Joseph’s Alabaster Box

God created Adam and Eve in the way He wanted them to be. The way He wanted them to be was perfectly happy and immortal. For their happiness He did not create them as co-gods, or assistant gods. There can be only one God. He created them as innocent subjects with a free will. They sinned and then God had to make certain changes in them in order that they could survive in the world that they would now have to live in until they died. The changes God made in man are pointed out in verses 17,18, and 19 of Genesis 3.

“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Adam now had to deal with a cursed soil. This included having to pull weeds, many with stickers; he would have to eat vegetation like an animal; he would sweat, not perspire, sweat; finally, he must decline, and die, and decay.

Man’s lot is to work. Not the joyous work he did before he sinned. Now he had to break his back battling the adverse soil. Dr. Scofield well says, “It is better for fallen man to battle with a reluctant earth than to live without toil.” Woman would bring forth many children in sorrow, and man in sorrow would eat of the fruit of the dirt beneath his feet. Adam’s next meal would be the fruit of plants that would henceforth resist his efforts to coax them to bear fruit. He would now eat the herb of the field, which meant that he would now have to bow himself to the earth to gather his food. All of his life, man would have to labor to eat.

Here in America, it seems that medical science has dispelled the sorrow of childbearing for women, and work-saving devices have reduced man’s work to play. It is also evident that the more man can get himself out from under the punishment of God, that the more rebellious man becomes. I am thankful that the big truck I had to drive for a living for the last few years of my working life had power steering on it. I am thankful that my wife had the comfort and help of medical science to bring forth our sons into the world, but I have not lost sight of the fact that God has been gracious to us in allowing man to discover things to make life easier, or at least, what we think is easier. I personally do not believe that life is better now than it was a century or more ago.

The work Adam would have to do now would be hard labor. He would discover metal and make tools. He would discover how to harness animals to pull things for him. He would build a comfortable house, and furnish it. He would rest on the Sabbath because God had sanctified that day. (And, incidentally, God has never de-sanctified the rest day.) Adam would learn to glean joy and happiness and satisfaction from his work. What joy he doubtless had as he went out into the fields in the early morning with his two young sons beside him, to till the fields. The grind of toil, though, would take its toll.

This is not the story of evolution philosophy. Evolution tells us that man slowly developed over great periods of time. Man at first walked bent over like an ape, according to evolution, then he gradually straightened up until he was bipedal, or walked upright like a man. There are heated discussions over these creatures among evolutionists, and they take sides with their favorite paleontologist and the words fly thick and fast. They talk of hominids, huminoids, and pongids; Australopithecus, Ramapithicus, dryopithecines, Zinjanthropus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and on and on. How do we know that life is evolving upward rather than downward? A certain law says that everything is decaying. Nobody is much more than a hundred years old. “There are many fossils of true apes and many of true men, but nothing in between. There have never been any man-apes, according to the real fossil evidence, and this is exactly what the Bible teaches, too.”¹

Professor Marvin Lubenow has researched the fossil issue for 25 years. He is qualified to speak. He says, “The human fossil record is strongly supportive of the concept of Special Creation. On the other hand, the fossil evidence is so contrary to human evolution as to effectively falsify the idea that humans evolved. This is not the message we hear from a hundred different voices coming at us from a dozen different directions. But the human fossils themselves tell the real story.”² Nary a fossil after nearly 150 years of diligent search.

God fitted Adam both physically and emotionally for his new life in the cursed earth. Adam must be able to cope with the frustration of battling thorns and thistles which were the only thing that would volunteer to come up in his vegetable patch. His nervous system was about to be shocked to its limit by the sight of the earth when he was thrust out of the garden. It would be the equivalent to stepping out onto the moon. He would have to take great care about what he ate, for there would be toxic plants now, and there would be creatures with venomous bites. Other animals would be his enemy. Dinosaurs, saber tooth tigers, boa constrictors, bears, all sorts of ravenous animals trying to cope with their new environment.

