(*) There is Nothing New Under The Sun

 

Genesis 2:16, “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 3:1, Satan said to eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:2, “The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”

Genesis 3:4, “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “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 3:6, “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. ⁷ 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 3:21, “²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

Genesis 3:23, “²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden.”

 

Ok, let’s break this down:

1.      God created a perfect world and gave Adam a command

2.      Satan contradict God’s Words as a temptation to Eve to cause her to disobey God

3.      Eve tells Satan what God said, evidence that Adam taught Eve God’s Words

4.      Satan contradict God’s Words a second time, appeal to Eve’s mind to disobey God and Eve’s desire to become like God.  Satan told Eve that she is missing something… a total lie!  She is living in a perfect world!

5.      Eve disobeyed God’s Words, because it was 1) good for food, 2) pleasing to the eye, 3) desire to gaining wisdom

6.      Eve gave to Adam, and Adam made a choice to disobey God

7.      Consequence for disobedience is shame and death

8.      They made leave clothing to cover themselves

9.      God performed the first blood-sacrifice, made animal skin to cover them

10.   God is just, kicked them out of the Garden.

Wow!  There really is no much of a buildup of the story.  God just tells it right off the bat!  So, in the first 3 chapters, God laid out how man sinned and is eternally separated from Him.  Then, He performed a blood-sacrifice to set an example of how He is going to atone and cover-over men’s sin and shame.  What enlightened me about this passage today is what caused Eve to sin.  Temptations, by themselves, are neutral.  They are not sin in itself.  But, temptations cause us to stir up thoughts and actions that become sin.  Temptations to disobey God have never changed… it is always Satan’s attempt to invalidate God’s Words and cause our eyes to turn from focusing on God to focus on ourselves.

1.      Eve saw that disobeying God means fulfillment in her physical senses and her stomach

2.      Eve saw that disobeying God pleases her eyes, which as the windows to our souls.  Her heart comes to overwhelmingly desire the object of sin

3.      Eve saw that disobeying God means that she can become like God and satisfying her minds thirst for supernatural wisdom.

Really?!  Sin satisfies our Body, Soul, Mind…  It really has not changed… this is how we are today!  Our desires to satisfy all these areas drive us insane.  Look at our worlds, look at the themes of our TV shows and movies, listen to our popular music… 

How many religions and philosophies have told us that we are responsible for ourselves?  We can do it.  We can be a good enough person to get to Heaven…  Haven’t you seen what is going on around us?  Haven’t you been realistic to yourselves?  We cannot do it!  You cannot do it!  I cannot do it.  We simply are just too incomplete to bring completeness to ourselves.

It is easy to look upon our world today and give up hope… but, cheer up, we are in the same condition today as in Genesis chapter 3.  The Bible tells us that God has already atoned for our sins.  Now, it is not how we can please and obey God in order to be accepted into His kingdom… but, it is that we have already been accepted into His kingdom that we please and obey God!  We knew of this as soon as God sacrificed that animal to make covering for Adam and Eve.

There is truly nothing new under the sun.