Stewing in the toxic truth of the Valley of Tears is medicine. It is harsh but effective medicine. God prescribes the medicine because the medicine works. God lets us put our fingers in the flames to learn for ourselves that the fire is hot. Once burned; twice shy.
The prodigal son will never go back to the pig sty. Neither will we. We are disobedient not irrational
For the children of Adam and Eve, God tweaked the timetable for the delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise. Instead of simultaneous delivery, God instituted sequential delivery. First, God delivers the gift of life. God then inserts a delay - a brief delay. Last, God delivers the gift of paradise. The delay is the source of all our complaints. We don’t complain about the gift of life. We don’t complain about the gift of paradise. We complain about the delay. The delay throws us into a tizzy. In the Valley of Tears, we receive a baptism by fire and we dislike it. The delay, however, is the medicine that increases the likelihood that we will keep the gift of paradise when it is delivered to us. Without the delay, we would repeat the original sin of our parents, Adam and Eve, who let the gift of paradise slip through their fingers - who fumbled the ball. The delay inoculates us against post delivery paradise opt out. God wants more for us - much more for us - than to be his pets locked in a gilded cage for our own safety and protection. Paternalism is not the policy of God. He respects the freedom of our wills. Paradise is not a prison, God is not our warden, we are not his prisoners. No matter how gilded, a cage is still a cage. God wants us to be cage free.
Is the problem that God is trying to solve us getting the gift of paradise or us keeping it? What does the evidence tell us?
Why does God let us stew in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine?
Having experienced the pig sty for himself, the prodigal son will never go back there. Neither will we. Having put our fingers into the flames, we know that the fire is hot. Our faculty of obedience is broken but not our faculty of rationality. The truth is the fuel of our rationality. When fueled by the truth, our rationality steers is in the right direction. When the fuel is contaminated by illusions, our rationality leads us astray. Our intimate contact with the sour truth of the Valley of Tears educates us about many things including our need for God. In the Valley of Tears, we undergo a baptism by fire. Our baptism in the evils of the Valley of Tears like pickles in a barrel of toxic brine transforms us. The experience puts iron in our grip. When the gift of paradise is delivered to us - and delivery is ineluctable - we will keep it. We will not fumble the ball as Lucifer did, as the gaggle of angels who follow Lucifer did, as Eve did, as Adam did and as the prodigal son did. All of them were given the gift of life and the gift of paradise simultaneously. Simultaneous delivery of the gift of life and the gift of paradise does not work. Therefore, God inserted a delay between the gift of life and the gift of paradise. The delay is harsh but effective medicine.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Intimate contact with the truth is the means by which God is trying to save us. Illusions distort our perception of reality. Intimacy with the truth - both the sour truth and the sweet truth - shatters the illusions that distort our perception pf reality.
Our solution to the problem of bitterness is different than God’s solution. We want God to remove the bitterness from the Valley of Tears or to remove us from the bitterness. God is of a different opinion (John 17:15). God wants us to dilute the bitterness of the Valley of Tears with love as sugar cubes dilute the bitterness of a cup of bad coffee. Only by loving do we fill the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9) (Habakkuk 2:14).
