Question - about sin then and this is about repentance, its about wanting to understand this. We know that in the garden of Eden both Adam and Eve were given only one commandment to follow verses the commandments at Mt Sinai - the 10 statements (commandments). In both books - Genesis and Exodus, God told Adam "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” and in Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.” (blessing and a curse—
Deuteronomy 30:19)
Jeremiah 21:8
In the garden, after Eve bites of the fruit she hands it over to Adam- the statement said “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked”. O.K - here’s the question and also another question about understanding the above verse (see: John 9:41, Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin) , we know (also) that there are degrees of sin that causes pain and also punishment to us and even blindness and death to the soul, its like a dead man walking - yet, we’re physically alive but spiritually dead, 'what does it mean that the eyes of both them were open?”. The sin of disobedience in the garden, caused them to be exiled (assuming that the sin that each commitmented was death -now both would have to wait for the redemption - Christ) but on the other end, were those who upheld the law, Pharisees and the Sadducees (and reading from Deuteronomy) it tells us that they disobeyed the law?? The strong punishment seems to be on the leaders of Israel, if I’m understanding this verse, because they did not recognize the day of (not only) of the redemption but also they did not recognize the Messiah. The Sanhedrin (72 in counsel) were leaders from the days of Moses, that he had elected them from out of the twelve tribes - only we know that there were more tribes than listed - 20 tribes (I think). All of these men were given - the Spirit of the Lord, same as Pentecost. (see
Exodus 24:9-11, and
Numbers 11:16-30). I take it that the punishment - is worse because Christ is acknowledging who will enter the kingdom of Heaven because the sinners recognized Him as being the Christ- their redeemer and the law givers did not.
I understand what sin does - and also how sin can affect us with God. However, what I don’t understand is --the blindness and the hardness of heart. When the Israelites where waiting for the redemption in Egypt - scripture reads that the Israelites were oppressed (edit) - meaning harden. "7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. " When Moses spoke with God, he needed something to convince them that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was about to deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians - hard pressed the people might oppose him - the deliverer. Also, meaning - send someone else to do the job. When we lose hope and have very little faith - do we become blinded to the delivery of God’s answer to us? Would we be guilty as well? We know about the law givers - in the Woe statements because they were to lead the people to the redeemer (Messiah) - once they recognized him as an authority. However, the position (they took) was not to see (by prophecy) the redemption or the redeemer - which would have been catastrophic to both the people (on delivering the message and to the Israelite themselves, like in the days of Moses) - the blind leading the blind - What a blindness this was!
Blessing and thank you for responding,
Mary
