Pushing the boundaries.

“And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”

When we are young we always try to push the boundaries so that we can have some excitement. However, the generation before us also pushed the boundaries so that they were at the place we found them. Our children will also start at the boundaries that we thought were extreme and push them even further. As time goes by the boundaries get pushed so far that we eventually reach the place where there are no boundaries. This is when every man does what is right in his own eyes (compare Judges 17: 6; 18: 1; 21: 25).

This sad state of decline is illustrated in the passage before us today. First Lamech took two wives when God had designed each person to have one spouse of the opposite gender. When a person takes more than one spouse they cause damage to his or her own soul and this leads to a lack of sensitivity in relationships. The people involved in these relationships think about themselves and not their partners. Eventually, the family becomes a war zone with every person fighting to serve his or her own interests and nothing else.

The second thing that happens is that people become self serving in their relationships with other people as well. This Lamech killed a man, following in Cain’s footsteps. We can assume that he had a similar motive to Cain and was motivated by anger. However, he pushed the boundaries for Cain was to be avenged sevenfold but this man decided that he had to be avenged seventy and sevenfold. He had such a high opinion of himself that he decided that he was seven times more important than Cain.

There is a sober lesson for us all when we think to push the boundaries for as we do that we are condemning our children or their children to a state of complete anarchy. If we look for a society that is based on greed by being greedy then we condemn our children or their children to financial hardship. The moment we choose the action we already choose the consequence.

There is reason for hope! (see Psalm 103: 10) The Lord Jesus Christ paid the consequences of our desire to push the boundaries and now we can be separated from the eternal consequences of our actions by the power of His blood. He paid the price but we can choose to have eternal life without doing anything at all, other than listening to the prompting of the Holy Ghost and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you would like to find out more about God's grace at the beginning you might like to visit http://www.lulu.com/content/799024 and buy a copy of my book “The Scarlet Thread”.

(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)