A Lesson Samuel Didn’t Learn

Posted on February 2, 2026 by russellmckinney

Of all of Israel’s great spiritual leaders, none rises any higher than Samuel. He was a prophet, a priest, and the last of Israel’s Judges. He personally anointed the nation’s first two kings (Saul and David), and two books from the Old Testament bear his name, even though they were originally one book.

But was Samuel perfect? Nope. In particular, there was one lesson that he failed to learn even though God enrolled him in the perfect class in which to learn it.

Samuel began his life as one of the Bible’s classic examples of God opening a barren wife’s womb and allowing her husband to father a child through her. The wife’s name was Hannah and the husband’s name was Elkanah. The promise Hannah made to God was that if He would open her womb and give her a child, that child would be dedicated to the Lord his entire life (1 Samuel 1:8-11). She made that promise while praying at Israel’s Tabernacle, the holy structure where the Ark of the Covenant was kept (1 Samuel 1:7). At that time, the Tabernacle was located in Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:9). The Tabernacle was where Israel’s priests served and offered Israel’s sacrifices to God.

Once Elkanah’s family returned home from Shiloh, it wasn’t long before Hannah became pregnant with Samuel (1 Samuel 1:20). She kept him until he was weaned (typically a two-to-three-year period), and then she and Elkanah took him to the Tabernacle and formally gave him to the priests there to be raised by them (1 Samuel 1:21-28; 2:1-11). Hannah and Elkanah would only visit him at the Tabernacle each year when they brought the sacrifices that were commanded by the law of Moses (1 Samuel 2:18-21).

Israel’s High Priest during those days was Eli, but he was very old (1 Samuel 2:22). Consequently, he delegated the primary responsibilities of the priesthood to his two sons: Hophni and Phinehas. That was a major problem because Hophni and Phinehas weren’t even saved believers (1 Samuel 2:12)! In keeping with their spiritual state, they made a mockery of the holy priesthood by offering sacrifices in ways that violated the Israel’s law but benefited themselves (1 Samuel 1:13-16; Leviticus 7:28-34; Deuteronomy 18:3). The manner in which they performed Israel’s sacrifices was so repugnant to God that He actually abhorred the sacrifices (1 Samuel 2:17).

Furthermore, Hophni and Phinehas were womanizers who had sexual relations with the women who served as menial helpers to the priests at the Tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:22; Exodus 38:8). Such shockingly scandalous behavior was even more than old Eli could ignore, and so when he heard the report, he made an attempt to rebuke his sons (1 Samuel 2:22-25). As could have been predicted, however, they ignored him and continued on with their sinful ways.

Finally, the time came for young Samuel to fulfill his destiny as being God’s true man there at the Tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:26). So, what followed was a sequence of events:

  • First, God sent a “man of God,” who curiously goes unnamed in the storyline, to speak a word of prophetic rebuke to Eli telling him that God was going to take the priesthood from Eli, raise up a new High Priest, and kill Hophni and Phinehas (1 Samuel 2:27-36).
  • Second, God audibly spoke to Samuel during a nightly encounter that served as not only Samuel’s actual salvation experience (1 Samuel 3:7) but also his official call into the ministry (1 Samuel 3:1-21).
  • Third, God allowed the Philistines to win a decisive battle over Israel, a battle during which the Philistines killed 30,000 of Israel’s soldiers and captured the Ark of the Covenant as a trophy of war (1 Samuel 4:1-11). Hophni and Phinehas were killed in that battle as well.
  • Fourth, when the 98-year-old Eli heard the news about the death of his two sons and the loss of the Ark of the Covenant, he fell off his seat backward and died instantly from a broken neck (1 Samuel 4:18).

Okay, now let’s fast forward to a time when Samuel himself has grown old. Even though he has never served as Israel’s High Priest, he has been the nation’s recognized spiritual leader for decades. No one is as respected in the land as he is. And yet there is a problem.

In addition to his spiritual leadership, the elderly Samuel is also still Israel’s Judge in the practical matters that arise between people. This role requires him to annually leave his home in Ramah and travel a designated circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging cases and settling disputes at each site (1 Samuel 7:15-17). But Samuel is now too old to be doing all that, and so he installs his two sons, Joel and Abijah, as Judges to help him with the job (1 Samuel 8:1-2). Herein lies the problem. Joel and Abijah, you see, are wicked men who seek dishonest gain, take bribes, pervert justice, and do not walk in Samuel’s ways (1 Samuel 8:3).

How bad is the situation? It’s bad enough that the elders of Israel gather themselves together, make the trip to visit Samuel at his home in Ramah, and tell him that they will not accept Joel and Abijah as Judges. As the elders see it, it’s time for Israel to have its first king, a ruler who will act as Judge over the people (1 Samuel 8:1-5).

That, ladies and gentlemen, was the beginning of the end of Israel’s era of Judges and the launching pad for its era of kings. And what was the root cause of that history-shaking transition? It was the fact that Samuel hadn’t learned from the parenting mistakes that he’d watched Eli make so many years earlier. Just as Eli had proven himself incapable of raising sons worthy to succeed him in his role as High Priest, Samuel had proven himself just as incapable in raising sons worthy to succeed him in his role as Judge. How sad!

The takeaway from all this for us isn’t hard to discern. We must not let ourselves make the same mistakes we have watched previous generations make. We shouldn’t fulfill that famous saying that tells us, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Even if we make mistakes in raising the next generation — and we will surely make some mistakes — those mistakes should at least be new ones, not the same ones we watched the generation that came before us make. To repeat those mistakes is inexcusable. And that, unfortunately, is a lesson that Samuel didn’t learn.

