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!
Thanks for Reading.
PDXKaraokeGuy, also known as Justin W. Price, is the managing editor at eFiction horror. Husband to Andrea, father to two dogs. writer.poet.baseball fan. tattooed. He is am amateur theologian with a rabid sweet tooth. He resides in a suburb of Portland, Oregon.He has a poetry book available for Amazon Kindle, and also maintains a blog, FirstBlog. His work has been featured in the Crisis Chronicles, efiction Magazine, The Hellroaring Review, the Bellwether Review, eFiction Humor, and the Rusty Nail. Please visit his profile page for more information. Thanks!
Comments
AUTHORDim, I'm the oldest as well, so I dig it. I blame them both. Men are weak around women, especially naked ones :-)
Voted up and interesting and useful. vey useful in fact, because so many people know so little of the facts of the bible.
Thanks for this. Oh , but I blame the man,. he was older , . I´m the eldest of 4 children and the sound of "your older, you should have known better still rings in my ears to this day.
(no disrespect intended, My sense of humour)
- AUTHOR
tammy, you are very welcome!
Thanks for reminding me how lucky I am to be a female! :)
PDXKaraokeGuy, You're absolutely welcome, that's good. Have a wonderful evening too. Nov. 1 6:12PM
- AUTHOR
same here lyns. Thanks for stopping by!
PDXKaraokeGuy, you are welcome, I enjoyed this hub, just getting around to your response, a little delay, lol, but nevertheless I'm glad I got it, and can now respond, communication is very important to me, and I like to respond at all times, Hope you have a wonderful day/holidays lyns
- AUTHOR
this story just proves that men will do whatever women want them too ;-) Thanks for stopping by!
You're right about Eve, she's not the only one who gave into temptation, and yes, some like to blame only her! But we are all human. Nice hub, thank you.
- AUTHOR
Thanks for stopping by, Molo
PDX I'm with you on this.
- AUTHOR
@ Lyns. The older I get, the less I view the Bible as a literal depiction of events but more as stories handed down to share morals. I believe that it doesn't matter if things in the Bible literally happened or if the people literally existed (afterall, all major religions in the world, past and present, have the same basic characters and stories, from Siddartha to Muhammad to Native American and ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian folklore) but what matters is what we learn from these stories and how we let them shape and affect out lives. Thanks again for stopping by. I appreciate your comments!
@PDK Guy Your quite welcome and the subjects in the bible are always interesting to me because as you know, the Bible doesn't always say what it means, but Means what it says. In other words the interpretation is much deeper than what meets the readers eyes. As per this scripture in Ephesians
Ephesians 1:18 KJV
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened ; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
- AUTHOR
Lyns- I agree with your fruit anaylisis. The Garden of Eden was in the Middle East, where no apples grow naturally (not that God cares about such things). I would actually assume the fruit was probly a pomogranate or, perhaps, a fruit that is now extinct. Thanks for stopping by!
I always hear people describe the fruit as a apple tree, there's not apple tree in the bible, in fact it clearly states you could eat of the fruit trees, but the Tree of the knowledge of Good & evil, they couldn't eat of it least they die, Eve thought as it stated they would be gods like their creator and she did eat and did give to her husband. It seems she persuaded Adam, never the less the Man followed the woman and they both were in transgression.
Praise God indeed!
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