REAL ESTATE, CONSTRUCTION, FOOD, MOTHERHOOD and CHILDREN

August 19, 2001 pm
MF Blume

Genesis 1:28 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.
Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Land, food and motherhood are all very central elements to the story of mankind's fall in the Garden.

God had man put in a certain piece of property.
The land.
A plot of earth.
And ADAM WAS TO BUILD in that land where the tree of life was.
In Revelation that land is built up into a great city with the tree of life there.

Revelation 21:10-11 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

Revelation 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

But Adam did not build it.

Jesus did.

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

God took ADAM and put him into a certain land.

Adam was created before God put him into the Garden.

Adam was to multiply and fill the world with his children.

His lady later named Eve would be the mother of all living.
And Adam was intended to build the Garden and increase it.
But Satan tempted them to sin, and sin they did.

Following that day of regret occurred many instances where God's same intended plan continued to rise into prominence, and the serpent continued to seek to disrupt it.

Let's follow those events throughout the Bible.

Genesis 4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain,...

Genesis 4:11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

Genesis 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

He went to the EAST OF EDEN, NOD, and built a counterfeit of God's planned construction

Man began building, but it was the worst of man.

The most sinful of man.
And it was a city alright, but not in glory to God.
And the mothers in Cain's line had children who became men of materialism -- ranchers, musicians, contractors

Adam and Even had another boy named Seth.

Genesis 4:26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

Time went on and the world became so wicked that God flooded it out sparing Noah and his family.

God starts out again, giving NOah the same mandate He gave Adam.

Genesis 9:1-2 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.

But only three generations later, Noah's great grandson, Nimrod rallies men around to build a tower.

Genesis 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Building in a land of Shinar while God's construction project was on hold.

God stops it and in Gen 12 he takes ABRAM out of the region.
And God repeats the mandate first given to Adam, but worded slightly different.

Genesis 12:1-2 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

The issue of LAND is noted, and children to be born from his WIFE.

Like the Garden of Eden, the issue of FOOD becomes a chance for trouble.

Genesis 12:10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

And when food became an issue in Genesis 3, what then came into focus?

With whom did the devil speak?
The mother-to-be, the wife of Adam.
And it became the same pattern in Abraham.

Genesis 12:11-13 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

Genesis 12:15-17 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.

Abram left again, then rich, but the episode over the crucial element that would bring God's promise top pass of having many nations, his WIFE, led to another problem.

He was now rich with many possessions.

Genesis 13:2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
Genesis 13:5-7 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

So Abram told Lot to pick which land to dwell in.

Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

LAND LIKE THE GARDEN was what Sodom looked like.

We all know what happened with SODOM after a while.
It was so perverted that God had to destroy it.
Another Satan's counterfeit of the LAND OF GOD.

CHILDREN come into view again with Abram.

Genesis 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

AND REAL ESTATE.

Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

Satan manages to get into the picture again and implants odd thoughts into the MOTHER about Abram begetting children through HAGAR, an EGYPTIAN.

And we see that Satan implanted a time bomb to later take effect and bring trouble.

Recall that when his wife brought on the trouble in Egypt, and handmaids were given to Abram there.

Genesis 12:16 And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.

This was where Hagar came from.

Hagar becomes the COUNTERFEIT MOTHER.

From her came the ARAB nations.

Her son Ishamel fought and fought with Sarah's boy who came along a little later, named Isaac.
Its LAND VERSUS LAND.
CONSTRICTION PROJECT VERSUS CONSTRUCTION PROJECT.
MOTHER VERSUS MOTHER.
CHILD VERSUS CHILD.
And all these things were due to the MANDATE FROM GOD FOR MAN TO MULTIPLY IN A LAND AND BUILD FOR GOD.

To this day the Arab's have a religious shrine built precisely where the temple of Israel was once built -- the Dome of the Rock.

FAMINE brought Abram to Egypt.

As food brought the woman to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the serpent.

Meanwhile after Sodom was destroyed and Lot escaped with his daughters.

But the daughters had been so perverted by Sodom's ways that the issue of motherhood became a perverted issue in Lots' life.

Genesis 19:34-38 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

The vile daughters' minds were so twisted that they felt Lot's lineage would continue through his children born of incest through them!

The issue of motherhood was so pivotal in the Bible!
Satan had his counterfeit mothers.
And these children became the beginnings of two of Israel's greatest enemy nations -- AMMON AND MOAB.

Later in Abram's life the same problem occurred as with Egypt.

Genesis 20:1-3 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

And when Isaac grew older, the pattern repeated.

Genesis 26:1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
Genesis 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

Genesis 26:7-9 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

ABIMILECH -- THE SAME MAN WHO HAD PROBLEMS WITH ABRAHAM'S WIFE!

Why the MOTHER always being a cause of tension?

Because Satan was hating the thoughts of God's people multiplying.
And tried to stop it.

Jacob, the son of Isaac, comes along.

And problems with him having a wife crop up, too.

He wanted Rachel, and worked seven years for her.
But his father-in-law to be cheated him and gave him Leah.

Always tension around these mighty men of God and their wives having children.

We also learn that Sarah could have no children due to old age.

Rebekah could have no children due to barrenness.
And for a long time Rachel could have no children.

And wives envied one another.

Tension mounted.
All circling around children being born.

Jacob becomes Israel and JOSEPH becomes the main character.

FAMINE OCCURS.

Food was an issue as it was in the Garden that led to trouble.

Hebrews go into Egypt.

The Hebrews MULTIPLY in Egypt, and Pharaoh becomes afraid, and enslaves them to build HIS CITIES.

Exodus 1:7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

Exodus 1:11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

They built the temples of Pharaoh and their devil worship rather than God's Garden project.

And CHILDREN were threatened.

MOTHERS BECAME A CONCERN.

Exodus 1:15-17 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

A mother had a baby named MOSES.

And he brought Israel out and they BEGAN CONSTRUCTION of a Tabernacle as they were on their way TO THE LAND.

And there they CONSTRUCT a TEMPLE.

A model of the Garden of Eden.
The veil had cherubims embroidered in it just as the entrance to the Garden was blocked by cherubims.
In the land.

Finally the age of shadows came to an end and God set forth to accomplish the real thing to continue what was thwarted in Eden.

Jesus was the last Adam.

But He had to multiply and fill the earth with children.
So He required a wife.

But the very means by which the devil chose to destroy Christ and hinder God's construction, children and real estate concerns, -- the cross -- was the very means by which Christ obtained His Bride!

As ADAM laid his life down and in a deep sleep lost his rib that God might make Eve, Christ was crucified into the sleep of death and the cross brought about the CHURCH!
The Church is the Bride of Christ!

Now look at the terms used to describe the work of God in the church.

Ephesians 2:20-22 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Jude 1:20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

The church is God's precious love.

Let the devil touch the church and watch God's power come!
THE LORD LOVES HIS LITTLE LADY!

Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Look at God's words given to people concerning the care of the church.

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build.

Let God build your life!
Give it to Him.
Not your will, but His be done.

If the devil concentrated his efforts upon these elements, then let us focus on these very things in our lives for God!