“The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'”
~ Genesis 3:12
Hi James and Ellen,
If you were to accidentally break a dish, do you blame yourself for breaking the dish or do you blame the dish for breaking itself? Guys, gals and kids in Latin America would say that the dish broke itself. It is a lot easier to pass on the blame for a mishap that you have caused than to accept the blame for the mishap. No guy, gal or kid likes to accept the blame for something that he or she has done even if it is inadvertently breaking something. Guys, gals and kids like to have other guys, gals and kids think that they are perfect. Guys, gals and kids also do not like to accept the consequences of having been the cause of a misfortune that could be thought of as being an accident. Everything that you do in life has a consequence. The consequence of your grandmaa and grandpaa obediently obeying the call that God gave to your grandpaa to live in another country and to be involved in cross-cultural ministries is that your grandmaa and grandpaa cannot see you as often as they would like. Another consequence of your grandmaa and grandpaa having obeyed the call that God gave to your grandpaa to live in another country and to be involved in cross-cultural ministries is experiencing God’s blessings on their lives. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are sensing that God is rewarding them for being faithful in what He is asking them to do. Your grandmaa and grandpaa want to please God in what they do. Your grandmaa and grandpaa want you to grow up pleasing God and being blessed by God, too. Your grandmaa and grandpaa want you to grow up having experienced the joy of all the consequences of having been obedient to God. As you get older, you will become more and more aware that God is always taking you through life lessons – lessons that will guide you to what leads to affirming consequences and lessons that will guide you to reproving consequences. A consequence will sometimes mean an outcome that involves a punishment. Genesis 3 tells you the consequences that Adam and Eve had to experience for disobeying God. You will at times also fail a God assigned life lesson. When you fail a God life lesson – which is doing something that you know that you should not have done which has you being disobedient to God’s will, you will sense missing God’s sustaining grace. It also could be not doing something that you know that God through His still quiet voice has asked you to do which will also have you sense missing God’s sustaining grace. The worst consequence that can happen to you is to not have God’s presence in your lives. When you hear the word sin, what do you think? Sin is an ugly word. To sin is to do what God has told you not to do. To sin is to be disobedient to God’s will and to His Word. To sin is to tell God by your actions and/or by your words that you did not listen to Him and that you do not want to listen to Him.
The very first time that Adam and Eve were disobedient to God teaches you the consequences of sin. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God had them leave the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden had to have been an amazingly beautiful place. The Garden of Eden was the first place where Adam and Eve lived. Do you know what Adam and Eve did that had them disobeying God? If you are being disobedient to God, you are being obedient to another voice. That voice is from your enemy. Do you know who your enemy is? Your enemy is a fallen angel. The fallen angel’s name is Satan. Because Satan wanted to be someone other than who he was, God had to reject Satan from His fellowship when Satan decided that he was like God. Satan is very good at hoodwinking guys, gals and kids into getting them to disobey God. Satan tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God. Do you know how Satan did this? Satan knows that you always want to have more than what you have. Do you know what Satan looked like when he visited where Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden? Satan chose to become like a serpent. The word serpent can be used for snake. God created serpents or snakes to be the craftiest or the sneakiest creatures in His creation. Do you know who Satan talked to first when he went into the Garden of Eden? Satan first talked to the woman. Do you know what Satan asked the woman – who was Eve? Satan asked Eve if she thought that God was serious when He told Adam that he was not to eat fruit from the tree which was in the middle of the Garden of Eden. When Eve told Satan that was what God had told Adam, Satan lied to Eve. Satan told Eve that if she ate the fruit, that she would be like God – that she would know what was good and what was evil. Satan – in a way, was right. Before Eve ate the forbidden fruit, Eve only knew what was good. After Eve ate the fruit, Eve now knew what was evil. After Eve ate the fruit, Eve gave some of the fruit to Adam who also ate some of the fruit.
When Adam and Eve did something that they were told not to do, what do you think happened next? God sees everything that happens on this earth. God saw Eve and Adam eating the fruit that He had told them not to eat. Do you know what Adam’s answer was to God when God asked Him about what he did? Verse 12 says “The man said, ‘The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’” The man in this verse is Adam. Adam in a way suggests to God that it was His fault. Adam implies to God that if He had not made a woman to be his companion and helpmate that he would not have eaten from the tree. Adam tells God that it was the woman who had made him eat the fruit that He had clearly told him not to eat. Have you ever tried to pass on the blame for something that you did that you were not to do? The consequence for Adam and Eve disobeying God was to have God remove them from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve went from living peace filled lives to lives that were filled with angst. It is because of what Adam and Eve did when they disobeyed God that you have sin in your lives.
Genesis 3 (60)