Adam must quickly learn how to make bows, and spears and other weapons for the defense of his little family. Adam would have to quickly learn how to kill in self defense. We can be sure that the animals did not become an immediate threat to Adam and Eve because God did not give them permission to eat flesh until after the flood, but we do know that the plants in no more than one generation became hostile to man and animals for we are told as much in our text. It is reasonable to think that some animals could have become predators in one generation, but I do not think so.

We know that man became a predator in one generation for Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve was a killer. Man was not given divine permission to eat flesh until after the flood, but are we to believe that man, who disobeyed God in the matter of a fruit tree, would not jump ahead of the LORD and help himself to the animal tissue that was all around him when he was in such need of protein?

Did a man ever have such good grounds for a divorce? Few women have ever done to their husband a thing as awful as Eve did to Adam. Hosea married a harlot, and she remained a harlot, but he remained faithful to her. Job’s wife told him to curse God and die, but he remained faithful to her. Moses’ wife almost caused him to be killed by the Lord because she resisted the circumcision of their sons, but Moses remained faithful to her. Joseph’s betrothed wife was found with child before they came together, but after God spoke to him, he remained faithful to her. A man ought to be faithful to his wife regardless of what happens. A wife is a woman, and she is the weaker vessel. A wife is the husband’s own body, he should care for it.

Different cultures have different ideas about what a man should be. In our nation, the ideas abroad about what a man is are very immature. A boy who wants to be a true man must study the life of Jesus, Who was the ideal man. Jesus displayed the characteristics of genuine manhood all through His life, and in everything He did. I think Jesus’ manhood can be summed up in the words of Matthew in 20:28, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” I choose this as my ideal, and may God help me to live this way. To minister and give my life. That is the life work of a man.

Proverbs 20:5: “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

Psalm 128:4: “Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.”

Proverbs 20:7: “The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.”

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1. Henry M. Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1984), p. 393.

2. Marvin L. Lubenow, Bones of Contention (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1992), p. 7.

Recently I sent the people on my mailing list a very joyous message relating what I had just heard Dr. Adrian Rogers say on bbnradio.org. Dr. Rogers, who has been in glory for several years, said that we invite people to walk down the aisle of our church because a bride should walk the aisle to meet her husband-to-be. A bride is dressed in white, and places herself to be seen by everybody. A sinner who has just trusted Christ Jesus as his Saviour has suddenly been made pure white by the blood of the Saviour. He will want everybody to see that he has trusted Christ Jesus as Saviour. My email message was well received by the Believers on my mailing list, and many wrote me to express their joy in hearing it. Most, like me, had never heard such an application of truth.

But there were some folks on my mailing list who were offended that a man could be a bride! And they didn’t believe it. This did not surprise me in the least, because I know that people who don’t believe the Bible give all sorts of reasons why the Bible can’t be believed. Culture and time seem to be the biggest hangs ups. Some, of course, like some atheists on my mailing list, don’t even believe there is God. The idea of a man-bride is so repulsive to me that it churns my stomach as it does the unsaved man who is not perverted. The notion that two men can marry is offensive in the extreme. I love sodomites, but I hate what makes them that.

Marriage is so holy that the least impurity in it makes it the foulest of corrupted things. Like a fly in the ointment, it stinks. Of course, perversion is the first thing that pops into the mind of the natural man when a man-bride is mentioned. Christians must remember that a great number of unsaved people are good, fine, honest, decent people. They are not wicked. They are not guilty of gross sins. We must somehow convince people that it is not the sins of the flesh that send people to Hell; it is refusing to be saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Most people don’t understand that all human beings are born sinners; they do no become sinners by sinning. By sinning they only increase their punishment.

The idea that being a member of the bride of Christ makes a man effeminate is also repulsive to me. I can’t list the things that prove I am a man (truck driver, bass fisherman, etc.) because women do those same things. But I am a man. I am not effeminate. God hates that. Yet, I have walked as a bride down the aisle to meet my Saviour at the altar. I have a friend not three miles from me who is a Medal of Honor winner (and has a half dozen other medals, besides: silver star, etc.). When he enlisted as a country boy private, he was blind in one eye. He fought in Korea and Vietnam. It is unbelievable what he did as a foot soldier. He retired a bird colonel. He loves one of my sons and his family. He claims Jim as his own son. This man loves the LORD, and faithfully serves Him each week in worship, in spite of his disabilities from being shot to pieces. He is a member of the bride of Christ.

