Hey Everyone,
I want to do something a little different today. Today’s post will be in the form of a Bible Study and it will be the first post on a series called the Master Plan, explaining God’s plan of Redemption which began in Genesis and was fulfilled with the coming of our Savior Jesus the Christ. If you are interested in learning more about Christ please join me on this journey and I pray that your eyes and hearts are open to receive and understand. Lord, thine will be done.
Today’s Study will come from Genesis 3: 1-15
In the Beginning God Created. It was all Good. Man and Woman made in His Image. Breath of Life. Garden. God commanded. Rib Taken. Peace. Serpent Deceives. THE FALL.
Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD GOD made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
So Adam and Eve were chilling in the garden. Adam was tending to the animals and Eve was helping him out in the ways that she could. Out of nowhere, here comes the serpent. He poses a question to Eve about what God had commanded them. Eve responds and says that God told them that they could eat from any tree, except the tree that is in the middle of the Garden. That they must not touch it or they would die. The serpent tells her that they will not die but that they will be like God, knowing good and evil. After this, Eve considers the fruit in the tree. She sees it and knew that it would give her wisdom. She grabbed it, ate it, and gave some to Adam as well. Their eyes were opened and immediately they realized they were naked. They covered themselves with fig leaves and when they heard God coming they hid themselves. God is walking through the garden in the cool of the day and calls for Adam. Adam tells God that he heard him coming but he got afraid because he was naked and he hid. God wants to know who had told Adam that he was naked and if he had eaten from the tree. Adam says,” The woman you put here gave it to me. And I ate it.” Eve says “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
What is going on here? Well, back in Genesis 2:15, God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Afterwards God formed Eve from Adams rib. He gave Eve to Adam and placed them in the garden. The commandment that God told Adam was then applied to Eve but the serpent decided to test Eve on it. He tempted her with the fruit and Eve gave in to the temptation. She knew what God had told her, but she also wanted what the serpent had told her would be the result of eating the fruit. She wanted to be just as wise as God. So she ate the fruit from the tree that she was commanded not to eat of and she gave some to Adam and he ate too. They both disobeyed God’s commandment.
One of my favorite television shows is the Cosby Show. In one episode Rudy was invited to a birthday party. The dress she wanted to wear to the party was a purple sleeveless dress and it was her favorite. Her mother Claire told her that since it was chilly outside that she should find another dress to wear and put the purple one in a chest where her summer clothes would be stored until next year. But Rudy really wanted to wear that dress and felt that she was old enough to choose her own clothes like everyone else in the family did. So she decided that she would go and ask her father, Heathcliff. Heathcliff knew little about what the girl should have worn or what her mother had told her. Rudy knowing this asked him if the dress made her look pretty and if she should wear it to the party. Heathcliff’s response was yes. While Rudy was hanging with her dad, in walks Claire. Claire asks Rudy why she still has the dress on and Rudy responds Dad said that I could wear it to the party. Claire gets angry and tells Rudy that if she does not take the dress off then she won’t be going to the party at all.
How is Rudy’s situation similar to that of Eve’s?
They both put their own interests above the commandments they were given. Both commandments were for their own protection. Eve was given a commandment by God so that she would not die. Rudy was given a commandment from her mother, who knew that if she wore that dress out in the cold that she would get sick.
Claire’s response to Rudy’s disobedience was a threat. But God’s response is a little different.
God curses the Serpent first, then the woman (3:16), and then the man (3:17-18). This curse was just the beginning. Adam and Eve are banished from the garden and no longer in a place where they could walk with God. As Genesis unfolds, generation after generation reveals instances where people begin to do things that are unrighteous. They kill each other and are greedy. And as the story continues throughout the bible there are those that obey God and honor him and then there are those who put their desires above God. The actions of the three caused such a fall that God knew then that something must be done to correct it. God knew all this from the beginning but He did not leave us without hope.
Genesis 3:15, which is part of God’s curse to the serpent, reads:
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[a] and hers; he will crush[b] your head, and you will strike his heel.”
This my friends is the start of God’s plan for redemption. If you did not catch it before, the serpent in this story is the devil. The devil caused the fall of man wanting us to disobey God and obey him. The devil knew that we would die. But Adam and Eve knew not of which death was being spoken of. This death was an eternal death of which the devil was already condemned. The devil wanted Adam and Eve to die the same death as he.
But all the while God had a Master plan and that is what he spoke of in the curse. The seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent. Who would be this seed of woman? The only Man born of a woman who did not receive seed from a man is Jesus. Jesus would crush the head of the serpent (the devil) with only a strike (bruise) to his heel. Therein is the first telling of the coming of a Savior who would redeem us all back into the Grace of God where we will be able to commune with God forever and have a chance at life eternal.
We disobeyed. Sin entered the world and we fell from grace. But was that it? No, that wasn’t it. God had a plan from the beginning.
Check out this video of a Poem by Preston Perry and Jackie Hill Perry titled “The Fall” from P4CM.com.
Well that is it! I hope that you learned something. I will try to do a bible study once a week. I hope that you can join me.
Love Presh
Oh How Precious! 