The Dawn - part 6 - God's Love

We are continuing our walk through the book of Genesis and we have finally gotten to chapter 3! So I thought it would be fun to use 3 different words (all starting with 'C') to look at this chapter. The first word is:

1. Choice

In an earlier post, I mentioned how God didn't have to give Adam and Eve the option to choose, but He wanted it too. He wanted them and us to have the ability to choose Him.

Adam and Eve had many other trees in the Garden to eat from. There was just this one tree they weren't supposed to touch. But they did. But I also feel like it didn't happen overnight. I think it happened as they got bored and tired of the same old things. They had been everywhere in the Garden and done everything they could do. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil began to look fun and good to them and before they knew it they were standing right next to it. They were standing right where the Serpent wanted them to be standing. The Bible says this about the Serpent:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made." - Genesis 3:1 NIV

He is called crafty. This makes me think that the Serpent lead them there so he could do what he had to do. He them tempted with being more like God:

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” - Genesis 3:4-5 NIV

The thing about this temptation is that it is exactly how Satan got thrown out of Heaven himself (Ezekiel 28:12-18). He came to them and tempted them in a way that he would end badly for them.

But the choice was theirs to make:

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." - Genesis 3:6-7 NIV

Then they heard a familiar sound coming through the Garden - it was God taking His walk and looking for His walking buddies. God finds them hiding and asks them:

“And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” - Genesis 3:11 NIV

You see God asked them "who told you that" because they were feeling shame and they were saying things that He doesn't say to His people. They were feeling guilty and shameful because Satan was throwing that at them. He does the same to us when we mess up. He fills us full of guilt and shame for doing what he tempted us to do.

God's second question about eating from them tree they weren't supposed to started a lot of finger pointing and blame shifting (Genesis 3:12-13). Which leads in to the second word:

2. Consequence

God then lays out some consequences for everyone involved:

For the Serpent:

“So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.'"

Genesis 3:14-15 NIV

For the woman

"To the woman he said, 'I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.'"

Genesis 3:16 NIV

For the man:

“To Adam he said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.'" - Genesis 3:17-19 NIV

These punishments toward Adam and Eve lead me to believe that life in the Garden was simple. I said in an earlier post - "But I believe that this was not work as we think of it. I feel that this was more taking care of what God had given them."[1] These punishments lead me to believe that Adam and Eve had it kind of easy because if it was work like we think of it - then these wouldn't be punishments they would be every day and not a punishment at all.

This tells me that there are consequences for bad actions. Whatever it is there will be a consequences that follows. Not only did they have to deal with all of the punishments listed above they also had to leave the Garden forever (Genesis 3:24).

But the chapter isn't over there - there is still one more word to look at and that is:

3. Compassion

At the end of it all God still looked at them with compassion:

“The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." - Genesis 3:21 NIV

God still looked at Adam and Eve and saw their need and took care of it for them. God didn't run off and leave them. God had great compassion for them. I suppose He could have killed them if He wanted to - but He didn't He provided them with something that they needed.

He does the same for us too! God's love for us is so great we can't even imagine it!

[1] Second Stage Ministries, Alex Pierce “The Dawn – part 4 – God’s Paradise” http://alexdavidpierce.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-dawn-part-4-gods-paradise.html

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