God Speaks
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
17 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”
20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. 21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” 23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24 After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: In their conversation, the serpent got Eve to question what God meant by what He said. Eve focused on the one prohibition instead of God’s abundant provision and added to what God had directed. The serpent misrepresented the situation and twisted what God both said and meant. He lied. Eve listened to and believed him instead of trusting in what she knew of God’s character. Then she tried to figure things out on her own instead of checking the facts with Adam or God himself. Eve ate the fruit and offered it to Adam. He ate it, apparently without asking questions or stating objections. There were immediate consequences: self-consciousness, their eyes were opened, shame, they realized they were naked and exposed. Cover-up and hiding: they sewed fig leaves together and tried to hide from God. God asked “Where? Who? What?” questions to get them to recognize and admit the truth. Then there were long term consequences: For the serpent, humiliation, hostility, and future defeat. For the woman, increased pain in childbirth, a desire to control her husband, and being placed in submission to him. For the man, cursed ground, hard labor, and (for all) eventual physical death. God covered the man’s and woman’s nakedness by clothing them with animal skins. God prevented them from living forever in this condition by sending them out of Eden and blocking them from the tree of life.
Prayer: Dear Gracious Father God, thank You that You say what You mean, and You mean what You say. Please help me to be aware of times when I am being tempted to doubt Your goodness, O God. I want to focus on Your abundant provision instead of Your wise prohibitions. Holy Spirit, please keep me from either adding to or minimizing what God has said in His word, the Bible. Don’t let me misrepresent the situation or twist what You say or what You mean. I don’t want to lie. Please help me to not listen to or believe lies. Instead, I need to trust in what I already know of Your character. I shouldn’t try to figure things out on my own. Instead, I should pray, asking You, Lord God, to help me check out the facts and learn the whole truth, so that I can make wise, God-honoring decisions. Please help me not to sin by ignorance or rebellion and keep me from drawing other people into sin as well. May I stay strong and free (of sin) by asking questions and/or voicing objections. I don’t want to have to suffer the consequences of self-consciousness, shame, exposure, cover-up, and hiding. I need the courage to ask, “Where? Who? What?” questions to recognize and admit the truth. Then I won’t have to suffer the long-term consequences: humiliation, hostility, and future defeat, increased pain, a desire to control others, or chafe against being controlled by them. May I be blessed instead of cursed, fulfilled by my labor, and experience eternal life with You after my physical death. Lord God, please cover my naked sinfulness by clothing me with the blood Jesus shed at the cross. God, please permit me to live forever with You by giving me access to the tree of life in Christ Jesus. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will remember and think about the implications of the fact that God says what He means, and He means what He says.
- I will do what I can to ferret out the truth in a particular situation so that I don’t succumb deception and lies.
- I will ask God to show me the truth in a particular situation.
- I will use biblical reference materials to find out what God says about ______________ (a specific issue in life).
Share: Iplan to share what I’ve learned with __________.