February 16, 2023
Reading: Genesis 3:1-10
Focus: Genesis 3:9 – But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Father, thank You for Your blessings today. Pour Your words into my heart and out my fingertips. Let Your truth shine today. Open hearts and minds to Your words and bring people closer to You. I lift up the people in Turkey. Be with them and those who are trying to rescue as many people as possible. In Jesus Name. Amen.
God had told Adam that all the fruit if the trees would be food for them, except for one tree in the middle of the garden. Guess what? Even with all the wonderfulness they were surrounded and more fruit and things than they could eat, what did they do? They ate from that one tree. I don’t know how long they had been in the garden before eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. But they did it and they knew it was forbidden. So, here are Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, after they had eaten the forbidden fruit. They knew, immediately, that they had disobeyed God. So, they hid from Him. Now God is looking for them. At first glance, one might think God didn’t know where they were. Oh, He knew! He also knew what they had done. The command had been not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But they did.
Ok, let me step backwards for a minute. The Bible states, in Genesis 3:1, that the serpent was a crafty little devil. So, it should come as no surprise that he could twist the Words of God and make them sound right when they are really wrong. He played to vanity. He played to the desires for knowing everything and being like God. Now I don’t know about you, but having a serpent talk to me would have sent me running for the hills. I don’t know if Adam and Eve could understand what the animals said. But I’m thinking that a talking snake would be the last thing that Eve expected. And she listened to it! I don’t know about you, but I would have grabbed a shovel and had a whack at it. But Eve listened.
Eve did three things wrong here. First, she listened. Second, she looked. Finally, she took the fruit and ate it. Immediately, she changed. She KNEW she had done wrong. Then, she went to Adam and led him down the same path. And immediately, he changed. I often wonder if there was something in the fruit than changed their physical bodies. Or if the choice to sin changed their DNA or something. Today there are drugs, like LSD that can genetically change a person. That person may never see it in themselves, but their children, or grandchildren may show those genetic changes. Mutations also occur in humans without drugs. Where did that come from? My thought is that mutations in our DNA began when sin entered the world and changed mankind from perfect to imperfect.
When you were a kid, did you ever do something that you knew was wrong? That you knew your parents told you not to do? But you did it anyway. What did you do? I would have covered it up or tried to anyway. One day when I was a kid, I went to the grocery store and shoplifted. It wasn’t anything all that important. It was just a very small bottle of Elmer’s Glue. Why I took glue, I have no idea. I got out of the store and ran home to hide my ‘loot’. I hid it. I didn’t say anything but for some reason I thought my parents knew. We ate dinner, I kept my head down so they couldn’t see my face. After dinner, Daddy asked what was wrong. Was I feeling sick? Yeah, I WAS feeling sick. Sick with worry, sick with guilt. As I looked him in the face I began to cry. I blubbered all over him. Then I told him what I had done. “Oh, Pamela.” was all he said. He took me out to the car and we drove to the store. He made me walk in and tell the manager what I had done. I gave him back the glue and trudged back out to the car. Absolute silence on the drive back home. I knew I was going to get it and get it good when I got home. But all Daddy said was that he was disappointed in me and that my allowance would be taken for two weeks to cover the cost of the glue I didn’t have anymore. Losing my allowance didn’t hurt near as bad as disappointing my dad and seeing the hurt on his face when I owned up to my crime.
I am sure that God was disappointed too. Wouldn’t you if your child did something you had expressly forbidden? Adam and Eve looked at themselves and they were naked. They had been naked before but it hadn’t seemed wrong. So, why was it wrong now? They had lost the perfection that God had given them when they were created. The shame was knowing they disobeyed God. Hiding their nakedness was a by-product of that disobedience. I don’t know about you, but fig leaves would have been the last thing I would have used to make clothes. Do you know how scratchy they are? So, they hid their nakedness and themselves.
Then, God came looking for them. Now He already knew what had happened. “Adam, where are you?” God called.
Jesus calls us too. “My child, where are you?” No matter where we are, what we have done, or what we are doing, He calls us to Him. He knows where we are, what we are doing and how lost we are, but He still calls for us. Jesus’ unconditional love for us will always be calling our souls to Him. Don’t think you can hide what you do. It is seen. Don’t think because you don’t say it that no one hears your thoughts. It is heard. But God still wants us to choose to love and follow him. We don’t have to change, and we don’t have to clean up first. He calls us just as we are. His love is unconditional, no strings attached. It is our choice to heed the call.
Jesus Christ was sent to call the lost, the broken, and the sinful to Him. Look at who He called as disciples; rough fishermen, dishonest tax collectors, and Zealots, who wanted to throw down the Roman tyranny. He ate dinner with sinners and a prostitute was one of His followers. He also ate dinner in the houses of those who were supposed to be religious authorities, who should have recognized him from the prophesies. They, at least, should have known the Messiah was not a military one to free the Jews from political oppression but a spiritual Messiah sent to free us from the tyranny of the oppressor of our souls. But they chose not to.
Jesus calls us. He is trying to reach us though all the commotion Satan is causing to keep us from hearing His call. Jesus Christ was sent to willingly take the punishment that was declared in the Garden of Eden, all those centuries ago. Death. The reward for sin is death. Eternal separation from God. Life is Jesus. Eternal companionship with God. All we have to do is answer that call.
Do you hear the call?
Open my ears, Oh Lord. So that I can hear You when You call. I want to walk with You daily. Forgive my sin. Thank You for the blood of Jesus which washes away my sin so that I can walk with You and one day stand in Your presence. Amen.
Food for Thought
- Why do you think Satan chose a serpent to use to talk to Eve?
- Why do you think Eve even listened to the serpent?
- Do you believe that God already knew what they had done? Why or why not?
- Why do you think it is so easy to blame someone else when you’ve sinned?
- Does God know when you have sinned? What do you do about it?
