Genesis Chapter Three
Some Thoughts on Genesis 3
As a Christian and a Pastors Kid- I've always enjoyed reading the Bible, which I believe to be the actual Words of God, handed down through man. The Bible exhorts us to meditate on what it says and I think sometimes we Christians read the Bible very quickly and don't give it much thought. The following are some thoughts I posted to my Facebook page about a year ago, so, it's not original material- but it's probably something most of you haven;t read. I've also added a few things and omitted some others.
Whether or not you are a Christian or not, I hope you find this to be interesting, thought provoking and inspiring.
The setting, for those who don't know, is in the Garden of Eden- literally paradise on earth:
What were we thinking? We had it perfect! We took it easy in a Paradise- eating all these great foods, playing and communing with nature, making love to our spouse. I'm not sure if there was work or not, but, you can rest assured we weren't working as hard as we do now. We were In perfect harmony with God, with each other, and with nature.. God gave us complete liberty- with ONE exception ONE: "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." (3:3) One rule.
Why was this one limitation too much? Why are we such a stubborn species? "So when the eyes of the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes...She took of it's fruit and ate." (3:6). We wanted it, and when the Serpent gave us even a little prompting we took what we wanted and it was good.
Here, it is easy to blame the woman. Even though the woman (Eve) was tempted, Adam also gave in to that temptation. He is equally culpable. I've heard many pastors and Rabbis use this passage to show that woman are to blame for the sins of mankind This is unequivocally wrong and theologically incorrect.
After eating of the fruit, something happened to us. We looked at ourselves and realized we were naked. Oh the shame! In our sinless state, we were naked and felt no shame (2:25). Enter sin. Enter shame. Enter consequences: unpleasant toil. Pain. Hardship, and, finally, Banishment!
Still, even in our sin, the LORD clothed us. He covered our shame. We suffered the consequences of our sin, but the Lord still showed that He loved us. He provided clothing to cover our shame. (3:21)
Praise God!
