Life or be put to death

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

LIFE OR  BE PUT TO DEATH

Gen 38:1-11

38:1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him. 6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death. 8 Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." 9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also. 11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house.

 

There is only one story here: be careful not to do wicked or be wicked in the LORD’s sight. Of course, we live in the age of grace because Jesus who is God came in our form as a human and paid the price, himself, for our wickedness. Before that time we can see that the LORD would not put up with men who were wicked and put them to death. We also know there are only two classes of types of people who live in the world today. First, there are the saved, and second, are the wicked. We understand that we are not the ones to make these distinctions between these two as God is. We also know the only reason there are two is that one of those types has accepted the provision God make, by his grace, for them to escape the penalty of wickedness, being put to death. The other type, those who still practice those wicked lives, refusing to come to saving faith through Jesus, will at that last day be put to death, and that means the second death. We know it is appointed that all of us humans will die once and that all people will be resurrected to stand before the throne of God for the final judgment.   We who have accepted the grace of God will be judged as doing good and will go on to live eternally in the kingdom of God. However, those who refused Jesus will be deemed wicked and be put to their second death.  The only difference between being judged good, or righteous and bad or wicked, is who is in or out of Jesus. As far as how we live within this world there is none righteous, no not one, for all sin, we all do wicked in God’s sight. However, if we are washed in the blood of Jesus, that is we have been born from above, or born again, living by faith in Jesus, and filled with the Spirit as our guarantee, then we are holy and blameless in the LORD’s sight. At the same time, it is also painful to know people we know and love, even family might not see the eternal bliss but be sent to their second death. How can we convince them? We can’t! That is the work of the Holy Spirit, all we can do is be a witness, telling of what God did for and in us. We can only testify to what we have seen or happened to us. Each person must make their own choice as did Er and Onan who decided to be wicked and both were put to death. All people must choose to either life or be put to death.