We are the people of the Messiah.
We rejoice with His heart when what was lost is found.
We look down the road every day, expectantly, prayerfully, filled with His hope.
We run down the road with Him when we see them coming back in whatever condition.
We throw the party of all parties for them.
We restore them to the family, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!
Let me try to communicate my take on the problem of evil. God creates angels, amazing beings to whom He assigns jobs one of whom has the job of leading worship. Two things in their design are unique - they live forever and if they choose to rebel they are locked in to that one choice. Lucifer was not content with his job he wanted to rule so somehow he got one third of the angels to agree with him. (In my mind I picture a hierarchy of three archangels each in charge of one third of the angels so he took His one third and rebelled.) They are now locked into that choice and cannot die.
God creates man. Lucifer is in the garden of Eden, I imagine he has quite a few talks with Adam and Eve before the fateful day because there is no indicator Eve is surprised by his presence or his desire to have a conversation. Lucifer launches a big advertising campaign to make the tree of the knowledge of good and evil seem super great and to make God's warning seem powerless, self-centered and maybe even inept.
Let's look at Lucifer in light of this verse about angels, Hebrews 1:14 "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?" Lucifer was known as the angel who covers and I wonder if he hadn't rebelled would his job have been to cover humans from wanting to rebel against God?
Anyway, Adam and Eve choose rebellion over trust.
Adam and Eve had been given authority in the world and when they rebelled against God that authority transferred to Satan who now is elevated to the god of this world. As a consequence the one who is locked in to rebellion is doing everything he can to lead humans to steal, kill and destroy. He will entertain and use prosperity to lull people in to sleep so they don't ever repent. He will point out the evil that he is causing and turn people against God so they never repent. This to me is the greatest magic trick of all time. Picture this another guy and I are standing in front of you, the other guy punches you in the face, when you recover enough to stand back up he is able to convince you that I punched you in the face and you learn to hate me and the other guy doesn't get any blame and you never ever re-visit the actual event to see that it was him that punched you not me.
The consequence of Satan's actions and leading people is death and destruction, but he never gets the blame. He disappears, he "doesn't exist" according to some of the greatest minds the world has ever known. How incredibly convenient! Satan's least effective tool is to persecute those who believe in God. Typically he has to reveal himself and his hatred of people to do this, so people actually become more firm in their beliefs and more united in their love for God in lands where the persecution is the greatest. (Currently Iran and China)
What about God- did He just give up after the garden of Eden, no! Right in the garden of Eden Satan is told the SEED of the WOMAN will crush your head and you will bruise him on the heel.
Every other god is utilitarian. They demand sacrifices in order to give favors. The true God is the creator of all and you can't "give" Him anything. His rule stated rebellion would mean death for humans.
Here is where the Wisdom of God enters the picture and saves a doomed race of humanity from the death that they choose. In full view of Satan after scattering the people at the tower of Babel, God chooses one people from the 70 nations to bring the Messiah through them. Just like the "church" they forget their mission to be a connecting point between God and the world and they begin to act like they were chosen because they are special when the God clearly states, I chose you because I chose you - in love - it had nothing to do with your worth or value.
Anyway in spite of Satan's best attempts to destroy or corrupt things, a descendant of Shem through Abraham and through David named Mary has a SEED (which WOMEN do not have) and that seed does not have the sin passed down from Adam - He is God's Son and He lives a perfect life - never sinning but Satan is blinded by the fact that "this is the heir" if I kill Him the inheritance is mine, so Satan works out a plan for Jesus death and he places the penalty of death on One who did not sin so the penalty should not apply to Him. Now the penalty has been paid through a willing, loving sacrificial death and all of humanity can choose to believe that - that death paid for their sins and if they do they never die - they obtain eternal life.
Currently how I feel about the time we are living in, man has had approx. 6,000 years of recorded history for the most part choosing to believe Satan's lies. God's choosing of Israel is always and only because of His love. His love doesn't change. "6" is mans number in scripture and "7" is rest. Six Thousand years of man's rule (which was handed over to Satan) is about to come to a close and God will have a day = 1,000 years of rule in "rest" through His chosen people who because of their chosenness have paid double for all their sins.
At some point "soon" due to this scripture I can't imagine it being more than 15 years ("He will revive us after 2 days; He will raise us up on the third day.") Possibly 2,000 years after Jesus was crucified around the year 2031-2034 God will kick Satan out fo the heavenlies he will appear to resurrect a small ruler who will at that time become the anti-Christ and start three and 1/2 years of very bad times but during those very bad times Satan's methods will be there for all to see and a multitude "that no man can number" will choose to follow Yeshua, even though since Satan is exercising great authority and has a terrifying army at his disposal - most of those who follow Yeshua will die because of that choice. Also during that intensely bad three and a half years 2/3rds of living Jews will be killed by the anti-Christ also.
So the problem of evil is our fault and Satan's fault. God has provided the only solution to the problem through the death of His Son.
