Neither Were They Thankful

In the garden, Eve lost track of all the trees.  Her world became the one she could not eat.  I would call this an immature view of the garden, considering immaturity to be a focus on self.  The primary aspect of the immaturity of children is that they are selfish.  Mine!  Going further, Eve might think she deserved more than she got, she was discontent, and, therefore, entitled.  She had an entitlement mentality.

God gave and gave and gave.  Eve had to have more.  This is unthankful, which is a problem.

Did God "coddle" Eve?  Did He give her too much, and that led to a trap for her?  The massive gracious gift giving of God did not cause Eve to sin.  The blessing of God is not the cause of sin.

I move forward in the Old Testament to the book of Judges.  A pattern emerges from Judges:  blessing, entitlement, sin, judgment, crying out in repentance, deliverance by a judge, blessing, entitlement, sin, judgment, crying out in repentance, deliverance by a judge.  Rinse and repeat.  Perhaps God could have withheld the blessing, so that entitlement didn't come.  No.

Again, the problem is unthankfulness, not that God gave a lot.  This is also how Romans 1 diagnoses the problem.  Romans 1:21:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Glorifying God as God recognizes Who He is.  It acknowledges His nature, His position, His character.  Being thankful affirms or confesses what He did.  God is always good.

Briefly I want to take this in our thoughts to parenting.  Like God gives and gives, parents might give and give after the nature of God in that man is made in God's image.  Children should confirm the goodness of God to them, but in the hierarchy of God's authority and will, they start with a concession to the goodness of their parents.  They honor their father and their mother.

When children won't acknowledge the goodness of their parents out of child-like immaturity, selfishness, they have started down a road to perdition.  The problem hasn't been the giving of the parents, but the unthankfulness of the children.  I've witnessed a reversal of this by adult children, who charge the parent with entitlement, because the parent claims he is entitled to his authority and to lead.   "No," the child says, "you've not done enough, so I still don't have to listen.  You've got to do more of my bidding to earn my respect."  A parent might ask, "What about all that I've done already?"  A child resents the parent mentioning anything he's done.

God mentions what He's done again and again.  Much of the Bible is a recounting of what God has done with hopes that the reader will receive it, that is, be thankful for it.  Who does not want to be thankful?  Is there a motivation for not being thankful?  Scripture says there is.

Romans 1 says that unthankfulness proceeds from rebellious suppression of the truth.  Why do people suppress the truth?  They're sinners.  They are sinners not repenting of their sin.  They might say that it's because they're ripped off.  They weren't given enough.  They couldn't eat of the one tree.  Instead of focusing on all of the good things, they look at the bad things.  This is a poison that they can't overcome, and it's on God and in the case of children, their parents.

The suppression of truth relates to lust.  They don't want God commanding.  They don't want Him in charge of their lives.  They want "space."  They want to do what they want to do.  God isn't allowing them. He's some kind of celestial Big Brother, controlling their lives.  Their parents keep telling them what to do, and they want to be done with that.  All disobedience to authority, whether God's or godly authority, arises from unthankfulness.

People submit to God, because He's good.  They can justify disobedience if He's bad.  They do that with the existence of suffering.  A good God couldn't allow suffering. He's allowed suffering or even caused it, so they are justified in their dismissal of Him.  They think they are neutral in their approach to God.  No, they are rebels.  They are ingrates.  They want to do what they want to do and they have chosen a bad reason to vindicate themselves.

All human authority is flawed, but it's still God's authority (Romans 13:1-7).  In Genesis 9, Noah was flawed, but that didn't justify Ham's violation of His father.  Every human leader in human history does wrong.  God, of course, isn't flawed, but He allows suffering.  Problems exist all around that could be attributed to Him.  Again, unthankful.  God is good.  He heaps on goodness.  They glorify Him not as God -- neither were they thankful.