A past president of the Southern Baptist Convention was at our church last year in a men’s conference, and I had the privilege of shaking his hand. This man was a marine captain in Vietnam. His camp was under attack every night by the enemy. One day it became necessary for the captain to lead a patrol into the jungle to eliminate this problem. As he went through the jungle, he came to a trail he had to cross. As he stepped out of the growth onto the trail, he was shot in the right chest. The bullet went through his chest, and exploded out the other side of his body with a large chunk of his body tissue. The colonel who commanded his company landed in a helicopter nearby, and found the captain’s body. It was carried to the helicopter, and thrown in on a pile of dead marines. When the helicopter landed at their headquarters, they noticed that the captain was still alive. They loaded him on a medivac helicopter, and flew him to a nearby hospital. The captain is now traveling over the world connecting American churches to foreign churches in a missionary work. He is a man. He is a member of the bride of Christ.

“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Revelation 21:9. The Lamb’s wife is made up of men and women, boys and girls of all denominations and races who have claimed Jesus as Saviour. This great conglomeration is called the Church, as well as “the Lamb’s wife.” Right now, we are the bride.

But I must stop now, and tell you something that is apt to raise your hackles, and cause you to be offended if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ. I would be offended, too, if I were you. I understand. The Bible not saying that you are not intelligent, or that you do not know anything. This is what God says, and it will explain to you why the business of man-brides doesn’t make any sense to you. The statement is in I Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.” You see, you cannot understand the Bible because it is a spiritual book, and you’ve rejected the spiritual. Isaac Asimov was as educated and brilliant as a man could be, but he didn’t understand the Bible, even though he wrote commentaries on it. Isaac Asimov was an atheist. God did not write the verse to insult anybody, but simply to state a fact. Natural men do not understand spiritual things. They shouldn’t expect to, since they have rejected the spiritual God. A natural man is one who has not acknowledged Christ Jesus as his personal Saviour and LORD. The natural man can understand the Gospel, and he must be saved thereby. But he understands the Gospel by the faith that God will give him at the time. The truth of what I am saying is demonstrated by the fact that the saved people, the Believers, on my mailing list understood perfectly what I reported, and rejoiced in it as I do.

When a couple has been married for many years, they often lose their reproductive drive. Drugs and weakness make the reproductive act impossible. That doesn’t mean the marriage is over. On the contrary, the marriage ripens into a delicious, warm relationship that exceeds in benefits the relationship they had before. An old man looks upon his wife as his precious lamb whom he nourishes and cherishes, protects and shelters. She belongs to him. She is his child-bearer who has borne him children. She is a divine gift that he delights in after the inward man (his heart, his soul). It is no longer her outward beauty that he glories in. It is the beauty of the inward person that he gazes upon with such satisfaction. This is exactly the relationship of Jesus Christ and His bride, and the thoughts of Christ Jesus toward His bride.

The old bride takes the confident attitude that makes her leave locking the doors at night in the hands of her husband. She leaves the provisions of food, shelter, and raiment in the hands of her husband. She revels in his loving care of her. She does little or no worrying about the affairs of the family. She loves being his pet. She understands him, and knows about him. The old bride has a sense of security because of the fact that she is loved and claimed. She delights to serve him. To her, the greatest thing in the universe is to belong to a good man. I know all these things because it is written for our learning in the Bible, blessed book. And I also know that these are the very things that women’s lib hates, and has, for the most part, destroyed in our society. Result? Divorce. Unhappiness.

There are many Saints all over the world who endure great persecution for their faith. Some are tortured and killed. Some suffer worse fates. The Muslim child who ran away from home a while back, ran away because of a fear of her father. She had become a Christian. These persons are strong, courageous people whom we can admire.

I have likely made a complex (spiritual) subject even more complex, but in the hope it might be of value, I offer it. You natural men, I urge you to rely on Jesus Christ to save you from eternal loss, and put light into your mind.