And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Genesis 4:1-7

Hebrews 11:4 tells us that it was by faith that Abel offered a better offering than Cain.

Cain’s offering was not regarded by the Lord, as it is written, without blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22).  It required blood, in which the Lord said the life of a thing was, in order to atone for the sin of another.  And, it was through the eyes of faith that Abel could perceive this.  And, for whatever reason, Cain’s lack of faith, or lack of using his faith, was his failure to see.

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Man was created to rule.  He was made a judge.

Yet, he was also made as a servant, to serve and to worship and adore.

Man has been created in a unique position in all of creation. Surely, the psalmist spoke well when he said, What is man that thou are mindful of Him? (Psalm 8:4).

This creation, this creature, was fashioned from clay, yet is destined to judge the world.

This figure, as the scripture says, is placed a little lower than Elohim, often translated as “angels” but also used of God Himself,  and yet, man, who will judge the angels, will be judged by God Himself.  Some to everlasting salvation, and some to everlasting contempt.

This man, who was created to do something, was given a place and purpose to fulfill and way to serve in the Earth, yet he was eternally designed for connection with another.

In the Old Testament, we see men and women judging on the Earth, not through kingship, but by God’s providing.  We see that God desired to govern His nation through a judge, and not a human king.  We see that when Israel needed something, He raised up what they cried out for, and delivered them.  Yet, He was always their head.

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Of all the patterns of the Old Testament, one of the greatest is the Tabernacle of Moses.

Moses, a prophet of God, was given its design upon the mountain, and told to build everything according to the Pattern He had seen there.

Of its physical elements, there were several major elements, and possibly more than listed here.

There were materials for the posts, curtains, drapes, and altars.  There were dimensions (lengths and widths).  There were counts (number of posts, pillars, etc).  There was furniture (the altars and tables).  There were their utensils (shovels, rakes, censers, etc).  There was its orientation (which way it faced).  There was its layout, with three chambers, each further in.

In addition, there were its gates, how it was to be consecrated, packed up, transported, and set up again, and the way that the priests related to these.

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In the beginning, God created man in the Garden.

God, light Himself, created light, spoke breath into existence, and divided light from dark.  He spoke the plants, and the animals, the sea and all that is in it, and it came into being.  He divided, formed, and fashioned, and called it good.  Very good.

From the beginning, He created it good.

There was nothing that was not good in all that He had made.

From the beginning, God placed man in Eden.

In a garden, with a mission, to subdue.

This was the call and the commission of the man.  It was his beginning, his calling, his purpose, and his role.  He was to be the subduer, he was to be the ruler, he was to be its sergeant.

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And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Luke 6:46-49 KJV

The best advice to going deeper in Christ is Transparency.  Jesus said the verdict of men’s condemnation is that He, the light had come, and that men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).  They preferred to hide in the shadows rather than come forth and have their true selves exposed.

At the end of the Sermon on the Plain in Mark 6, Jesus said that the one who heard His words and did them was the man who “dug deep” and laid his foundation on the rocks.  The practical application of that is the progress of continually learning to trust on the Holy Spirit on every level for every thing.

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