God has attempted on several occasions to live among men. Eden was the first attempt. Adam and Eve, having "unwalled" personalities, were deceived easily. The Lord Himself apparently was accustomed to strolling through the garden, but Adam and Eve lost fellowship with Him through their disobedience.

That one transgression destroyed their relationship with the Lord. The soul who sins will die. This is the unchanging law of Him who cannot lie.

After the dreadful and costly disobedience in Eden, God did find fellowship with individual people, such as Enoch, Noah, and Abraham.

Mount Sinai was the abode of God for several days, and then the Lord moved into the Tabernacle of the Congregation. The terrifying holiness of God prevented any close relationship with the Israelites or with the Gentiles who surrounded them. Moses alone was permitted to have fellowship with God.

Over one thousand years later a Baby was born to Mary in Bethlehem of Judea. The Baby was the Word of God become flesh. Being flesh He was able to dwell among us.

Jesus of Nazareth is Emmanuel—God with us.

How did the people of Israel and the Gentiles treat God who now was living in the midst of people?

The Gospel record tells us how God was treated while He walked among us. No other person has been dealt with so unjustly.

Why was the Lord treated so shamefully?

God was accepted by the common people when He performed miracles, and then rejected by them when He informed them they were required to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to live.

God was despised and plotted against by the priests and elders, by those who were spending their lives as God's representatives among His people.

The Roman soldiers found God amusing and contemptible.

Jesus has taught us that God alone is good. The goodness of God that was displayed in Jesus of Nazareth proved to be a giant floodlight that revealed the wretchedness and perversity of human beings.

Mankind does not want God living here. God created us but we do not want Him here. The world does not want Him here. The churches do not want Him here and they prove it by rejecting His prophets and teachers.

The reason we do not want God close to us is that Satan and his demons exert influence on us and have changed our personalities into their likeness. Satan is filled with sin, rebellion, and death and he has filled mankind with sin, rebellion, and death.

The hatred and rejection of God and His ways expressed by humans is a manifestation of the hatred and rejection of God that possesses the fallen angels.

In order to teach the heavens and the earth an eternal lesson, God has allowed humanity to be infected with the personality of Satan. The condition of the world today (and it steadily is growing worse) is a demonstration of what takes place in a social order when God and His ways are rejected by the creatures of that order.

To be continued.