IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 533

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CXXII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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We decided to stop the daily posting of our primary target, the verses from the Book of Genesis that deal with the creation of man, as we devote more space to the Nativity of the Master and as we have largely finished with the Genesis story in general having left only our points on the trees, “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil“, and also to finish up on the sayings from Chapter Six that we find below. We got a bit lost yesterday in some observations about the idea of Christmas as it is celebrated by millions of Christians and non-Christians alike and we noted that it is in this celebration that many are made familiar with the Life of the Master and of the Love, Peace and Goodwill of the Christmas season and this despite the rampant commercialization of the theme. The commercialization is based in the fact that the focus of the world on the things of the world and this is a driving force in this arena; however, at the same time there IS the Spirit of Giving which,while sometimes misplaced, re-centers the focus of many in their personal Life onto the Giving, the Love, the Peace and the GoodWill of the season. Returning to our text from Genesis, we will expand a bit upon our thoughts from our essay from two days ago:

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose……there were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-2, 4).

As we have said, most commentary and many interpretations skip over these ideas and move on to the Lords ‘displeasure’ with the ways of the world and the story of Noah and the flood. Most all of the interpretations of these verses are focus toward the perceived ‘evil’ that causes the flood and the part about the Sons of God is often completely bypassed even in light of the dual idea of both men and Sons of God in the same verse. Tradition and doctrine are clear and point these words from Chapter Six directly at what John Gill calls the general defection ⁸ of man against the things of God, again, never giving heed to the idea of the repeated words Sons of God. Of singular importance to us who would discern the True meaning of our words and of the societal environment of the times is the Life of Enoch. It is written that “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24); little else is said of Enoch nor of any of the men in the lineage of Adam. Using these words as they are written, we can add some understanding to our ideas from our last discussion on this; and, while doing this, we should understand that there is likely much more in the names, the length of Life, and the introductory style for the names of offspring than we currently see. It is from this perspective we can see our question regarding Adam and Eve, as to whether they were a singular man and woman or were representative of many as the same relation can be extracted from the names and times of Adam’s lineage; this can be an interesting discussion for a future post. Here however we are looking at Enoch and our premise that when the Souls, the True men, are introduced to the human animal forms, using them as their vehicles of incarnation either by direct possession or by birth, they are subjected to the instincts, the appetites and the personality created through such incarnation and that they drift farther away from the reality of their True selves and deeper and deeper into carnal Life in the world. They succumb to the vanity that Paul tells us of and to the illusion and the glamour of Life in the Earth and we should understand here that it is only those who have taken direct possession of form, Adam and Eve if you will, that see this drift happening in their own lives as for those born as we are today there is no recollection of the True nature of man. This drift in the lives of Adam and Eve is the subject of the Third Chapter and we will address this more fully as we address the trees in the point below.

Seeing this drift and seeing the reality of the Apostle Paul’s words saying that “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Romans 8:20) we should be able to understand better the reality of Life in form. While Adam and Eve and whatsoever they represent may see and feel the drift away from God, those born are, as we are, constrained in their realization of Truth by the years of Life in infancy, childhood and young adulthood; years in which ALL contact with the reality of the Soul is lost to the vanity, the illusion and the glamour. In the story of Enoch we have the story of the Soul who does not lose his identity or who regains it in his middle years and in this is our message the hope and the reality of the second part of Paul’s words that tell us that “the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). While we may look at the story of Enoch as unique seeing that “God took him“, we should here remember two things; first that these words are written the way that they are for their understanding by those people thousands of years ago who can only understand the simplicity in which they are presented. And, second, that the reality of “God took him” lies for us in the reality of discipleship and being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God which is within and which IS where we come from as True men, as Souls.

This then can naturally lead us to the get a glimpse of these times at the beginnings of the Life of the Soul in form where Souls could and did take possession of forms as in the story of Adam and Eve and where they could, as in the story of Enoch, leave the same way in a flash of Transfiguration, or, as Paul tells us, “the redemption of our body“. In understanding this early Life this way we should then also be able to understand the coming into the world of additional Sons of God as is depicted in our saying above; Sons of God whose purpose it was to enable the ‘natural’ Life in form of “mighty men which were of old, men of renown“, men perhaps who were not so lost in the vanity and the illusion and glamour of Life in the world and, by the placement of these verses, perhaps one of these is Noah.  We should add here that there is likely much depth that has gone undiscovered in the arrangements and the names of these men of Genesis and we can sense this in the similarity and almost duplication of the descendants of Cain and the descendants of Seth, brothers that are off in different places and different ways of Life. Again, we can explore these anomalies when we do take on a discussion of these names in the lineage of Adam.

For our purpose here however we have said about all we can from these three out of place verses found in Chapter Six; our reality is that Sons of God, Souls, continued to come to the Earth in physical forms and, as we said in the last post, we cannot tell if these take possession of  human forms in the way that Adam and Eve do, of the available human animals, or if these Souls are taking possession of the forms of men who were born incarnated as Souls and who gave up their form for a Higher Purpose, to bring forth “mighty men which were of old, men of renown“. What is important here is that we take our focus off of the doctrinal and traditional understanding which is overly literal and concentrated on the ideas that they have created in the fall of man and the destruction of the world. This concludes our look at these verses leaving the last point on the trees and this new one that we add today and which may give us further help in our understanding of this Genesis of man.

• Last we have the trees; “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil“.
• “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created . 3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: 4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: 5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died” (Genesis 5:1-5) .

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post and continue here with some additional parts of the Nativity story. In Luke’s rendition of the Nativity, he begins with the story of the birth of John the Baptist intermingled with the Virgin Mother Mary conceiving; the story goes thus:

“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless. And it came to pass , that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:5-38).

In this scene we can be reminded of our topic from Genesis above and our premise regarding the working out of the Plan of God in the Earth. In Genesis we have the beginnings of Life in form happening through the direct incarnation of Souls through the human animal body; this leads to the incarnation by birth as we KNOW it today and there is a hint of some in-between kind of incarnation as we read that “he sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them“. This requires some interaction by the Sons of God who we KNOW as the Souls in His Kingdom and, from our perspective, this creates “mighty men which were of old, men of renown” who we can see as Souls that are able to overcome the ways of the world as required. Here in the conception of the Baptist we have Zacharias who we are told is “righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” and in this we should see our ideas of discipleship and of being accounted worthy and in seeing this we should understand Zacharias as a Son of God and equivalent perhaps to those we read about in Genesis. His purpose here is to create ‘a mighty man, a man of renown‘ both of which we KNOW the Baptist IS. And for the same reasons are these ‘mighty men’ born, to further the Plan of God; in Genesis they come perhaps to be the leaders and those who can maintain a sense of their True identity and here in Luke as the ready help to the Plan of God that brings the Christ into the world and insures His success among men. As John tells us “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias” (John 1:23).

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment:

We repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita and which goes well with our topic over the last several days. Today we see the God Within us as the Christ Within and this is good in the Christian world and this is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God. We should see that it matters not what we call this Inner Man as it is the same in ALL, it is the Soul.

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.

• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com