I can only imagine the serenity of the atmosphere as God visited Adam in the cool of the day in this amazingly beautiful garden, the relationship between God and a being created in his image and life breathed into him by God himself. It must have been awesome. God in his goodness did provide the food he required and gave clear instructions. In addition, God did create a helper for him. Gen 2:23“A bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. The man has God, wife and food and land. He has everything. Life is good. This could be what most of us dream of if not all. Right?
When and how did these all crumble and come to a standstill? Follow this conversation closely. Genesis 3: 1-5
Serpent: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Woman: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Serpent: “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Look at the initial instructions in Genesis 2:16. “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
See how the serpent twists God’s instructions and even negates God’s word. ‘It’s not a big deal’. I suppose that was Eve’s thought. The devil intents to have us view sin as a small matter and that we can get over it so easily. So small that we can sin and just wish it away. “To take light of our sin is to dilute and even to make light of the cross, if your sin does not matter then the cross does not matter.”
At this point, one could say that the serpent succeeded with his game of words because man, in the desire to be wise like God, fell into sin. Things fell apart. Relationships that existed perfectly got ruined. Man is on his own after rebelling against God. This rebellion is so loud such that instead of man being remorseful and seek for forgiveness, he finds an alternative to cover his nakedness with fig leaves, hides from God (How can one even think that they can hide from God?) and when confronted, he rushes to blame game. Man lacks a proper response.
Isn’t that our way as well? Are we grinding to a halt as well? I would shout yes. We are trapped in the devil’s old scheme of doubting God’s word and have developed an independence syndrome – sufficient enough to run our lives and choose what is pleasing to us. Adam’s and Eve’s response after sinning is similar to ours. Don’t we run away from God to self-help projects? Keep off fellowships with the brethren and block any one trying to reach to us? Don’t we thrive in prayerlessness and scarcity of God’s word? Do we even take responsibility or do we blame the devil or that neighbor, internet and social media?
I think it’s the high time we address this menace. Firstly, run to God in repentance for the cleansing of our terrible sin and totally depend on Christ but also to passionately hate sin for it is serious and it matters to God.
Here is the link to the sermon How things fell apart and Why things fell apart
