East
or
West?
32
The War Cry | MARCH 2015
In Genesis 2:8,
"the Lord God
had planted a garden in the east in
Eden; and there he put the man he
had formed." Man began his rela-
tionship with God in the east. This
is instructive if we note that after
man sinned, God continually
nudged man to the west, but man
invariably retreated
east. For instance,
after God confronted
Cain concerning the Abel's
murder, Cain headed east.
Noah's descendants migrated
eastward and defied God to
construct the Tower of Babel.
When Abraham and Lot parted,
Lot trekked east and pitched his
tents near Sodom. God commanded
Abraham to leave Ur, in the east,
and journey west. We learn that be-
fore Abraham, to the west, was
Bethel, meaning "house of God,"
while behind him was Ai, meaning
"heap of ruins
." Is it wrong to at-
tempt to retread familiar territory?
As 1 John 1:7 tells us,
"If we
walk in the light, as He is in the
light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus, His
Son, purifies us from all sin." In
this context walking means moving
with God. As we move with God,
He progressively reveals Himself to
by
GERALD JOHNS
E
very spring I crave greens,
specifi cally dandelion greens. Whenever I eat them,
I recall how my mother used to prepare dandelion
salads. This past spring I picked a bowl of dande-
lion greens, cleaned them, added the necessary
ingredients and proudly placed them on the din-
ner table. My son glanced at the salad then sur-
veyed me quizzically. He mumbled something about
the old man attempting to relive a deprived child-
hood. Perhaps he was right, and I was trying to relive
a much simpler time, to retread a vanished path; if
so, I am not alone. Humans have had that problem
since we left the Garden of Eden.