A favorite carol of almost everybody - written by Isaac Watts, in 1719, the same year Robinson Crusoe was published and 13 years before George Washington was born. The melody we use was arranged from a composition by George Frederick Handel.
Words we usually miss are:
No more let sin and sorrow grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found!
What curse? And His blessing are to flow...as far as that curse is found...how far is the curse found?
Back to Genesis. Chapter 3
So the ground was cursed and would bring forth weeds among the food (and remember, those were days of vegetarian diets) and so producing crops would be harder and apparently there would be some physical change in man--he would perspire when he worked because it would be much more laborious to harvest food now. Maybe he wouldn't be as strong, either.
We don't know all the details. God has just left us the outline of what happened when sin entered our glorious garden world.
Looks like wherever man goes on this earth, the curse is there. As civilizations spread out to seek new land they encountered (and brought with them) the curse.
Cursed is the ground for your sake...through suffering shall you eat of it all the days of your life... thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you...in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...
So the ground was cursed and would bring forth weeds among the food (and remember, those were days of vegetarian diets) and so producing crops would be harder and apparently there would be some physical change in man--he would perspire when he worked because it would be much more laborious to harvest food now. Maybe he wouldn't be as strong, either.
We don't know all the details. God has just left us the outline of what happened when sin entered our glorious garden world.
Looks like wherever man goes on this earth, the curse is there. As civilizations spread out to seek new land they encountered (and brought with them) the curse.
Does the curse go with man into space? Man, who is fed with food from a cursed earth and machinery that is built with items from the cursed earth -- even man himself..."For dust you are and to dust you will return...."
I can remember when the two Voyagers left on their missions in 1977.
For over 30 years they have plummeted into space, still going, still sending out messages and reports back to us....still searching for other life.
The Golden Records
The Golden Records
Remember the "Golden Record" that was placed on each Voyager?
These records contained information from our planet, in case the rockets were intercepted by another civilization or perhaps landed on an alien place where life forms might find them.
On the Records were things like sounds from earth (a wave crashing on a beach, a sound of wind, a waterfall, birds, whales, etc.) and sounds of human beings (baby's cry, a kiss) and music from around the world.
The one thing it did not include, and certainly should have, was a "Warning" sign, with the words from Genesis 3. After all, shouldn't life forms through out the universe know who they were dealing with? We are containers and generators of a curse - we are violent, selfish people who seek control and set out to hurt each other. The whole universe should be warned! Stay away from planet earth.
"Open these doors at your own risk" it should say.
But in the future Kingdom to come, what happens to that curse?
And there shall be no more curse (Revelation 22:3)
And there shall be no more curse (Revelation 22:3)
His blessing will flow...as far as the curse is found! Throughout the earth - throughout the universe!
Voyager 1 is now the farthest from the earth made-made object!
Christ's rule will dwarf that distance!
Voyager 1 is now the farthest from the earth made-made object!
Christ's rule will dwarf that distance!
When the curse is removed,
all things will be made new for Christ's new kingdom.
P.S. I have seen copies of the material on these Golden Records. Carl Sagan selected the earth's sights and sounds that he felt should be included -- it is a total distortion of what life is really like here! (We were strange people in the 70's....we had great difficulty seeing reality...)There were pictures of interracial and trans cultural families eating bountiful meals around the world... plates heaped with food...everyone happy and joyous....lots of crops and content, satisfied people. No scenes of war...none of hunger...none of prisons...no crime, no abortions...just happy people eating and playing with each other without a care in the world! What idiotic propaganda!
You can go online and see what was on the record. Chuck Berry, but no Silent Night... no Amazing Grace....nothing spiritual.
Perhaps one day in the far future, some unsuspecting life form will arrive here in their space ships, with one of those "Golden Records" in their "hands" and find out what we are really like - then sue us for false advertising!
(It would be like booking a vacation trip to a leper colony!)
P.P.S. Isaac Watts based this wonderful song on Psalm 98, which is primarily about the 2nd coming of Christ, and which is also the main topic of his famous carol. So it will be more appropriately sung at Christ's return as King, not to celebrate His first coming as a suffering servant. Read Psalm 98 and check it out.
Joy to the World is not about the Nativity -- it's about the 2nd coming of Christ as King!
Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Joy to the World is not about the Nativity -- it's about the 2nd coming of Christ as King!
Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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