Posted in Aging, Backsliding, Children, Discernment, Discipline, Elderly, Faithfulness, Family, Fatherhood, God's Holiness, God's Work, Headship, Husbands, Influence, Leadership, Marriage, Ministry, Motherhood, Parenting, Pastors, Sin, Youth | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Persistently Praying for Someone Else

Posted on January 30, 2026 by russellmckinney

And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks. (Luke 11:9-10, N.L.T.)

An old saying in preaching circles says, “A text taken out of context is a pretext.” The saying simply means that the writers of the Bible didn’t pen down random thoughts in random order. To the contrary, each writer organized the content of his book in a systematic, intentional way that was inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16). In most cases, the order stems from the chronology of the events recorded in the book, but in some cases the order is topical rather than chronological.

Okay, so why am I bringing this up? I’m doing it because Luke places our text passage right on the heels of Christ’s story about a man who knocks on the door of his friend’s home at midnight and asks for three loaves of bread. The door-knocker needs the three loaves because another friend of his, one who is in the midst of a journey, has showed up very unexpectedly and very hungry at the door-knocker’s home.

Jesus says, “Even though friendship alone won’t compel the friend who receives the late-night request to get out of bed and give the bread, he’ll do it to end the door-knocker’s persistent midnight knocking.” Following this illustration Christ’s next words in Luke’s gospel are, “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened.” You see, Luke wants the illustration and the promise to walk hand in hand. The illustration segues directly into the promise.

You say, “Well, what’s the big deal about that?” The big deal is that the context for Christ’s promise is one of intercessory prayer as the door-knocker in the illustration is doing nothing less than interceding (making request) for his hungry friend. It’s the friend, not the door-knocker himself, who needs the bread. As for the guy who is asleep in bed, he’s merely the person through whom the door-knocker gets the traveler’s need met.

Now, to be fair, this same promise about asking, seeking, and knocking is also given in Matthew 7:7-8, and in that passage the context has nothing to do with intercessory prayer. So, it’s not right to say that Jesus intended the promise to be used exclusively for intercessory prayer. It is clear, however, that the promise can and should be claimed in this way. (For the record, I’m in the camp of those who believe that Matthew 7:7-8 and Luke 11:9-10 are the record of two separate quotes from Jesus that were spoken in two different settings at two different times.)

The upshot of all this is that if you’ve been praying that God will meet the need of a certain individual, don’t stop praying. Don’t stop asking for that request. Don’t stop seeking that answer. Don’t stop knocking on God’s door. After all, God is the friend of yours who has the bread, and He’s the one who will at some point honor your persistence by granting your request so that the need of that other individual can be met.

Posted in Friendship, God's Timing, God's Provision, God's Word, Intercessory Prayer, Ministry, Needs, Perseverance, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Scripture, The Bible, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Trouble with Power

Posted on January 28, 2026 by russellmckinney

Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.” (Matthew 26:3-4, N.K.J.V.)

Evil can be shameless. Can you imagine the Jewish religious elite sitting around in the palace of the high priest, engaged in open conversation about killing a man? What would have caused them to do such a thing? One thing: power (or more precisely, their potential loss of it.)

Those chief priests, scribes, and elders saw Jesus for exactly what He was: the greatest threat they had ever known to the status quo in Israel. That status quo, of course, was to their overall liking because it allowed them to play the role of big shots. They had the stroke. They had the influence. They were in control of the Jewish way of life. Sure, the Romans held sway over the entire land, but those pagans were content to let Israel’s religious elite manage the commoners.

Some of the nastiest people you will ever meet are those who are feeling threatened by a potential loss of power. Such people don’t like change, are loathe to admit mistakes, and tend to be bullyish and vindictive. They talk a lot about the past and want the future to be nothing more than a grander continuation of it. When threatened they go for the jugular. And if they see someone as a big enough threat to their control, they’ll play as dirty as dirty gets.

This brings us back to those Jewish religious leaders. Not only was Jesus not impressed by them, He dared call them sinners who needed to repent. The nerve of that fanatic! Those men thought, “This man must be stopped.” But clear thinking was required. After all, it was the feast season of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That meant the streets of Jerusalem would be jammed pack with Jews from up and down the land, and a large percentage of those Jews considered Jesus to be nothing less than the Messiah.

If Jesus was to be killed, the situation had to be handled delicately. Those religious leaders didn’t want a riot on their hands. By the way, egomaniacs drunk on power always want to keep the sheep tranquil. Tranquil sheep never alter the status quo.

Now, just to be clear, let me say that the world does need leaders. The Bible, for example, features scores of characters who were great leaders. But the key to godly leadership is that the leader himself must be fully submitted to Jesus. Really, such leaders don’t even make their own decisions. What they do is allow Jesus to channel His decisions through them. That, needless to say, is a whole other way of operating.

Unfortunately, this style of leadership is all but extinct in our governmental offices, businesses, courts, schools, churches, and homes today. To the contrary, the prevailing attitude of the era can be summed up in the question: “Why should we come together in a palace and have a time of confession, repentance, and seeking God’s will when we can come together in that same palace and seek the demise of those who are causing us problems?” You see, the world still has its chief priests, scribes, and elders. If you are looking for them, look in places where people have the power and control over certain situations. There you’ll find them, and the chances are high that they’ll even be in the process of plotting someone’s demise.

Posted in Business, Character, Church, God's Will, God's Work, Greed, Headship, Leadership, Pastors, Politics, Submission | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The People Had a Mind to Work

Posted on January 26, 2026 by russellmckinney

So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. (Nehemiah 4:6, N.K.J.V.)

The book of Nehemiah tells the story of a Jew named Nehemiah. He served on the royal staff of the Persian ruler Artaxerxes as the king’s cupbearer. However, that is not what made Nehemiah famous. What made him famous was leading an unlikely movement to rebuild the walls surrounding the city of Jerusalem. Those walls had been torn down over a century earlier by the Babylonian army that had conquered Jerusalem and burned the city’s temple in the process.

