This week is VBS at my church where I will be a group leader. This year the kiddos will venture out to Breaker Rock Beach where they’ll be immersed in the story from the beginning of Creation to Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life, and everything in between – all packed into 4 days. If you’ll pray for these kids and us leaders during this week, that would be amazing.
Breaker Rock Beach playlist // Spotify
As I was reacquainting myself over the weekend with the story of Adam and Eve found in Genesis 2 and 3 that we’ll be covering this morning, there were three things that stood out to me.
So God created Adam, but I found it interesting that “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” The name Adam doesn’t appear until later on, several verses after this. He’s just referred to as the man, or a man, and then later referred to as Adam when God forms a woman as his helper. At this point, I found it interesting that Adam was given a name (that means soil or of the earth/ground) and in verse 20 of chapter 3, the man, Adam, “called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.”
The fall itself is also interesting and frustrating for us because Eve 1) listened to a SERPENT (which obviously, back in that time… was common because they lived and talked with the animals) 2) blinded by the appearance of something that LOOKED good 3) was in fellowship with God, with Adam.
Hindsight is 20/20, right?
So often we find ourselves here where we’re blinded by the looks of something. It looks good on the outside, whatever it may be. Its an example of sin. Pride becomes the real issue. Whether we were simply deceived or walking along the wrong path, the pride comes into play when we think we know what’s best better than God does.
Eve knew what God had said. The serpent put that into question and teased her with what could be if she just made the next (sinful) move. We know what happened – she thought that God was holding something back from her and so she went to the tree and ate of it, sharing also with Adam.
Even after they sinned, God provided hope. He made clothing for them! No matter how hurt God was by them turning to sin, disobeying Him, He still showed up and cared for them. He had a greater plan for all that He created in store, and still does – the story isn’t over!
My ESV Study Bible says:
Because the clothing requires the death of an animal, this can be seen as an anticipation of 1) the system of animal sacrifices that God would later institute to atone for sin, and 2) the death of Christ as the final atonement for sin.
Just like Eve, we are dead in our sin, filled with guilt and shame, unless we have Jesus in our hearts. We are alive in Him alone.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:22
God kicked them out of Eden. They were no longer permitted within the garden and of Eden where He then placed the cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. We don’t know what Adam and Eve were thinking, or any dialogue after God’s declarations, but they had to have been filled with guilt, shame, and distraught over their broken fellowship with God. They were walking with Him daily and still, they strayed.
The lesson today is that truth comes from God. We know as Christians that there is only one truth. Truth is truth and no one can change it. God made each of us special, unique and certainly for a purpose.
The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
Psalm 119:160
I hope today that this truth also gives you rest that whatever you’re facing and whatever is in your past, that God cares and has a plan for it all – He will use it for the good of His people.
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