The Chronicles of Jo-kiel

TEN: Jophiel

I watched as he gently opened the Bible with a smile on his face, "open up to Genesis 3 please, it's the first book" he said without looking up and I bobbed my head before I grabbed my Bible. "Are you there?" he asked after a while and I nodded, "good, I am going to give you a minute to read the chapter. Just read through it, okay?"

"Alright" I placed the Bible back on the desk and read through the chapter. When I was done, my brows scrunched up in confusion. I thought the chapter would answer my question but it just annoyed me even more. Why didn't God just forgive them? He is all merciful, isn't he? "Well, I think reading this chapter was a good idea. It only gave me more proof that God isn't exactly all merciful"

He chuckled at my words when I was done and shook his head, "you keep me on my toes, Jophiel" he breathed out and I shrugged. "Well, you can ask that question later but right now, let's answer your first question. Why didn't God just eradicate whatever it was that man needed saving from? Can you tell me what man needed saving from?"

I thinned my lips for a brief second before I sighed and mumbled, "Sin"

"No. Man needed saving from the consequences of sin; death. And how did that come into the world?" He asked and I arched a brow, am I supposed to know that? "Sin came into the world when man acted against the words of God. So, man bred sin, or should I say, the heart of man bred sin."

"I thought that was the devil?"

"Satan is secondary, he laid a bait and man took it. If man didn't take the bait, sin wouldn't have been bred." I bobbed my head at the explanation and quickly wrote it down on my note, "so through man sin and death entered into the world, and man needed to be saved from that. If God forgave them the way you think he should have, that won't eradicate the consequences. Death has already entered the world. The only other way apart from the death of Jesus would be to eradicate humanity and start afresh, that would mean God can't control the situation. And would He be God if He can't control the consequences?" My eyes widened at the explanation and I suddenly felt stupid for asking that question. It was kind of obvious.

I immediately looked away from him and lowered my gaze as I wrote down the points he made. "Yeshua dying to save us was absolutely necessary. He bore the consequences of sin which is death, spiritual and physical death so that we don't have to bear them anymore." He paused and gently held my hand to stop me from writing, "have I answered your question now?" I gulped and nodded before I removed my hand from his hold. It felt comforting and nothing makes me as nervous as being comfortable does. Being comfortable means setting yourself up for pain because it can be snatched at any moment, and I am not one to willingly set myself up for pain.

Silence loomed over us for a while before he cleared his throat and I looked up at him to see him smiling, "so what's your second question? With the time we have I can, hopefully, answer two more of your questions" my mouth made an O shape and I immediately glanced at my note for more questions.

"Well..." I dragged out as I tried to process the words in my note. I glanced at the Bible that was open before me and the question I had earlier immediately popped into my head "well if God is so merciful why didn't he forgive the man and the woman when they sinned? It was their first sin, and an honest mistake"

"Who said he didn't?" he said and I tilted my head to the side.

"But He still punished them. That's not what you do when you forgive someone"

"God didn't punish them. They simply faced the consequences of their actions, you can't put your finger in a hot pot and expect no pain. If He hadn't told them before time, then that's a different case but He did and they made their choice. It's only fair they face the consequences"