Thanks to the previous efforts of another Jew, Zerubbabel, a new temple had been erected in Jerusalem, albeit one not as grand the original one (Ezra chapters 1-6). But that new temple, which was now several decades old, stood in constant jeopardy as long as Jerusalem’s protective walls still lay in ruins. This was Nehemiah’s cue to volunteer himself to gather the permission, the resources, and the people to lead the effort to rebuild those walls.

Despite serious opposition instigated by local enemies, Nehemiah and his group of workers managed to completely finish the wall in just 52 days. It was nothing short of one of the most remarkable building achievements in history. The secret to their astounding success is stated in our text verse, Nehemiah 4:6, which reports the group’s progress at the halfway point of the project — when the rebuilt wall stood at half its desired height. The verse simply says: “the people had a mind to work.” Yep, that will get a job done.

It’s sad, downright tragic in fact, that our churches today are not marked by congregations who have a mind to work. Instead, we have congregations that have minds to (take your pick): argue, fuss, fight, obsess over money, play, be entertained, compromise, or be lazy. It’s no wonder that we can’t make a dent in shaping the spiritual, moral fabric of our times. Who wants to follow the example of a bunch of people who get together, claim to be members of the same spiritual family, and proceed to act like kids in a sandbox?

One notable preacher once said, “You can’t build a great church on spare time and pocket change.” How right he was. A great church requires sacrifice, not just the sacrifice of money but also that of time. This, of course, is to say nothing of the sacrifice of work.

Unfortunately, most church-members nowadays pour so much of themselves into doing the work of their secular jobs and their daily chores that they can’t muster up any work at church, too. That’s why they are content to come, sit, soak, and leave. They never really invest themselves into a church, which makes it easy for them to head down the road and find another one anytime things don’t go to their liking.

It is with all this in mind, Christian, that I ask you: How much work are you really putting into church? When it comes to your local church, do you have a mind to work? Do you have what it takes to lose some of your time, your energy, and your resources in helping rebuild a wall? Do you show up at church with rolled-up sleeves rather than a turned-up nose? One out-of-heart pastor said, “My people aren’t born again; they are born against.” That’s not you, is it, Christian? If it is, then you are standing in the way of God’s work rather than joining in with it. And that’s a real shame because, after all, there is always so much of His work that needs to be done.

Posted in Attitude, Church, Church Attendance, Commitment, Complaining, Deacons, God's Work, Ministry, Missions, Money, Pastors, Sacrifice, Service, Sunday School, Work, Worship | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Are You Taking Your Stand with God’s Revealed Truth?

Posted on January 23, 2026 by russellmckinney

One day a teacher set up a telescope in his classroom so that his students could view a certain planet and its moons. The students lined up to peer into the telescope, and one by one each student confidently affirmed that he could see the planet and the moons. The whole project was humming along nicely until one student looked into the telescope and said, “I can’t see anything.”

The statement angered the teacher a bit, and in a tone of annoyance he told the student to adjust the lenses. The student did so but still claimed to see nothing. At that point the teacher leaned over to the telescope and had a look for himself. To his complete surprise, he saw nothing. Upon investigation he discovered that the lens cap hadn’t been removed from the telescope. This is a true story, and the student who said, “I can’t see anything” was Benno Muller-Hill, who would go on to become one of Germany’s leading biologists.

This story reminds me of an experience I once had in high school. Stan Elkins, our Physical Science teacher, stood before our class one day holding two objects, one in each hand. I can’t remember precisely what the objects were, but one of them was obviously heavier than the other one. Stan said, “I’m going to drop these two objects at the same time, and I want a show of hands as to which one will hit the ground first.” The three choices were: the heavier object will hit first, the lighter object will hit first, or both objects will hit at the same time. I remember the hands of the entire class, except my hand, going up to vote for the heavier object hitting first.

As for me, I voted for the option that both objects would hit the ground at the same time. When Stan saw my solitary hand in the air, he grinned at me and asked, “Are you sure, Russ?” That’s when I started waffling, which was quickly followed by me answering, “No” and dropping my hand to about half mast. I mean, c’mon, it’s one thing to write down an answer that only the teacher will ever see, but it’s something else entirely to get horse laughed by a room full of your peers because you are the only idiot among them. When Stan saw me backing up from my answer, he just laughed and said, “Ah, he’s not so sure now.”

Okay, now it was time for him to drop the objects. Everyone in class grew deathly silent as he first made sure that the objects were at equal distances from the ground. Then he did the drop.

And what was the result? Both objects hit the ground at the same time. The whole class was astonished except for me. I was just mad at myself for not sticking to my guns under pressure. It also didn’t help that Stan smiled at me and said, “You see, Russ, you should have trusted yourself.”

By now you are probably wondering what compelled me to give that minority answer anyway. Well, I assure you that it wasn’t because I was so much more brilliant than my classmates. No, I gave the answer because I had an advantage over them.

Through no planning of my own, I had recently watched an old black-and-white television show in which a man had taught a boy a lesson by dropping two rocks, one heavy and one light, to the ground. (All these years later, I wish I could remember which show it was.) Like my classmates, that boy had assumed that the heavier rock would hit the ground first. But just as Stan’s experiment would prove a few days later, in the man’s experiment both rocks had hit the ground at the same time. The man had then explained to the boy that the famous Italian scientist Galileo had taught the world the odd fact that gravity accelerates all objects at the same rate, regardless of their mass or composition.

(For the record, Galileo’s discovery is now known as “The Universality of Free Fall” or “The Equivalence Principle,” and it’s a cornerstone of modern physics. Albert Einstein used the principle to formulate his theory of relativity. It should be noted, however, that the principle can only be perfectly displayed by items being dropped inside an airless vacuum. This is because if the air resistance is great enough on an object, it can cause that object to fall at a slower rate. For example, a bowling ball will hit the ground long before a piece of paper even though gravity is pulling on them at the same rate.)

