A Blessed People On A Cursed Earth

A Blessed People on a Cursed Earth

M-1099 / 7 September, 2008

Dr. Russell K. Tardo

In view of the events of the past weeks, the Lord put a message on my heart that I’ve entitled, A Blessed People on a Cursed Earth. That’s what God’s people are.

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. [Gen. 3:17]

God’s Perfect Plan and Its Demise

Elsewhere in the Hebrew, the earth, the land, the country -- when God says it’s cursed, it’s cursed. The entire earth is cursed because of man’s sin and disobedience. God says in sorrow shalt thou eat of it. That word means labor, toil, pain, worrisome -- all of those things. The earth is cursed and unfortunately, this is where we live. The whole place of our habitation, according to the Bible, is now cursed. Instead of the abundant fruit produced in the Garden, instead of such delectable delights as we’ve not seen or heard, the ground is now cursed.

18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 19In 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. [Gen. 3:18-19]

Man’s entire habitation is now cursed. Instead of abundant fruit, man now has abundant thorns. Instead of blessed trees, man has cursed trees. For this transition to have occurred, from the Garden of Eden to a cursed earth, dramatic changes had to occur. Man went from living in paradise in a blessed Garden of Eden where everything was perfect, i.e., perfect climate, with no oppressive heat, no high humidity, no lightning strikes, no earthquakes, no tsunamis, no forest fires, no tornados, no tidal surges, no hurricanes, no freezing blizzards, to unpredictable occurrences of every type and description. In reading the creation accounts in Genesis, chapter 1, following each creation day, God inspected the day’s work and declared it to be good. There was nothing defective, and all things were created for good. He created every kind of vegetation, bush, tree, grass, etc. and called that good.

10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.... 12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [Gen. 1:10, 12]

God created every kind of fish and sea creature and declared that good.

20And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [Gen. 1:20-21]

Every living creature on the earth was created by God.

24And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [Gen. 1:24-25]

There’s a great diversity of animals -- elephants, hippos, gorillas, etc. Everything was perfect and complete, created by the Master Designer, with man and woman placed in the center of all that was perfect. To quote an old saying, "and there went the neighborhood!" Sadly, it didn’t stay good for long. That also explodes the theory that man is solely the product of his environment. Humanistic psychologists and psychiatrists declare that a criminal cannot be punished for his crime because criminals are simply the product of their environment. If one grows up in a bad home, a bad environment, one is going to be bad. How can one penalize or punish someone by sending them to jail for just being the product of their environment? It’s not their fault. Now I don’t want to say that one’s upbringing has nothing to do with one’s behavior, but the fact is, Adam and Eve had a perfect environment and yet rebelled and sinned against God. The point is that man does what he chooses to do. Man is the product of his choices. A criminal is a criminal because he chooses to steal, murder, sell drugs, etc.