture of their effects.  At the same time, I need to reflect on how my faithfulness to God can be an example that can also reach those who are generations away.  

The Calendar

I remember how we used to have a “Master Calendar” on the hallway wall while our boys were growing up.  Back before the days of electronic devices that had the ability to sync everyone’s calendars, we needed a way to make sure everyone in the family communicated our events, appointments, conferences, games, concerts, Youth Rallies, and especially church events.

During my growing years, I never gave a whole lot of thought to where calendars came from.  There were a few times I pondered it, such as the time when I was eight.  My mother showed some of the Korean coins she brought with her from Korea when she came to America. Instead of 1973, or something close to that, the year on the coins were 4294.  I did not realize that other countries counted years differently than we did.  I also did not realize through the centuries and millennia that there were other types of calendars with differing numbers of days and months on them. 

It is interesting how God created the material from which we can use to order our time.  When God created the Sun, Moon, and the Stars, he placed them in the vault/expanse/firmament, and declared what their function would be.  In addition to governing the earth by providing light, God said, “…let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years…” (Gen 1:14).  As a result, some people mark time by creating a calendar using the moon.  Others mark time by creating a calendar using the sun.  Either way, God is the one who provided the material for our “seasons, days, and years.”

The word that is translated “seasons” is an interesting word.  In Hebrew, it is “mo’ed,” which is usually translated “appointed time, appointed place, sacred time, or festival.”  Some examples of its use include Exodus 27:21, where it is the Tent of “meeting/appointed time,” Exodus 13:10 where it refers to the “appointed time” for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Leviticus 23:2 where it refers to the appointed feasts God had set aside for Israel to observe, and many other examples exactly like these in the Old Testament.  This word does not refer to time or seasons in general but more specifically to appointed and sacred times for worship, honor, or commemoration of God.

This means that God gave us the material to create calendars not merely for the purpose of planning our activities, but for setting aside times to thank, worship and serve him.  This is why James 4:13-15 says, “¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  

God’s will should be the organizing principle behind our calendars, day timers, and planners. The Psalmist prays, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  Some questions to ask should include: “How would God have me number each day on the calendar?  How does godly wisdom guide me in doing so?  What should be the priorities in filling out the calendar this week?  This month?  This year?