Okay, now let me get to the point of this post, and it has nothing to do with physics. The point is that God had used that old television show to reveal truth to me, truth upon which I should have firmly stood in Stan Elkin’s class that day. Like a lot of Bible-believing Christians, though, when the pressure rose a bit, I folded like a cheap card table in regards to what God had revealed to me. All it took to get me to forsake what I knew to be true was some laughter from my fellow students and just a touch of questioning by Stan. That I admit to my everlasting shame.

But tell me, Christian, is there some God-revealed truth that you have forsaken lately? If there is, what was your reason for forsaking it? Did peer pressure get you? Did a potential loss of friends or even family cause you to fold? Did you fear being ridiculed? Or did you forsake God’s truth because Satan got you with the same lie that he used on Eve: “Has God really said…”?

Whatever it was that caused you to waffle on God’s revealed truth and lower your hand, let me encourage you right now to confess your sin to God, repent of it, and embrace that truth afresh and anew. That might require you to revisit some conversations you’ve had with people. It might require you to make some changes in how you’ve been handling situations. It might even require you to rearrange your entire world. But in the end the all-important question that you have to ask yourself is, “Am I going to take my stand upon the truth that God has revealed to me or not?” You see, it really does come down to just that. And if you answer that question wrongly, then get ready to live with regret for the rest of your life. Take it from someone who could have stood tall in a Physical Science class one day but wasted the golden opportunity.

Posted in Abortion, Belief, Bible Study, Choices, Courage, Criticism, Discernment, Doubt, Faith, Faithfulness, Fear, God's Guidance, God's Will, God's Word, Homosexuality, Personal, Rebellion, Satan, Scripture, The Bible, The Devil, Trusting In God, Truth | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Holy Spirit as Comforter

Posted on January 21, 2026 by russellmckinney

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38, N.K.J.V.)

R.A. Torrey was one of the most famous preachers who ever lived. His resume would impress anyone. He graduated from Yale University and Yale Divinity School. He was a prominent pastor. He worked extensively with the great evangelist D.L. Moody in evangelistic work. He preached around the world. He was the Superintendent of the school that is now known as Moody Bible Institute. He founded Biola University in Los Angeles and served as its dean. He authored dozens of books.

Torrey and his wife had five children, four of them girls, but a tragic accident claimed the life of their twelve-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. The funeral was conducted on a rainy day, and the weather seemed to fit the mood of the family perfectly. As Torrey and his wife, Clara, stood over the gravesite, Clara said, “I’m so glad Elizabeth is not in that box.”

The next morning R.A. got up and went for a walk. As he walked, he began to think about how he wouldn’t get to hear Elizabeth laugh again or see her grow into a young woman. Even though he knew her soul was in heaven, the loss of future earthly memories with her was more than he could take. His grief became overwhelming.

Barely able to stand, and desperate for God’s comforting presence, Torrey leaned up against a light pole and began to pray. As for what happened next, I’ll let the man himself explain. He said:

And just then the fountain, the Holy Spirit, whom I had in my heart, broke forth with such power as I think I had never experienced before. And it was the most joyful moment I had ever known in my life! It is an unspeakably glorious thing to have within you a fountain ever springing up, springing up, springing up, ever springing up 365 days in every year, springing up under all circumstances.

Christian, there are two things that I want you to learn from Torrey’s experience, an experience that calls to mind Christ’s words from our text passage (John 7:37-38). First, you should learn that being a Christian doesn’t make you immune from life’s hardships and tragedies. If a great Christian like R.A. Torrey could have a young daughter die in an accident, none of us is safe from calamity.

Second, you should learn that one of the indwelling Holy Spirit’s most important roles in your life is that of Comforter. In John 14:26, the Greek word that is used in reference to the Holy Spirit is parakletos, from which comes the Greek proper noun Paraclete. Because the word parakletos literally means “called to one’s side,” various translations of the Bible translate the word as “Helper,” “Counselor,” “Advocate,” “Companion,” or “Friend.” None of these translations, however, is as heartwarming as the classic King James translation’s familiar “Comforter.”

Christian, the point is that when you need comforting, the indwelling Holy Spirit wells up inside you and does that comforting. This comforting is something that R.A. Torrey once experienced while leaning against a light pole the day after he had buried his daughter, and it’s something that you can experience as well. Obviously, you’d rather not experience any loss or tragedy, but unfortunately life makes that an impossibility. So, when those difficult times come, what you should do is pray to God and ask Him to have the indwelling Holy Spirit minister His sweet comfort to you. And then don’t be surprised when the Holy Spirit does just that.

Posted in Adversity, Comfort, Death, Depression, Disappointment, Encouragement, Fear, God's Love, God's Omnipresence, God's Provision, Inner Peace, Peace, Perseverance, Problems, Restoration, Suffering, The Holy Spirit, Trials, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Story About the Value of Waiting Just a Little Bit Longer

Posted on January 19, 2026 by russellmckinney

In his booklet When Everything Goes Wrong, Adrian Rogers tells the story of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn, who was a Christian, was a Russian writer who was an outspoken critic of communism and the Soviet Union. In February of 1945, he was arrested for making disparaging remarks against Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin and was sentenced to the Soviet Union’s “gulag” system of forced-labor camps. He would remain a prisoner for the next eight years, being assigned to different camps and different work details over the course of those years.

As a prisoner, Solzhenitsyn was not allowed any mail, newspapers, magazines, or letters. He couldn’t write any letters, either. He had absolutely no communication with the outside world. The rules of imprisonment in the “gulag” camps were so extreme that the prisoners were not even allowed to communicate with each other.

