Closer Day By Day

This chapter may sound like a fairy tale, or a fantasy story, because you read of a serpent that talks, a tree that can make people wise, an angel to guard Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Well, these events happened thousands of years ago, no one with human wisdom can verify if this really happened, but only our eternal God who is not limited by time was there. So, we need the heart of faith to see, and from the other parts of the Bible, we can know for sure that the recordings in the whole book of Genesis are true and historical. (ref. 2 Peter 1: 21)

There are also spiritual lessons to be learnt, so let us first read this interesting chapter.

Bible Passage: Genesis 3

The First Deception

From the first 2 chapters, we have been hearing the voice of God; He created all things and commanded with His Words.

Now a strange voice enters the scene, and that is the voice of the deceiver (ref. 2 Cor. 11: 1 - 3), a liar (ref. John 8: 44), Satan.

He denied God’s warning and substituted with a lie for God’s truth.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Gen 3:5

Satan used this to deceive Eve, and since then, he had been using this to entice man to sin against God. This deception is a direct hit at the very core of human wants, i.e. the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world.

1Jo 2:16

So we have to be very weary of this ploy of Satan. We are living in this world that is under the sway of the wicked one, but we must not conform to the wickedness of lusts and pride that Satan wants us to crave for.

The Finger Pointing Man

Eve was not careful in keeping the commandment of God that they were not suppose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Notice that Eve also added some words to the command of God. Compare the following verses and you shall see what Eve added to the command of God when she told the serpent.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Gen 2:16 - 17

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”‘

Gen 3: 2 - 3

Can you see the additional words Eve included? Yes, God did not say “nor shall you touch it,”

This is an example of adding to the Word of God, and thus adding burdens to man.

We must listen to God’s wholesome word with care. We must also obey God’s silence.

When God came to question Adam, he pushed all blames to God and Eve, and then Eve pushed all blames to the serpent.

Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Gen 3:12 - 13

Are we guilty of such act when we did something wrong? Blame God, blame others, and everything else except ourselves!

The Judgment And The Grace

Our God is Love, but He is also just.

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,

And will not at all acquit the wicked.

Nahum 1:3

God cursed the serpent and the ground, but He did not curse Adam and Eve. The consequences of man’s fall are all around us, and we suffer because of them, the ultimate judgment to man is death.

Man can overcome a difficult environment to some extant, but man can do nothing about “the last enemy” - death. But through Jesus Christ, man can have victory over death when one has faith and trusts in Him.

The act of God showing mercy to Adam and Eve by making tunics of skin to clothe them marked the beginning of God’s redemption plan for man.

And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

Heb 9:22

God truly knows our weaknesses, for He knows our frame, for we are but dust. Yet God loves us so, that He came as the Lamb of God to die for our sins, to save us from the bondage that our ancestors Adam and Eve had caused.

So we have to be diligent to hear His Words, obey Him wholeheartedly, and praise Him for His wondrous grace and love!