Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

We return again to the scene of the crime. God said don’t, Adam did. It is that simple. A warning was given that was attached to Adam’s disobedience, death. Given that God is not a liar and that Adam lived in the flesh for many years, what death did Adam experience the day he disobeyed?

Genesis 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Adam and Eve were removed from the intimate relationship they had shared with God and denied access to the tree of life. Everything within our reality feels the void that was created in that moment, and we are born with it. Being removed from God’s presence is called spiritual death. That which was alive in Adam and Eve, spiritual life, died that day. Adam lived for hundreds of years before his body died, but his spiritual death happened that day.

That longing for reversal of the pronouncement of spiritual death left a void in Adam’s heart which became that part of our human nature that screams “I am alone!” A void is a vacuum and the nature of a vacuum is to be filled again. The worst attribute of the vacuum of loneliness sucks the life out of everything around it. This was demonstrated when Cain killed his brother Abel.

Did Cain understand this loneliness? Why else did he offer sacrifices to God of his field? When his sacrifice was not respected sin came knocking at his door. Cain opened that door without understanding the nature of the sin he was about to commit.

We all try to fill that vacuum of loneliness without understanding why it exist or the consequences of filling that void with anything other than what was lost that first day.

Joshua 24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

Yesterday I said I had complicated don’t. God said don’t and Adam did. It is as simple as that. At what point do we have to understand motivations, thinking, communications, emotions or external influences to substitute obedience with personal judgment? The issue came down to disobedience and nothing else. Why wasn’t God’s judgment sufficient?

Here in 24:25 the people have just told Joshua that they would obey the word of God. Joshua now sets a covenant, statutes and ordinances before his people. Why wasn’t obedience to God’s word enough?

Joshua is demonstrating the inherent nature of creating complexity and it seems to be prevalent in all of us to some degree or another.

My simple answer, as simple as I can make it for general understanding is this; Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden, in close personal relationship, without the written word I rely on so heavily. In His presence is a complex concept upon which I rely on His written Word to achieve. Apart from it, I have no experience upon which I can trust myself. Without His Word I am vanity run amok.

I didn’t always have God’s written Word to guide me. There was a time I was ignorant of His Word. There was however an inane desire to complicate things and it manifested itself at an early age. We have said it and we have heard it and we have all had to deal with it. Why? Why? Why?

Immaturity questions maturity because it lacks understanding. Now that I am mature I have the ability to examine my own lack of understanding. What was it I did not understand then, that I have come to understand now with this God given maturity?

Loneliness.