Each day for Solzhenitsyn was filled with nothing but hard, physical labor that was carried out in either scorching heat or brutal cold. Guards stood in constant watch over the prisoners, and the food rations were meager. Even nighttime didn’t provide much relief as the beds were barely beds.

After enduring such conditions for years, there came a time when Solzhenitsyn decided to end his suffering by committing suicide. But the more he thought about that drastic course of action, the more he realized that he couldn’t go through with it. His Christian faith simply wouldn’t allow it.

Solzhenitsyn’s misery was so consuming, however, that his mind quickly hatched another idea. He would try to escape by breaking and running. He thought, “If I’m shot in the back, at least I’ll be free from this awful existence, and my death won’t be my fault.”

And so, the day came that Solzhenitsyn had decided would be his last, one way or the other, as a prisoner. After a period of the day’s typical grueling work, the prisoners were given a few moments of rest. Solzhenitsyn then made his way over to a tree and sat down under it. As he sat there, he intently watched the guard who had a rifle. That guard would be the one to shoot him in the back if the escape didn’t work.

Solzhenitsyn knew that the prisoners’ moment of rest wouldn’t last long, and so he figured that now was the time to attempt his escape. He put his hands to the ground and was ready to push himself up into his best run, but at that very moment another prisoner, one he had not seen before, walked up to him and stood directly in front of him. Solzhenitsyn couldn’t believe the man’s timing.

Since the guard with the rifle was standing right there, the two prisoners didn’t dare try to communicate. But the other prisoner looked into Solzhenitsyn’s eyes with such love and compassion that Solzhenitsyn entire demeanor changed. He would later say of the prisoner’s look, “Though he uttered not a word, there was a look upon his face that spoke volumes to my heart.”

Now that the prisoner had Solzhenitsyn’s unspoken attention, the man used a branch from the tree to doodle on the ground in such a childlike, harmless way that the nearby guard didn’t even bother to investigate. And what did the prisoner doodle? Solzhenitsyn looked down and to his surprise saw that the seemingly random doodle was not random at all. It was a cross!

The moment Solzhenitsyn saw the cross he knew that his plan to either escape or be killed was not of God. So, right there on the spot he asked God to forgive him. And it was only a few days later that Solzhenitsyn learned the reason why God had intervened so marvelously to keep him from attempting his escape. To quote Solzhenitsyn, “Little did I know that all over the world people were pleading my cause, and that in just three days I would be a free man in Geneva, Switzerland. Three days!”

Posted in Adversity, Choices, Conviction, Decisions, Depression, Faith, God's Timing, God's Foreknowledge, God's Guidance, God's Will, Impatience, Patience, Problems, Suffering, Suicide, Temptation, Trials, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Everyday Evidences of Adam & Eve’s Fall (post #3)

Posted on January 16, 2026 by russellmckinney

This post is the third and last in our series “Everyday Evidences of Adam & Eve’s Fall.” Thus far we’ve identified the evidences associated with God’s judgments upon the serpent/Satan and Eve. By way of a reminder, those evidences are: snakes still slither on their bellies, the world’s lost people (the seed of Satan) are still enemies against Jesus (the Seed of the woman), labor pain is still a part of childbirth, and wives still have an inner desire to rule over their husbands. Also, in terms of historical evidence, Satan dealt Jesus a painful blow by working through lost people to get Him crucified, but Jesus dealt Satan an even greater blow by making that death a substitutionary sacrifice for mankind’s sins and by resurrecting.

Now we come to the everyday evidences associated with God’s judgment upon Adam. There are three of them. So, let’s take them one at a time.

First, God told Adam that the ground was now cursed for Adam’s sake. Adam’s job in the Garden of Eden had always been to “work it” (N.I.V.) and “take care of it” (N.I.V.) (Genesis 2:15). Other translations translate the Hebrew as: “cultivate,” “till,” “keep,” “watch over,” “care for,” “dress,” or “keep.” You get the idea. Adam’s job was to care for the Garden of Eden in such a way as to not only keep it in top form as a lovely garden but also to harvest food from it.

Before Adam’s sin there were no thorns and thistles in the Garden of Eden or upon the rest of the earth. As a result of his sin, however, thorns and thistles would now be a part of the package. Centuries later the apostle Paul would write that all of creation was “subjected to futility” (Romans 8:20, N.K.J.V.), that it is now under “the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21, N.K.J.V.), and that it currently “groans and labors” like a woman experiencing birth pangs (Romans 8:22, N.K.J.V.). If you’ve ever tried to raise a garden or keep a yard looking good, you know that even today the earth’s soil can be downright uncooperative. We don’t have to plant thorns, thistles, weeds, etc. They grow and multiply just fine on their own.

We might ask, “Were the thorns and thistles a dormant part of the earth’s originally created soil or did God create them brand new in the wake of Adam’s sin?” The Bible doesn’t give us that answer. In my opinion, though, the most likely explanation for their beginning is that when the earth was “subjected to futility,” certain plant species mutated and degenerated from their originally intended designs and became thorns and thistles. I say this because Genesis 1:31 tells us that prior to Adam and Eve’s sin God looked upon everything that He had made and found it all very good.

Second, as another part of God’s judgment upon Adam’s sin, God told him that sweat would now be associated with him eating bread (Genesis 3:19). It is important to note that the act of work itself was not the result of God’s judgment against sin. As I pointed out earlier, even Adam’s pre-sin days were marked by him working the Garden of Eden and taking care of it. Likewise, Eve was his helper (Genesis 2:18), to say nothing of the fact that she was also slated to bring forth children and do the work of mothering them.

