"THE MAN WHO BROUGHT COMFORT IN PLACE OF AN UNCOMFORTABLE
CURSE"
October 28, 2001 am
MF Blume
Genesis 3:17-19 And unto Adam he
said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat
of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of
it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return.
Genesis 5:28-29 And Lamech lived an hundred
eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he called his name Noah, saying,
This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands,
because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
Last week we spoke about the curse that Jesus removed.
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This revelation has continued to increase.
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The Lord showed me more about this, and I am to minister this to you this
morning.
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It is a wonderful truth concerning the curse of the ground that made survival
and living by bread very toilsome, leaving man to die anyway, rather than
live from eating the fruit of eternal life-- and freeing man from such
a curse.
When Adam sinned, God specifically cursed the ground for his sake.
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He did not directly curse Adam.
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However, whereas the woman was cursed to bear children in sorrow, the
curse upon the ground would cause man to eat of that ground in sorrow all
the days of his life.
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Why?
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Because the ground from which Adam would obtain his bread would also bear
thorns and thistles.
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These thorns and thistles would cause man to sweat and labour, only to
get the kind of bread that was so different from the kind of food he could
have eaten from the tree of life.
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The fruit of life would cause him to live forever.
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He did not have to work for that fruit.
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God did the work in providing that fruit in Genesis 1:11.
Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was
so.
And here:
Genesis 2:8-9 And the LORD God
planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had
formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that
is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the
midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
God did the planting of the tree of life.
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God supplied the tree that yielded its fruit for mankind to eat and live
forever.
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We know that such fruit would make man live forever because of the verse
noted after Adam was said to have disobeyed God and sinned.
Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said,
Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now,
lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat,
and live for ever:
In fact, Adam was made the sixth day.
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Before that day, the third day saw the trees and fruit and herbs and vegetables
made by God.
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And God did not work after making Adam and Eve.
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Adam's first day of existence after his creation was a day of complete
rest!
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He had it made.
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All the fruit he wanted, and the waters from the river of life right there
at his disposal, free for the taking.
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Someone else did the work.
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And that someone else was God!
What a sad ending to see him thrown from that comfortable paradise into
a world where thorns and thistles would not only make it uncomfortable,
but a hindrance to obtaining food very easily.
And instead of eating fruit he never worked for,
and living forever, instead he worked for bread that would leave him still
to die one day.
But the next time we read about the cursing of the ground that made
man's mortal dying life so hard, there is a special note that actually
points us all the way over to Jesus Christ!
Genesis 5:28 And Lamech lived an
hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he
called his name Noah, saying, This same shall
comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground
which the LORD hath cursed.
Noah's name means simply REST.
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We're told he was named so because somehow he would bring comfort to mankind
concerning the work of their hands.
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And it had to do with the curse upon the ground.
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Somebody named REST would give rest to people.
Noah's story is so filled with thoughts of comfort.
Genesis 8:4 And the ark
rested in the seventh
month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
The ark RESTED.
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On the seventh month, reminding us of the seventh day when GOD RESTED.
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Ararat means THE CURSE IS REVERSED.
What was the curse?
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Partly it was upon the ground for man's sake, making him work for food
that would leave him dying.
Then we read...
Genesis 8:20-21 And Noah
builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of
every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings
on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet
savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I
will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake;
for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will
I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Notice this point.
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Noah's ark survives a global death-blow.
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In a sort of resurrection, His ark lands on a mountain range called CURSE
IS REVERSED.
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And he comes forth and builds an altar of sacrifice offering blood.
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This moves God to actually change the situation of things.
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He said He would never again curse the ground for man's sake.
His offering of blood moved God to stop the curse.
Now, I know that thorns continued in the world since Noah's day.
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People still laboured.
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However, the note of a curse being lifted is still there in that story.
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I propose that God actually had Jesus Christ and His blood in mind that
day!
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Noah represents Jesus Christ.
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The real message is that Jesus Christ would bring us true rest and comfort!
Jesus Christ went through the death-blow of demise by crucifixion.
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And He resurrected from it all, like the ark left the flood and rested
on Ararat.
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And the Son of God took His blood to the Father, and it so moved God that
He evoked the curse upon mankind.
In what specific way did He revoke the curse?
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What specifically was the curse?
