Skip to main content

The World's Oldest "Games"

The world’s oldest "games" date back to the first man and the first woman.  And the games they played then are still being played today!

The first is “Hide and Seek”.  But calling it a game, as it was “played” that first time, is rather disingenuous.  It all started like this:  Adam and Eve were created by God and He told them to not do one specific thing. But, as you might have guessed already, they went ahead and did that one thing.  As a result of disobeying God, they felt guilt and shame.  And rather than going to God and ‘fessing up, they actually tried to hide from God. 

Here’s the account as recorded for us:  Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  (Gen 3:8-9)

This was really not a game, it was actually life at its worst!  Furthermore, God really wasn’t trying to find them, He knew exactly where they were and why they were there.  But, in a sense, God “played along” with their little game because He wanted them to realize where they were and why they were there.

All that leads to the second game, “The Blame Game”.  See how it was “played” then:

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”   The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”  (Gen 3:11-12). 

Ouch, blame number one, which was closely followed by blame number two:

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  (Gen 3:13)

It’s also so very disingenuous to call “The Blame Game” a game.  When this “game” is played, there are no winners, only losers.  And the prize for losing is a trophy filled with grief, pain and heartache!

While “Hide and Seek” can be a fun game when played under the right circumstances, the circumstances surrounding the first time it was played were anything but “right” and we’ve felt the consequences ever since.

But on the bright side, whether we are hiding or lost, God seeks us because He loves us and He finds us because He always knows just where we are!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Excel Still More!

To excel, according to some of the meanings from a few dictionaries, is to surpass others, do extremely well, outdo, do something better than anyone else. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, we find the phrase “excel still more”.   It prompts the question:  if we are already doing something better than anyone else, why would we be encouraged to do even more? Perhaps it would be helpful to see the wording that other translations use for “excel still more” to see why we would be encouraged to do so.  Here is a sampling: • abound more and more • to keep doing so more and more • but try even harder • live that way more and more. • that you progress even more. • that you increase more and more in how you ought to walk Maybe it would also be helpful to see some other verses where the word “excel” is used: “Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means Dorcas); this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.”...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Year Trash or Treasure?

You probably know the old saying:  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.  I am not going to try to prove or disprove it, just look at it from a different angle. Cheryl and I were recently walking on a beach in Florida .  A man was walking along with a bag and was picking up trash and putting it in the bag.  Was he picking up things of value? We also saw a different man walking along the same beach with a metal detector.  He would swing it back and forth and would occasionally stop and dig in the sand.  Was he looking for things of value? Both were intent.  Both were focused.  Both were diligent. I’m guessing that the one picking up trash was not looking for things of value.  I’m also guessing that, by picking up trash, he was valuing the beauty of the beach and didn’t want the trash to mar it.  The one with the metal detector, I’m guessing that he was not looking for metallic items of trash but was looking for...
1 comment
Read more

Value Proposition

Value proposition:  it’s a marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.  It should clearly and concisely communicate what customers can gain from selecting a particular brand over that of its competitors. In a value proposition, you don’t want your product to be viewed as being worth less than what your competitors offer.   But even worse, in a bit of a quirk of how letters and spaces can fall, if you take out the space between “worth” and “less”, you get “worthless”, which means something of no value.   If that word is used in conjunction with how your product is viewed by customers, it’s a word that will likely kill your brand. In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul, in a sense, communicated some value propositions. In chapter three, he starts off with describing the value of some things that many considered as extremely valuable in that day and age.   They had to do with status and achievement in the reli...
Post a Comment
Read more