No, the judgment wasn’t that Adam would now have to work. The judgment was that the work would now be much harder for him, hard enough to produce sweat on his forehead. The harvests from his farming would still provide food (“bread’) for him and his family, but cultivating those harvests and collecting them would now require much more physical exertion on his part. Anyone who has ever broken into a sweat while working can confirm that this particular evidence of Adam’s fall is still very much on display today.

Third, God informed Adam that because of his sin he was now destined to experience physical death (Genesis 3:19). God described Adam’s death as him returning to the dust from which he had been created (Genesis 2:7). This death would be the fulfillment of God’s warning concerning the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “…in the day you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17, N.K.J.V.).

Hebrew scholars tell us that a more literal translation of the Hebrew of Genesis 2:17 would read: “…in the day you eat of it dying you shall die.” This shows us that God’s warning about the forbidden fruit was never intended to threaten a sudden death for Adam and Eve. Instead, the moment they ate of the forbidden fruit the aging process would begin in their bodies, and that aging process would eventually culminate in death. In Adam’s case, the physical death would take 930 years (Genesis 5:5), but it would happen just as God promised.

And it wouldn’t just be Adam who would die. Anyone who came from his body would also die. That included Eve, whom God had made from one of Adam’s ribs (Genesis 2:21-23). It also included all of Adam’s sexually reproduced descendants, an entire human race’s worth. As the Bible says, sin entered the world through Adam, and death entered the world through sin (Romans 5:12). Consequently, death was spread to each member of the human race by Adam. That explains why 1 Corinthians 15:22 says: “…in Adam all die” (N.K.J.V.).

The fact is that you are experiencing the aging process right now, and you can thank Adam for that everyday evidence of his fall. Likewise, unless you are a Christian who lives to see the moment of the Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:50-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), you won’t make it out of this world alive. You can thank Adam for that everyday evidence, too.

I am happy to report, however, that Jesus has plans to remedy all the evidences of Adam’s sin. For starters, one day — following the Rapture and the seven years of the Tribulation Period — Jesus will return to this earth and establish His 1,000 year kingdom upon it (Revelation 20:1-6). At that time He will revert the planet itself back to much of its original pristine condition. The wilderness and the wasteland will be glad (Isaiah 35:1). The desert will blossom like a rose (Isaiah 35:1-2). Waters will burst forth in the wilderness and streams will burst forth in the desert (Isaiah 35:6). Most specific to the issue of thorns and thistles, Isaiah 55:13 says of this kingdom age: “Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow…” (N.I.V.).

Following these 1,000 years, eternity will be ushered in as Christ’s earthly kingdom will become His eternal one. Revelation chapters 21 and 22 teach that Christ’s eternal kingdom will feature a new heaven and a new earth, complete with a new eternal city called New Jerusalem. Will this “new” earth will be this one purged by fire and completely revitalized? Or will this planet be obliterated by the fire and a brand new one hung in its place? Well, there is a debate about that. (If you want to read more about that topic please read my post “The New Heaven, The New Earth, & The New Jerusalem.”) The point here, though, is that Revelation 22:3 explicitly says of the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem: “And there shall be no more curse…” (N.K.J.V.)

That covers Jesus’ plan to remedy the evidences of Adam’s sin in regards to not only the curse upon planet earth but also work being taxing enough to produce sweat. But does Jesus have a plan to remedy the evidences of Adam’s sin in regards to physical death? Yes, He does. Just as Jesus arose in a glorified body fit for eternity, each believer will one day have his or her body glorified. 1 Corinthians 15:20 says that Christ has become the firstfruits of all deceased believers, and 1 Corinthians 15:22 says that just as in Adam all die, in Christ all shall be made alive.

Of course, it should be understood that there isn’t one great day when the bodies of all of history’s saved believers will undergo glorification. For example, the bodies of all the saved believers (Christians) from the church age will be glorified at the moment of the Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:50-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), which occurs before the beginning of the Tribulation Period. (Deceased bodies will be resurrected, while the bodies of living Christians will not need to be resurrected.) Similarly, the bodies of all the believers from the Old Testament era will be resurrected and glorified at Christ’s Second Coming, which occurs at the end of the Tribulation Period (Daniel 12:1-3). Jesus referred to both of these waves of resurrections unto glorification as “the resurrection of life” (John 5:29, N.K.J.V.).

But the resurrections don’t stop there. Even the bodies of each of history’s lost people will undergo a resurrection, albeit not a resurrection unto glorification. These resurrections will occur after Christ’s 1,000 year reign (Revelation 20:4-6). The scene will be what the Bible calls “the Great White Throne Judgment” (Revelation 20:11-15). There, standing before Jesus, each of history’s lost billions will stand in a resurrected body, with the body being reunited with the soul that once inhabited it. Each lost person will then be cast body and soul into the eternal lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). Jesus called this resurrection “the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29, N.K.J.V.).

And so, I’ll wrap up this post and this series by asking you the same question that I’ve asked at the close of the previous two posts: Have you placed saving belief in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? If you have, then you can rest assured in the hope that one day you will be set free from all the damaging evidences of Adam & Eve’s fall into sin. But if you haven’t placed saving belief in Jesus, all the damaging evidences you have to deal with in this life will only be a warm up to evidences even more gruesome in eternity.

Adam really did fall into sin, and he took his entire race (including you) down with him. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Jesus — whom the Bible calls in 1 Corinthians 15:45 “the last Adam” — came to this earth, was born to a virgin (thus bypassing Adam’s tainted reproductive seed), lived a sinless life among Adam’s race, and died as the payment for each and every sin that Adam’s race had ever and would ever commit. Following that death, Jesus then arose from the dead and ascended back to heaven, from which He now offers salvation (forgiveness of sin) to each and every member of Adam’s fallen race.

