Yesterday, we saw who God was. Today, we see who we are. Eve fell for the lie that we each fall for every day. We read yesterday’s praise to the Creator God and wonder how we could ever doubt this incredible, indescribable God. Sadly, this is our reality. Eve fell for the lie and ignored God’s wisdom. Are we any different? The serpent twisted God’s word just enough to make them believable, but just enough to cause her to doubt God and to desire independence from God. Adam and Eve walked with God through the garden every day. I cannot fathom that kind of unbroken, intimate relationship with my Father. This was their reality and she still fell for the lie and humankind has been falling for the lie ever since. Those three little words; good, delightful, desirable. It’s easy to be hard on Adam and Eve, but really we are no different. I have seen the glory and grace of God work in my life. God is as real to me as if He were physically here. Yet, what seems good, delightful, and desirable catches my eye. I stop, I listen, I touch, I eat. I exchange the truth of God for the lie of Satan. Just keep reading. We are so much like Adam and Eve. It looks like we aren’t the masters of the blame game. We learned it from them. This is God we are talking about and Adam had the audacity to blame Him. I would like to say unbelievable, but I have times where I’ve done the same thing coming to mind. This isn’t just Adam and Eve’s account. This is ours. This is who we are. This is where we see God as full of grace and mercy. The decision that Adam and Eve made caused an immediate death in their relationship with God. It was now broken rather than open. Fear replaced trust. It was now filled with guilt and shame rather than freedom and delight. Yet, God who is rich in mercy, made a promise. He proclaims the Messiah, who will put an end to the one who deceives us. Although their spiritual death was immediate, their “physical death came later, allowing an opportunity for repentance and the beginning of the process of redemption” (Harbin, p. 77). The grace of our great God is further seen through God making the first blood sacrifice to cover Adam and Eve. Finally, we see the grace of God through the exile from the Garden. The purpose was “to prevent the now disobedient humans from eating from the tree of life and thus living forever in their sinful state” (Harbin, p. 77). What we learn from Genesis 3 is that the justice of God never operates apart from His love and grace. Adam and Eve had to live under a curse for their sin, but they were the Creator’s most valuable creation therefore His love for them was unwavering. He would not give up on them. Great is His faithfulness to us.
We see sin and rebellion continue through the tragedy of Cain and Able. We learn through Able that God’s desire is for love, not duty. We learn through Cain that sin only destroys. Notice the glimpse of home tucked at the end of chapter 4; Adam and Eve are blessed with Seth who will have the faith the Able possessed. At the birth of his son, Enosh, “people began to call on the name of Yahweh.” We learn that from the line of Seth comes Enoch, who “walked with God, then he was not there because God took him.” Did you notice that at the end of every other man, it ends with “then he died.” The curse. But one mad stood out and that man was the great-great grandfather of Noah, “the one who would bring us relief.” The grace of God is incredibly woven throughout His story. Don’t skip these genealogies as they give hope and prophecy. God gave Adam and Eve a second chance through the gift of Seth. They raised him to love God and because of their repentance, a deep faith was passed down through generations to a man named Noah.
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