Betty Whitaker Jackson

THEME 4      DISOBEDIENCE

SCRIPTURE[1]

Now the snake was the most clever of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day the snake spoke to the woman. He said, “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”

 The woman answered the snake, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it, or you will die.’”

But the snake said to the woman, “You will not die. God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree, you will learn about good and evil. Then you will be like God!”

The woman saw that the tree was beautiful. She saw that its fruit was good to eat and that it would make her wise. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

Then, it was as if the man’s and the woman’s eyes were opened. They realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves.

⁸ Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden. This was during the cool part of the day. And the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. But the Lord God called to the man. The Lord said, “Where are you?”

 The man answered, “I heard you walking in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid.”

 God said to the man, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from that tree? I commanded you not to eat from that tree.”

 The man said, “You gave this woman to me. She gave me fruit from the tree. So I ate it.”

 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

She answered, “The snake tricked me. So I ate the fruit.”

 The Lord God said to the snake,

• “Because you did this, a curse will be put on you.
  You will be cursed more than any tame animal or wild animal.
• You will crawl on your stomach,
  and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
• I will make you and the woman enemies
• .Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies.
• Her child will crush your head. And you will bite his heel.”
• Then God said to the woman,“I will cause you to have much trouble when you are pregnant.
• And when you give birth to children,
  you will have great pain.
• You will greatly desire your husband,
  but he will rule over you.”
  

 Then God said to the man, “You listened to what your wife said. And you ate fruit from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from.

• “So I will put a curse on the ground.
• You will have to work very hard for food.
• In pain you will eat its food all the days of your life.
• The ground will produce thorns and weeds for you.
  And you will eat the plants of the field.
• You will sweat and work hard for your food.
• Later you will return to the ground. This is because you were taken from the ground. You are dust.
• And when you die, you will return to the dust.”

THINK ABOUT IT:

This is a hard story to read. We know God made creation perfect, but Satan opposed God. Because God is sovereign, He made man able to reason and make his own decisions. Sometimes , because of sin or other factors, we make the wrong decision.

Now God had a plan, right from the beginning, remember? But first man must pay some penalties for his sinfulness and disobedience, and so must the serpent, Satan in disguise.

Originally, the serpent did not look like snakes today do. It is only after the curse that it has no legs and to many is not beautiful to look at. It was said to be crafty or clever. Maybe it looked like a fox. Who knows?

Some people say they like snakes.  This writer admires their beauty, but she doesn’t want to be anywhere near them. That’s a natural instinct, since the fall of man. Since he thought he knew better than God did. Man wanted to be equal to God. That was disobedience.

What else did man need? He had the perfection of paradise, and he still wanted more.

We need think of getting rid of any sin that would take the place of God. Remember He said that we are to have no other gods before Him. Nothing is more important than God. Absolutely nothing.

PRAYER  Dear Heavenly Father, we know we are sinful people and thank You that because You sent Jesus to earth to die for our sinfulness, the sins we have committed, the ones we keep on doing, and the ones in the future You know are still to come, are all covered by Jesus’ sacrifice. You are so good, and we need You every day, every moment in our lives. Help us to remember we need to rely on You to keep us walking with You the way You desire Your people to do. Amen.

[1] Genesis 3: 1-19 Ibid.