Therefore, the issue now is really very simple. Each of us must ask himself or herself the question: “Am I associated with the first Adam or the last Adam?” As we have learned, the first Adam crippled us in multiple ways. These ways begin in this life and extend into the afterlife, even growing worse in the afterlife. But the last Adam offers to set all these ways right if we will only believe in Him as Savior. I’ve done that, and my sincere prayer is that you will as well if you never have.

Posted in Aging, Belief, Christ's Birth, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Christ's Return, Coming Judgment, Creation, Death, Depravity, Eternity, God's Judgment, Heaven, Hell, Prophecy, Rebellion, Restoration, Resurrection, Salvation, Series: "Everyday Evidences of Adam & Eve's Fall", Sin, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Everyday Evidences of Adam & Eve’s Fall (post #2)

Posted on January 14, 2026 by russellmckinney

After God had spoken His words of judgment against the serpent and Satan, He turned His attention to Eve. Even though she had been legitimately deceived by Satan (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14), she still had to suffer the consequences of her sin. As we will see there were two of those consequences. And since Eve would be the “mother” of every woman who would ever live, the consequences of her sin would cascade down upon every woman of the human race.

The first consequence is easy to understand. God told Eve, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Genesis 3:16, N.K.J.V.). While there’s no doubt that it had always been God’s plan for Adam and Eve to produce children (Genesis 1:28), evidently the process of childbearing was originally supposed to be painless. Now, though, as a consequence of Eve’s sin, the birthing process would involve pain. Any woman who has ever felt labor pangs can verify that this consequence is still very much a part of our everyday world.

As for the second consequence of Eve’s sin, it requires more explanation, and so I’ll take more time with it. After telling Eve about the pain that would come with her giving birth, God said to her, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16, N.K.J.V.). Since the best way to interpret the Bible is to let it serve as its own commentary, we need to look for other passages where the words “desire” and “rule” are juxtaposed against each other in this same kind of way. And we find such a passage in Genesis 4:7, right next door to this one, in the story of Cain and Abel.

Following Adam and Eve’s sin, God killed either one animal or two in the Garden of Eden and used animal skin to make clothing for the husband and wife (Genesis 3:21). This was the world’s first shedding of blood, and in doing it God was dealing with the problem of Adam and Eve’s sin as well as the problem of their nakedness. You see, Adam and Eve needed forgiveness of sin even more than they needed clothing, and by God’s own standard such forgiveness only comes through the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). Watching God make that kill in Eden and seeing for the first time the red blood that flowed inside an animal was Adam and Eve’s crash course in the necessity of a blood sacrifice for forgiveness of sin.

Now let’s fast forward to a day when Adam and Eve have two grown sons: Cain and Abel. It is time for the two boys to bring their own sacrificial offerings for their own sins, and it is only logical that their parents have described in detail to them how God shed an animal’s blood to provide the world’s first offering for sin. Abel, understanding what type of sacrifice is required, brings an offering of the firstborn of his flock of sheep (perhaps one slain sheep, perhaps more), including the fat of the sheep (Genesis 4:4). Cain, on the other hand, brings an offering of the harvests of his farming (Genesis 4:3). Predictably, God rejects Cain’s bloodless offering and accepts Abel’s blood offering.

Someone might ask, “But why didn’t Cain bring the blood sacrifice of a slain animal? Had Adam and Eve not taught him what type of sacrifice was required?” The little book of Jude gives us that answer. That book is all about apostasy in the church, and apostasy can be defined as rejecting or falling away from revealed truth. And what does Jude say about Cain? Jude 1:11 says of apostates: “Woe to them! For they have gone in way of Cain…(N.K.J.V.).” Well, what way could that be but the rejection of the necessity of a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin? And how could Cain be classified as an apostate in regards to that truth if Adam and Eve had never revealed it to him? Furthermore, Abel knew to bring a blood sacrifice, and he must have learned it from someone.

Okay, now let’s get back to the brothers and their offerings. After God rejects his offering, Cain becomes very angry and bitter (Genesis 4:5). God understands this and tries to encourage him by saying to him, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?” (Genesis 4:6-7, N.K.J.V.). But then God gives him a strong warning: “And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4:7, N.K.J.V.).

There are our words — “desire” and “rule” — juxtaposed again in the same way God used them in pronouncing His judgment upon Eve (and subsequently all the women who would come from her). Therefore, just as sin desired to rule over Cain, Eve desired to rule over her husband, Adam. Her desire, though, would never be any more pleasing to God than sin’s desire to rule over Cain. That’s why God quickly added in the words, “And he (Adam) shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16, N.K.J.V.).

Putting everything together then, what are the two consequences of Eve’s fall that we see on display every day in the world? One is the pain that comes with giving birth, and the other one is the desire among many wives to claim headship over their husbands. Perhaps no scriptural truth is more hated and rejected by the “modern” woman than the truth that God has appointed the husband as the head of the wife and the wife is to be submitted to the husband. Nevertheless, this truth is so fundamental to God’s blueprint for marriage that it is found in no less than seven passages in the Bible: Genesis 3:16; 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:22-24; Colossians 3:18; 1 Timothy 2:11-13; 1 Timothy 3:4-5,12; and 1 Peter 3:1-6.

As for Cain, we know which path he chose. Rather than bring a blood sacrifice and in so doing rule over his sinful desire, he killed Abel (Genesis 4:8-10). How ironic it was that the same man who wouldn’t shed the blood of an animal was perfectly willing to shed the blood of his brother!

But what about Eve? Was she able to keep her inner desire to rule over Adam in check? Since scripture makes no mention of her ever again causing any problems, all indications are that she was. Even more than that, she gave birth to a third son, Seth, and he embraced the spiritual legacy that Abel had been forced to relinquish (Genesis 4:25-26, 5:1-32). In addition to Seth, Eve gave Adam many other sons and daughters (Genesis 5:4).

