Proverbs 11:14 says, [14] Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellers there is safety.
"That's a principle for how God set up creation to work," explains Jordan. "Proverbs 15:22 says, [22] Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellers they are established.
"Take the case of Adam. God creates man, puts him in the Garden, gives him a wife and says, 'You've got two jobs. One, tend to the garden and two, you go out there and subdue the earth.' So Adam has his mandate. He knows what the will of God for his life is.
"In Genesis 3:5, Satan talks to Eve, telling her, [5] For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
"Those gods out there in the earth, they know about Adam and Eve. They see these creatures and they know they're different from them. God said, 'Go win this thing back from those dudes, Adam,' because they're the ones actively out there managing things and yet they're in rebellion against what God's doing.
"Adam gets up in the morning and says, 'What's on the agenda for today? Well, I've got to tend to the garden and go out and subdue the world. That's the will of God.'
"What's God's will for today? 'That all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.' That's how you get up and answer, 'What would God have me do today?' You say, 'But what about my 401k?' That doesn't come into it.
*****
"Think about the the first task God ever gave Adam. Look at Genesis 2:19: [19] And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
"In chapter two, you're getting a flashback to the sixth day and what He does there. Adam is created on the sixth day and God created the animals before that. When Adam shows up the animals are already there. He didn't know how long they'd been there. He didn't know where they came from.
"So what God does is He shows Adam where they came from. He says, 'Adam, you see that tiger? Let me show you where that came from.' Whoosh, God made it and then backed up and watched Adam.
"Remember, Adam was supposed to keep the garden and subdue it. Adam's responsible for that thing. God doesn't tell Adam what to do; He just watches him to see if he's figured out what he's to do. He watched him to see what he would call the animal.
"In the Bible, when you name something you're describing its purpose. Names have meanings. They show identity. The first specific job He gave Adam is He's looking to see if Adam's caught on to what he's supposed to be doing.
"God knew Adam had intellectual capacity; he wasn't a caveman. He had language skills, perception skills. He's teaching Adam to use them to fulfill his mandate. God gives Adam the responsibility and privilege of applying His will.
"He gave Adam the ability to look into creation and pull out of it the wisdom God had put there. Whatever name Adam gave the animals that was their name. He didn't say, 'Adam, I made a lamb. Call him a lamb now.'
"That participatory management system, using His intelligent creatures to be His agents to manage His creation--that's the relationship God wanted to have with man. There's that participation where God lets Adam get the job done.
*****
"In Genesis 11, God turns over the gentile nations to the gods of this world because they don't want Him.
"God warns Israel in Deuteronomy 4:19: [19] And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. [20] But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.
"God takes Israel, makes them His, and leaves all the other nations in the earth--He divided to those nations all the fallen gods up here. Fallen humanity doesn't want the God of gods; it wants the fallen gods, so He literally turns the nations over to these gods. Each nation has a god; it's just a fallen god.
"Deuteronomy 29: [24] Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
[25] Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
[26] For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
[27] And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
[28] And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
"God created the nation Israel and said, 'I'm your God and you're my people. These other nations belong to these gods and these gods belong to them but, Israel, you're my portion. You belong to me and I belong to you. Don't go and mess with those dudes. You're separate.'
"So what did Israel do? They saw the gentiles and said, 'We want to be like them,' and so they go and worship the gods of the gentiles and the satanic policy of evil comes in to control Israel by them worshipping gods that God never gave them!
*****
"Now, this rulership thing, when Paul talks about these things, you've got to remember who Paul was; a rabbinical scholar trained at the feet of Gamaliel. Paul's worldview came out of his understanding of the Old Testament Scripture. He understood Jehovah was the God of gods.
"When he was on the road to Damascus and said, 'Who art thou, Lord?' in my soul I think about what would be going through my mind then?!
"Here's a guy defending God's honor against these upstarts and then Jehovah speaks to him. Paul knows who's talking to him when he asks 'Who art thou?' Don't you know in the back of his mind it's, 'Please don't say Jesus!'
"When he says, 'I am Jesus whom thou persecutest' . . . If you go back to the beginning in early Genesis, Jacob's wrestling with the angel of the Lord and says, 'Tell me your name,' but God won't do it. Moses said, 'Who am I supposed to tell them sent me?' and God said, 'Tell them I am.' Moses thinks, 'I am what? I am who?'
"God Himself never finished that sentence until Acts 9. In Proverbs 30, it says, [4] Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?
"He said, 'What's His name?' but God doesn't tell. He never finished that sentence until 'I am Jesus.' There's a completion of revelation of who God is that comes in with Paul."
Editor's note:
Last Saturday morning I awoke to see my mom had left a voicemail and text that my 55-year-old brother-in-law was in intensive care after collapsing at work with a cerebral hemmorhage. I hadn't looked at my phone Friday so I was quite shocked to see her messages.
I immediately called and she picked up, telling me Jesse was already gone even though they were temporarily keeping him on life support as an organ donor. Huge shock to the system for me.
His obituary can be found by typing in Jesse Lee Carsey, Jr. to Snyderfuneralhomes.com. He's in Mansfield, Ohio. There is a snapshot gallery video at the top and if you're curious, you can see a picture of me in my 20s as my sister's maid of honor. No, I did not catch the bouquet even though my sister aimed for me as she threw it behind her back. I did catch the bouquet at my childhood best friend's wedding some 15 years later!
Interestingly, if you type his name into Google with the word "obit," my sister's obituary is directly underneath Jesse's. They are reunited now in heaven. Rita was 48 years old when she died suddenly of a stomach infection she didn't even know she had. Jesse died just as suddenly. No warning at all and gone just like that.
These two were both born with mental impairments (and Jesse had very poor vision until a surgery 15 years ago and was a terrible stutterer his whole life) and were what today's educators would call "special needs" children. They have one daughter, my 23-year-old niece Christine, who graduated summa cum laude from the Ohio State University and is a very special, mature Christian woman in love with her boyfriend Jake. Thank God for that!
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