What is a bargain? It is an agreement between two people or groups in which each party promises to do something in exchange for something else. Bargaining happens quite often between employers and employee unions. In this instance, the employer might agree to pay hikes if employees agree to work on certain holidays.
As a retired
nurse, I know a bit about bargaining; we had a union at the hospital where I
worked for years.
We threatened to strike if specific demands weren't met;
the needs included pay raises and better patient-nurse ratios. Some
negotiations ended well, where both parties agreed, and strikes were
averted.
On one
occasion, though, most of the nurses went off the job to picket, leaving only a
few to take care of the patients. To the nurses' surprise, the problem was not
resolved as quickly as expected; they were out for about three weeks without
pay. Ouch! They did not get what they had bargained for.
Have you ever bargained
for anything? How did it go?
Our original parents,
Adam and Eve, got more than they bargained for. They chose to disobey God, who
had clearly warned they'd die if they ate the fruit from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil (see Genesis 2:15-17). Instead of obeying God, they
followed the devil because he assured them they wouldn't die and would be wise
like God if they ate the fruit (Genesis 3:4-5). They had a decision to make;
either eat the fruit and be wise (not die) or stay away from the fruit and
definitely live but not be as wise. What a dilemma!
Sadly, they chose to eat
the fruit, but what they got wasn't what they bargained for; they got
death—separation from God and not wisdom as the devil had promised. It was too
late to undo their deed of disobedience. God's pronouncement prevailed; they
were kicked out of the Garden of Eden to go and fend for themselves. And with
that came all kinds of evil and suffering passed on to us, their
descendants.
If they had obeyed God
and stayed away from that fruit, we wouldn't be in our current predicament of
sickness (diseases with names we can't pronounce), suffering, early death, the
aged losing their memory, unbelievable violence, and on and on.
When I look at all these
consequences, my heart aches; all I say to myself is sin has brought us more
than our ancestors bargained for; it has brought us pain and suffering: not the
wisdom they expected.
But, thank God, our pain
and suffering will not follow us into eternity unless we reject
God. The suffering in this world should be enough to make each person desire a
better life in eternity, but some people are not paying attention. How sad it
will be to suffer in this life and then die, only to experience a second
death—hell.
To escape the second
death, one must repent of one's sins and ask God for forgiveness through Jesus.
The Bible tells us, "God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People
are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life,
shedding his blood … He declares sinners to be right in his sight when they
believe in Jesus" (Romans 3:25-26). If you've never taken this step,
please do it today; time is running out.
For the Christian, there
is hope that our pain won't go on forever; we will spend eternity in heaven
where there will be no evil, sickness, death, crying, or pain (see Revelation
21:4, 27). We will see Jesus face-to-face, and His name will be written on our
foreheads; we'll be praising and worshiping Him forever (see Revelation 22:4).
If you are reading this,
you have time to change your destiny; wait no longer!
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