So, our choice today is clear. We can either follow Cain’s example or Eve’s. When God reveals truth to us, we have the option of either embracing that truth or rejecting it. By submitting herself to Adam’s headship, Eve embraced God’s truth by controlling her sinful desire to rule over Adam. Cain, however, rejected God’s truth concerning the need for a blood sacrifice and became the human race’s first lost person.

Obviously, that was bad for Cain, but do you understand that you will join him in that eternally lost state if you reject God’s revealed truth concerning the final, all-encompassing blood sacrifice that spiritually fulfilled all the previous blood sacrifices and brought the need of them to an end? I’m talking, of course, about the death that Jesus died on the cross in shedding His blood for the sins of the human race. Make no mistake, to reject Him as Savior is to reject His blood sacrifice for your sins, and that amounts to you going “in the way of Cain.” And as I’ve tried to help you understand in this post, that isn’t a way that you want to go, not for this life or the one to come.

Posted in Anger, Bible Study, Children, Choices, Christ's Death, Disobedience, Eternity, Forgiveness, God's Holiness, Heaven, Hell, Husbands, Man's Freewill, Marriage, Obedience, Rebellion, Salvation, Series: "Everyday Evidences of Adam & Eve's Fall", Sin, Submission, Temptation, The Bible, Wives | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Everyday Evidences of Adam & Eve’s Fall (post #1)

Posted on January 12, 2026 by russellmckinney

A straightforward, literal reading of the Bible’s record of history teaches us that approximately 6,000 years have passed since Adam and Eve’s fall into sin. That’s a lot of years. The fact is, though, the specific evidences the Bible associates with that fall are still on display each and every day. Over the next three posts we’ll look at these evidences in the order in which God instituted them. We’ll start with the evidences involving the serpent/Satan.

The Garden of Eden’s serpent was the creature through whom the fallen angel we call Satan spoke in temptation to Eve. Basically, Satan “demon possessed” the serpent by entering into its physical body. If you find it unbelievable that a fallen angel can enter into the body of a creature, I would remind you that a large group of demons once asked Jesus to cast them into a herd of swine (Matthew 8:28-32; Mark 5:1-13; and Luke 8:26-33).

God’s judgment upon the serpent itself was that the creature would be cursed to go on its belly and eat dust all the days of its life (Genesis 3:14). Furthermore, we can be safe in assuming that this judgment also extended to the serpent’s mate and all its offspring. Does this mean that Eden’s serpent originally walked upright? Well, it’s pretty much impossible to interpret this judgment in any other way. And I don’t have to explain that snakes today are still forced to locomote by way of their bellies.

As for Satan he got judged as well. First, God said to him, “I will put enmity between you and the woman” (Genesis 3:15). That meant that from then on Eve and Satan would be enemies. Satan had deceived her and caused her to get too chummy with him (1 Timothy 2:14), but that wouldn’t be happening again. Now she would understand that he was, in reality, her arch enemy.

Second, God promised to take the enmity between Eve and Satan even further by making “the seed of the woman” and “the seed of Satan” enemies (Genesis 3:15). Since women don’t have reproductive seed, the term “the seed of the woman” is a clear reference to Jesus and His virgin birth. Along the same lines, the term “the seed of Satan” is a reference to the spiritually lost people of the world (Matthew 13:38; John 8:44; Acts 13:10; and 1 John 3:10). The enmity that existed between Jesus and spiritually lost people reached its climax in lost people getting Him crucified, but the fact is that the enmity continues to exist today as lost people still reject Him and rebel against Him on a daily basis.

Third, God said that even though Satan would bruise Jesus’ heel, Jesus would bruise Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15). With these words God was metaphorically playing off Satan’s association with the serpent. While a bruise to a person’s heel is painful, it isn’t permanent or fatal. In contrast, a great enough bruise to a snake’s head is permanent and fatal. If you’ve ever run over a snake’s body with your car, you know that the blow doesn’t actually kill the snake. However, if you run over a snake’s head, that blow will kill the snake.

God didn’t fill in the details of His metaphorical illustration, but history would eventually make them plain. First, Satan would work through his children to get Jesus killed. Second, Jesus’ death wouldn’t be permanent because Jesus would resurrect three days later. Third, the spiritual blow Jesus would strike by dying that death for the sins of the human race would be an eternally fatal one for Satan and His cause. Ultimately, Satan and all his seed are doomed because of Christ’s death and resurrection, and what we see on a daily basis in this world are merely the dying battle throes of a spiritual war that has already been decided.

Because of this the most important question that I can ask you is: Have you placed saving belief in Jesus (the seed of the woman) as your personal Savior or are you still a part of the seed of Satan? If you have never placed saving belief in Jesus, let me urge you to do so right now. Make no mistake, He is the only one who can provide the salvation that you need to rescue you from the eternal judgment brought upon the human race by Adam and Eve’s fall into sin.

Oh, and there’s something else that I need to add in here, too. Whether you realize it or not, if you don’t know Jesus as Savior, you are actually living a life of enmity against Him as you pursue the desires of your spiritual father, Satan (John 8:44). Don’t believe it? Then let me point out that Jesus Himself said, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matthew 12:30, Luke 11:23 N.K.J.V.). You see, you are either with Jesus or you are actively working against Him. According to Jesus’ own standard, there is no middle ground. And so, I ask you again: Have you placed saving belief in Jesus (the seed of the woman) as your personal Savior or are you still a part of the seed of Satan? Never forget that nothing less than your eternal destiny is riding on your answer.

Posted in Angels, Assurance of Salvation, Belief, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Coming Judgment, Demons, Depravity, Eternal Security, Eternity, God's Foreknowledge, God's Judgment, Man's Freewill, Salvation, Satan, Series: "Everyday Evidences of Adam & Eve's Fall", Sin, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil, The Gospel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment