Do No Touch

Do Not Touch

There were two waiting rooms in my eye doctor’s office. In each of those rooms there was a TV with a sign that read "Do Not Touch!". I understand that they did not want people changing the channels, but why didn’t  they have signs that read "Please Don't Change the Channel"? That Do Not Touch sign just made me want to touch those TVs. I heard other patients say the same thing. It is our nature to want to touch what we are told not to touch. The problem was that when I went to the eye doctor I was usually there three or four hours; that was too long to sit and look at a sign that tempted me. Therefore, I will confess, I did touch both of those TVs.

That has always been man's problem. God put a Do Not Touch, Do Not Taste sign, in a sense, on a tree in the Garden of Eden. God blessed Adam with trees. " And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Genesis 2:9 There were many trees in the garden that were beautiful, and pleasing to the eye. The fruit was good to eat, very delicious. It wasn't like Adam and Eve were desperate to eat from that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No, the problem was that it had that sign on it, Do Not Touch, Do Not Taste.

We know what happened. Adam and Eve ignored the sign and ate the fruit. Because they disobeyed, man's relationship with God was destroyed. Man was condemned to a life of pain and suffering, therefore, we experience sorrow. God cursed man's habitation. Thorns and weeds covered the land. Instead of a life of comfort man experiences great discomfort and much inconvenience. His labor became hard and he worked by the sweat of his brow. The worst punishment—man was condemned to die, all because he did not obey the sign.

The Bible is comprised of books that tell how man got himself in a mess, and then how God got man out of his mess. Adam and Eve really blew it, but because of God's grace we have hope. God put another Sign in our lives. This sign says, “Do touch. Do eat. Do  drink. Do believe.” If we are obedient to that Sign we will enjoy life as God intended us to live. That Sign is Jesus. Jesus came to take away our sin and to give us the kind of life God meant for us in the first place, eternal life. Jesus came because we could not keep our hands off of the Do Not Touch sign. It is by the “touch” of our loving Savior that we are free from the penalty for touching that Do Not Touch sign, even the one in the doctor’s waiting room.