Heed the Warning

There were two waiting rooms in my eye doctor’s office.  In both of those rooms there was a TV with a sign that read "Do Not Touch!". I understand that they didn’t 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.

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 many 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 The trees in the garden were beautiful, and pleasing to the eye. The fruit was good to eat and very delicious. It wasn't like Adam and Eve were desperate to eat from that one tree. The problem happened when Satan came along and began telling them how much better their lives would be if they did eat the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat. 

We know what happened. Adam and Eve ignored God’s warning and ate the fruit. Because they disobeyed God, man's relationship with Him was greatly damaged. Adam, Eve and every person after them were sentenced to a life of pain, suffering, sorrow and death. Even the perfect world that God had created was cursed and thorns and weeds covered the land. Instead of a life of comfort, man experiences great discomfort. 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 composed of 66 books that tell how man got himself in such a perilous state, and then how God’s grace would provide him with a way to be saved. Adam and Eve really blew it, but because of God's loving grace we all have hope. There is another sign that God has shown us. This sign says, “Believe In My son.”  If we heed the message on 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. We can choose eternal life or we can ignore God’s promise and suffer the consequence of sin which brings eternal death. 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 of touching that Do Not Touch sign..

By the way, I always touched both of those TVs.