The Story of the Bible - The Fall and the Fallout
Last week, Tim taught on the beginning of creation and how God made man in the image of Himself. He gave Adam and Eve everything they needed: food, protection, a purpose, a relationship with him, etc. Everything was perfect. He also included an element of choice on whether to follow Him or not; He warns them not to eat of the tree of life and explains to them what will happen if they do so.
This week, we continued The Story of the Bible series and explored Genesis 3-9. Right out of the gate, we are introduced to the serpent, the craftiest creature created by God. It is not a literal snake, but Satan taking the form of one. He questions the first woman, Eve, about the tree of life and God’s command to not eat from it, and then he lies to her, telling her God will not punish her and that they are meant to eat it. With her husband looking on and doing nothing, Eve takes up the fruit and eats of it, giving some to Adam who eats as well.
Immediately, things change. Adam and Eve know good and evil, realize what they have done is evil, and are ashamed. Each then wants to hide from the other and from God, their perfect relationship corrupted. God confronts them with their sin and banishes them from His garden. (Genesis 3)
From then on, mankind multiplies (Genesis 4) and grows more evil. Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, commits the first murder and kills his own brother out of jealousy. He is further removed from God’s presence and cursed (Genesis 5). Further down the line of Adam’s descendents, the evil in men grew and grew until “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). It had progressed to the point that God regretted making man in the first place and He decided to end their existence along with the animals and plants and all other life upon the earth, except for one man, Noah, and his family (Genesis 6:5-8). This He does, flooding the earth and sparing two of every other creature along with Noah and his family. Once the floodwaters recede, God blesses them with a similar blessing with which He blessed Adam and Eve in the beginning, and He promises to never again flood the earth and destroy every creature upon it.
More about God is revealed from the seven chapters. When Adam and Eve sin against Him, He does not force them by His power to come to Him and confess, but calls to them. He walks in the garden, a sound they recognize from hearing it every day they have been alive. He did not create them and everything they had and then leave them on their own – He had pursued a loving and full relationship with them.
From the moment of Adam and Eve’s fall, mankind grows more and more distant from God. People choose their own desires and wants, considering them more important than a relationship with God. God is just and He punishes them. Yet, His judgment is tempered with mercy. When Adam and Eve sin against Him, he punishes them and banishes them from the garden, but makes clothing to cover their nakedness. He pursues a relationship with their children, cursing Cain to be a fugitive when he murders his own brother, a wanderer upon the earth and unable to farm it as well as he used to. However, the Lord makes it so anyone who kills Cain will be punished far greater, sparing Cain from being hunted. Enoch, further down the line from Cain but before Noah, received a staggering gift for walking with God. Because he was righteous, the passage speaks of how he lived three hundred and fifty years, walking with God: and then “he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). God loved him so much, He did not let him die, but took Him to be with Him. God flooded the entire earth, but saved Noah, for he was “a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God (like Enoch)” (Genesis 6:9). To provide for Noah and to repopulate the earth, God told Noah how to build a ship big enough and strong enough to withstand the winds and flood.
With the way things are in the chapters we studied, things look bleak with man afflicted with sin and growing further and further away from God, but look closer. God curses the serpent for his lies and speaks of his ultimate defeat, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). From the very beginning of sin, God knew the battles that lay ahead and knew full well He would be victorious over Satan.
In these chapters, we can see how sin twists men and women into grieving God. Yet, even in His judgment of our sin, He provides for us and yearns for us to pursue a relationship with Him as He pursues one with us. Take some time and think about your own relationship with Him. What in your life distances or separates you from Him?