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Man would work to eat bread that could not give eternal life and satisfy
mankind.
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It would only last so long and man would still die.
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Man was left outside and away from the real bread of life and the real
drink of the river of life that was in the Garden.
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Jesus returned the opportunity for mankind to not only be freed from working
to eat bread, but spiritually opened up the Garden, so to speak,
for us to eat bread and drink waters that would give us eternal life!
It was an everlasting covenant that Noah was said to have received!
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Its token was the rainbow!
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On Mount Ararat!
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And Noah was not only blessed by God but we read:
Genesis 9:1-3 And God blessed Noah and
his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every
beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth
upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are
they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even
as the green herb have I given you all things.
He was given dominion.
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And this blessing is identical with Adam's blessing before the curse in
Genesis 1:28-29.
Gene 1:28-29 And God blessed them, and
God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat
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He was given a throne, so to speak.
And then he was given an everlasting covenant.
Genesis 9:15 And I will remember
my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may
remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have
established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
Everlasting means eternal!
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Why give a covenant to man that existed for eternity with no beginning?
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It always was!
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Its because God eternally had us in mind!
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He did not make a covenant when man was created.
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He eternally had it!
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But yet, still, why give men who are going to die a covenant that will
exist eternally in the future?
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It doesn't fully fit in Noah's case, because eternal life never really
came to Noah.
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Noah would die one day.
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However...
Like the ark resting on the top of Ararat, as upon
an island, since the waters were still over the earth quite high,
we read...
Revelation 4:2-6 And immediately I was
in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set
in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and
there was a rainbow round about the throne,
in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and
twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting,
clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And
out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and
there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the
seven Spirits of God. And before the throne
there was a sea of glass like unto crystal:
and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts
full of eyes before and behind.
John sees a sea stretched out before the throne of God, where a rainbow
was overhead.
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The throne is like an island.
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Sea all around it.
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A rainbow waiting there overtop the One sitting on it.
Revelation 5 shows God sitting there with a closed book in his right hand.
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Its waiting there for someone to reach Him on that island of sorts and
take it out of His hand.
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According to the next three verses, nobody can make it!
But just as the ark of Noah was the sole surviving entity through the flood,
and landed on the peak of Ararat, to find a rainbow waiting for Him, and
an everlasting covenant, John sees a sole person over top the waters.
Revelation 5:6 And I beheld, and,
lo, in the midst of the throne and of the
four beasts, and in the midst of the elders,
stood a Lamb as it had been slain,
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent
forth into all the earth.
"Between the throne and the beasts" that surrounded the throne (on
the waters, in other words), JESUS APPEARS like a LAMB.
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And this lamb was not just a lamb.
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It was a lamb as it had been slain.
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Resurrected.
And just as Noah came forth from the ark that veritably resurrected from
a flood of death over the earth, and received the everlasting covenant
and a rainbow to verify it, we read...
Revelation 5:7 And he came and
took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
He came!
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He came across to the throne.
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He landed on the island!
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This mountain peak!
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This mountain of mountains!
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Where the rainbow stood over God's throne.
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And He received the BOOK!
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THE COVENANT!
Later on in Revelation, after the book is opened by Jesus, we read...
Revelation 14:6 And I saw another
angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that
dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Jesus was slain and as Noah offered the blood on the altar to God, moving
God to revoke the curse, we read....
Revelation 5:9 And they sung a
new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals
thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
After being separated from God in the Garden, and away from life eternal,
being left to work for food that can never give eternal life, we read Jesus
REDEEMED THEM TO GOD BY HIS BLOOD!
And after Adam lost his dominion and kingship, and similar to Noah
gaining that very blessing of kingship and dominion lost by Adam, we then
read in Revelation...
Revelation 5:10 And hast
made us unto our God kings and priests: and
we shall reign on the earth.
Noah, the man named rest, who would bring comfort to man concerning the
cursed ground that forced man to work for bread that could never give real
life, was only a foreshadow of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Jesus truly brought comfort to the earth once again!
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He gave us Life and Life more abundantly.
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We already were alive... sort of.
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For, could you really call an existence that winds down to the grave true
life?
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We call it life.
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But Jesus came to give life more abundantly.
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More abundantly than what?
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More abundantly than MORTAL LIFE.
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He came to give ETERNAL LIFE.