As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
It is a strange thing in the examination of Martin Luther's Catechism in the Lord's Prayer to realize that it was the learning of Good and evil is what produced the enmity with God
Genesis 2:9
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
It was the literal learning of Good and evil which brought about the penalty to death. It was a Catch 22, because as the Holy Ghost reveals, without the Law of God, no one knew right and wrong without instruction. If Adam and Eve did not know Good and evil, then they could not have been found guilty of sin or rebellion against God. The knowing is what brought the penalty of death, which Christ had to lay down His Life for as payment for all of our eternal deaths.
Genesis 2:17
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.
It is never mentioned in Scripture, but I find it most interesting in Eve, once she gained the knowledge of good and evil, did not protect her husband, but instead gave him the fruit to open his eyes to good and evil.
Adam upon being confronted blamed Eve for the fall in that woman that God gave him.
If Adam had not though joined into evil, it would have created a real problem as it would have been son of God Adam, and the then cursed Eve as his wife. Would God have created a new wife, who would have sinned the same is a waste of theological examination, but the first time humans were not delivered from evil, it brought all of our deaths.
It is an amazing reality, that in almost the first 1500 years of humanity from creation, that people had become so degenerate in evil, that is all they focused upon, that God moved to wipe almost everything off the planet. This is the story of Noah, but once again it shows how quickly an entire planet can corrupt itself when it joins in generations of evil.
Genesis 6:5
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Evil though is remarkable in it is manufactured by humans. Joseph was betrayed by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery, which was murderous evil. Yet as God delivered Joseph from evil after a very long slavery and imprisonment, it is revealed that God for His children, delivers them from evil and turns evil into Good.
Joseph in Egypt rose to rule the land under Pharoah and in the time of famine, saved the progenitors of the western Christian Peoples.
Genesis 48:16
The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
Genesis 50:20
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
The People of the West after the Great Reformation by Martin Luther, brought to the world after 1500 a global blessing in colonization and prosperity. Once again though after these Israelites were satisfied, they threw of Christ and turned themselves into decaying immoral societies, in choosing not to be delivered from evil, but instead to perpetuate past Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jeremiah 4:22
For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
The Law of God righteously in the Courts is designed to administer Justice in the punishments fitting the crimes, to executions to make examples to instill fear in society to stop national evils. Once that Justice is bastardized though, evil prevails as humans are very adept at self indulgence and corruption.
This brings upon nations, national deaths by being overthrown and conquered as evil can not build a nation.
Deuteronomy 19:20
And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
For the Christian though, God promises that no evil will befall them. That a shield will be placed around them. That does not mean of course that bad things do not happen or that Christians do not get robbed or murdered in a lawless society. It does mean though that when a nation is delivered from evil, that the Christian is protected by not exposing themselves to the always rogue elements who gravitate toward evil.
God does protect though in evil times, but the Christian must be even more aware.
Psalm 91:10
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
God does deliver from evil. His Holy Angels minister and protect, and the watchful Christian being armed, and aware, makes certain they are not like Lot indulging in Sodom, in being so seared that he did not want to leave a place which was advocating the rape of Angles.
Deliver us from evil is a prayer to be delivered from an outcome of a murdered life.
II Timothy 4:18
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
This is the 7th Petition as noted by Martin Luther. Evil is of all forms, Spiritual and physical. It is decay and rot. It is sickness and aging. It is pain and suffering. It is poverty and storm. As much as those evil things which people are attracted too which pleasure the person for a moment and bring eternal destruction.
How many lives have been burdened by one drink, one narcotic, one moment of sex, one stolen thing, one angry blow etc... Evil is a theft and it robs in the moment and is a debt which is never paid.
The Seventh Petition
But deliver us from evil.
What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.
Evil when it becomes this pronounced again as national policies by a police state, makes people wary of speaking out, lest they are visited by the police state or imprisoned. That is the surest sign of evil, is when people start guarding their thoughts and words which are right and just, because of the penalties involved.
Amos 5:13
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
To do good is to be of God. To practice evil is anti God, and God is against those who are evil. Evil is like a cancer, in God really does not need to fire and brimstone nations, because once evil is embraced, it sears the conscience, and from there the person degrades to other evils of worse forms. Evil has many murderous qualities in diseases, violence and quickened aging. It does run it's course as the apostate generation of the past 40 years indulging in themselves has found a current generation which is rejecting that unbridled self indulgence as it has robbed the youth of their innocence which they long to return to for their children. Evil consumes itself and those engaged in it as evil is not life giving, but life ending.
John III 1:11
Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
I Peter 3:12
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
I include the reality that the love of money is the root of all evil. It is of interest that the first murder involved possessions presented before God. Cain thought God owed Him appreciation and Abel humble appreciated God's Gifts. For this love of possessions and not God, Cain murdered Abel.
Focusing on enriching oneself retards the humane qualities. Money in that form is not a warm hug, a friendly smile, a caring note of human caring. It is instead a degrading caste which owns people and sells them to enmity in hell from God.
I Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Evil is a choice and once engaged in, it produces more degenerate evil. No one who molests a child ever rises to moral standards to define a nation. It always degrades to worse and worse evil, and it starts out with an evil which the sinner did not pray to be delivered from.
II Timothy 3:13
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
The human quality is burned away in evil. What were people, become like animals, ignorant of virtue and predators plotting to prey upon others to consume them for an indulgence of sin. It is th promise that if a person does not pray to be delivered from evil, that they will perish in their own corruption.
II Peter 2:!2
But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
No one can violate the Laws of Life of the 10 Commandments, in acting out in harmful ways, and not have that harm build to a consuming evil which brings suicide, disease, insanity or murder. That is the end of those not delivered from evil.
Being delivered from evil is the last petition in the Lord's Prayer which began by establishing God as our Father in Heaven. It moved to setting the power of God's Name apart to make our lives better as His Spirit is established in us, as God's Will prevails.
Once the Spiritual is established, the physical in the needs of Spiritual and physical daily bread appear, and the emerging Godlike character of establishing God forgives our debts in Christ, as we turn over those who sin against us for God to deal with.
Satisfied in our needs met, the Lord's Prayer focuses on Christians not being seduced again by choosing evil over good as Eve did with Adam in not being led into temptation by our weakness and God delivering us from the consuming forces of this world.
The Lord's Prayer is a protecting prayer as are the 10 Commandments. Delivered from all evil, the Christian in nurturing by the Holy Ghost becomes the Spiritual offspring of God.
Nuff Said
agtG
