Addendum to the addendum

“Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” (Heb. 3:5,6).

 

The offensiveness of the God-cockroach concept may come from the thought that using that analogy brings God down to an insect. Adam was made in God’s image as the highest of all creations. It appears that only therefore would it be appropriate for God to use Adam’s race in which to tabernacle. And that was my initial concern when comparing man and roaches.

 

But, then when we take into account the degradation that sin has made of the fearfully and wonderfully made creation of Adam, we can allow for its comparison to cockroaches. The Lord’s description of man’s fallen nature uses degrading words such as,

 

“deceitful above all thing” (Jer. 17:9),

“desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9),

 

“imperious whorish woman” (Eze. 16:30),

“corruptible” (1Cor. 15:53), 

“shapen in iniquity” (Ps. 51:5),

 

“in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5).

 

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).

 

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Rev. 3:17).

 

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Rom. 7:18).

 

“Sin … dwelleth in me ” (Rom. 7:20), “I find then a law, that … evil is present with me.” (Rom. 7:21).

 

“I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Rom. 7:23).

 

“There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10),

 

“there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11).

 

“They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:12).

 

“Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips” (Rom. 3:13),

 

“whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (Rom. 3:14),

 

“their feet are swift to shed blood” (Rom. 3:15),

 

“destruction and misery are in their ways” (Rom. 3:16),

 

“and the way of peace have they not known” (Rom. 3:17),

 

“there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18).

 

“Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh” (Eph. 2:3),

 

“fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Eph. 2:3),

 

“by nature [were] the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:3).

 

“Backbiters” (Rom. 1:30),

 

“haters of God” (Rom. 1:30),

 

“despiteful” (Rom. 1:30),

 

“proud” (Rom. 1:30),

 

“boasters” (Rom. 1:30),

 

“inventors of evil things” (Rom. 1:30),

 

“disobedient to parents” (Rom. 1:30),

 

“without understanding” (Rom. 1:31),

 

“covenantbreakers” (Rom. 1:31).

 

“without natural affection” (Rom. 1:31),

 

“implacable” (Rom. 1:31),

 

“unmerciful” (Rom. 1:31),

 

“who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Rom. 1:32).

 

“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin” (Rom. 3:9).

 

“For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity” (Isa. 59:3),

 

“your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness” (Isa. 59:3),

 

“None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth” (Isa. 59:4),

 

“they trust in vanity, and speak lies” (Isa. 59:4),

 

“they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity” (Isa. 59:4).

 

“They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.” (Isa. 59:5).

 

“Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.” (Isa. 59:6).

 

“Their feet run to evil” (Isa. 59:7),

 

“their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity” (Isa. 59:7),

 

“wasting and destruction are in their paths” (Isa. 59:7),

 

“The way of peace they know not” (Isa. 59:8),

 

“there is no judgment in their goings” (Isa. 59:8),

 

“they have made them crooked paths” (Isa. 59:8),

 

“whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace” (Isa. 59:8).

 

“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in [God’s] sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Rom. 3:20).

 

And therefore, I don’t feel so bad about the cockroach-human likening.

 

Lucifer sought out every way to destroy God. He had been the high priest of the heavenly hosts, their leader, their under-shepherd, their pastor. If Aaron could represent Lucifer as the visible mediator between Jehovah and His creation, Lucifer who wore the same colors in glory that Aaron wore in gems; and if Moses could represent the Son of God, who was the real intercessor for the children of Israel; “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him [Christ], as also Moses was faithful in all His [Christ’s] house” (Heb. 3:1,2), whose house was the angelic hosts if they would remain faithful to the end of eternity.

 

But, most of the heavenly hosts didn’t remain faithful. They had unwittingly begun to be drawn too deeply into Lucifer’s powerful, unduly familiar influence. Their love for God was replaced by cherished love for Lucifer, so that when the big showdown came, they naturally stood with Lucifer, and not on the Lord’s side.

 

But, some who couldn’t lose their supreme love for God and give it to Lucifer found a problem developing in the throne of God. They could see clearly that the second commandment of the Kingdom, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Lev. 19:18) could not usurp the first commandment of the Kingdom, “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut. 6:5). Eventually, all who sided with Lucifer could not see out of the delusion that Lucifer had cast upon them, and they eventually called the angels deluded who were faithful to God. With much light and power they tried to convince the smaller remnant to think for themselves and see that Lucifer was correct about a better government without the authoritarian style rulership that gave God the authority to govern the empire with condemnation and commandment.

 

But, the faithful remnant saw that the intense light and much power exhibited by the larger group was lacking the Spirit that inhabited the Son, with His Spirit of light and power, but also having sweet love, joy, and peace. They couldn’t bow to such a regime of force that controlled the angels following Lucifer. The faithful recognized the delusion that controlled the others, while the dissatisfied angels branded the faithful under delusion. Both sides saw the other side as deluded. The only way to know if one were deluded was by his disposition toward the immutable Law of God and toward the equally immutable grace of the Son of God.

 

Lucifer sought to damage God beyond repair. But, in the end God was untouched. Nevertheless, the Son was damaged. He forever lost His God-like Spirit form, forever to tabernacle in a corporeal creature form, albeit in a heavenly body. Jesus took the strait gate and narrow way of our restricted form and nature, evermore to bear the marks of our iniquity and our fall into Lucifer’s control. But, this was exactly as the Godhead would have it; this made Them both the happiest. It was by this arrangement that they won the war against sin and the tempter. The immutable Law of God remained unchanged and God remained immutable and the restored King of His original government and empire. And the loss of Spirit form by the Son caused the immutable grace of God to remain unchanged, and even to be increased. Thus, the Son remained the immutable, self-sacrificing Mediator in His original office as Help-meet to His Father, and self-sacrificing, Wonderful Counselor to His Father and to His family. But, God, though not damaged in the least, will forever be affected. He will always share the loss in His Son’s loss, made in the immortal Spirit image of God. Be all that as it will forever, the joy of His redeemed children of men will more than compensate His sorrow for His only Begotten. The Father is eternally satisfied with the whole picture, “of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Eph. 3:15), “that in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:7).

 

And the intelligible, melodious, glorious song of every redeemed cockroach restored to the original form of Adam will be “the unsearchable riches of Christ; and … the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the [angelic and human] church the manifold wisdom of God.” (Eph. 3:8-10).